FARMERS’ UNION CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 937, 9 July 1903, Page 2

FARMERS’ UNION CONFERENCE.

ANIMATED DEBATE ON FREEHOLD TENURE.

Per Press Association^

WELLINGTON, last night. The proceedings at the Farmers’ .Union Conference this morning were in committee. This afternoon, resolutions were carried that lime for agricultural purposes, including ground lime, should be carried on the railways irrespective of distance ; that the attention of the .Government be drawn to the danger at railway level crossings caused by, the plantation of live fences preventing persons seeing approaching trains ; that the Land Act, 181)2, be -administered in its entirety, giving the option of three tenures ; that the co-operative labor system should be replaced by letting small contracts wherever possible. A. long discussion took place on the Wellington remit that the right of obtaining the freehold be extended to Crown tenants, provided the conditions of lease have been- fulfilled, and that the price be the capital value of the rental upon a five per ceDt. calculation.

Mr Phillips said that the statement made in the House of Representatives the previous evening that the agitation £or freehold arose among the large landowners was absolutely false. Mr Tansey said he always believed in the freehold, but he also believed in small holdings. The bulk of the country’s prosperity was due to the land settlement policy of the last few years. Voices : No, no ! and uproar. Continuing, the speaker said that the opinions of the delegates on this question were not in sympathy with the great mass of worning farmers throughout the colony. If delegates were not Tories of the deepest dye—(.laughter)—they would not 01 struct the policy which gave every one a chance of going ahead. Mi Rees said he hoped the Union would make clear its belief that it would be unfair to allow a man to puichasc upon the valuation set upon land when he originally leased it. There must be re-valuation. Mr Richards thought if leaseholders were given the freehold the land should be ear-marked as having been Crown land, and should never be transferred to a man holding more than was allowed by. the Act. Eventually, on the President’s suggestion, a resolution was passed that Clause 30 of the platform olearly defines the views of the Union on the question. It was decided that the attention of the Minister of Lands be drawn to the very unsatisfactory way in which the ballot system of disposing, of land results, especially when sections have been grouped. A deputation from the Wellington Employers’ Association waited on the Conference, and stated that it would willingly co-operate in resisting compulsory preference of employment being given to unionists.