A DISAPPOINTING SPEECH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1985, 22 January 1907, Page 4

A DISAPPOINTING SPEECH.

(Christchurch Truth.) The Minister for Lands no doubt did his heat to lie convincing last night. Tho burden of educating the electors on the. land question has fallen almost entirely on his shoulders, his colloagucs evincing no inclination to share the task, and it is left to him to bespeak public support for the measure which is supposed to he freighted with the very existence of tlio Ministry, lint if the fairly representative audienco which listened to Mr McNab with commendable patience oxpeetod anything inspiring or illuminating they must have been profoundly disappointed. Tho Minister talked like a man whoso heart is no longer in his work; instead oi testing his limitating proposals to see how they squared with accoptod and sound economic principles he preferred to indulge in a lot of paltry rhetoric about how a poor man might he outbid by n rich one in the open market, and to work up a misplaced sympathy'for tho mini who makes default to his mortgagee. After his experience in the North, Mr McNab possibly finds it easier to create a favorable reception for proposals that are radically unsound by working up animus against tho large landholder and the financial institution rather than in an effort to justify them in the light of logic and reason. The devico is a cheap one, and it invariably furnishes part of tho stock in’ trade of tho brummagem politician, chiefly concerned about his position, hut it is unworthy of Mr McNab, and the great cause of land reform. Tho harrowing story of the man prepared to pay 100 per cent, more than a piece of land was worth, hut who was outbid by a big landowner recalls the case of the poor widow whose distressing circumstances are often paraded as a reason why publicans should ho compensated. If the same man was outbid at a liorso or a picture or a furniture sale oven Mr McNab would hardly plead for Stato intervention on liis behalf, which in tho last analysis would be robbing the vendor of the privilege of disposing of his property in the open market to the highest bidder. In talking of mortgages tho Minister was also guilty of a lot of special pleading- In the pages of romance the mortgagee is invariably represented as a trusting farmer to accept financial accommodation so that tho lnoney-londor’s lingers may clutch his title deeds. The mortgage is nothing more nor less than a sinister design on a treasured homestead associated with tlio family for generations, and the novelist finds tho mortgagee indispensable for the creation of a situation to he dramatically relieved in duo course by tho timely advent of a rich relative. This sort of thing seems to have been in Mr McNab’s mind last night when he felt impelled to hold the financial institution up to execration, and appealed for sympathy for its poor victim. But we must confess wo do not see what bearing this transparent claptrap lias on tho right or property , of the State_ to jirevent a man or a company owning £15,000 pounds worth of land from acquiring any more. The borrower is not necessarily the harried subject of a rapacious mortgagee, as Mr McNab knows very well. There is a lot of competition in the money-lending business, ami a man with freehold security to pledge can get accommodation * at lowest current rates from reputable lenders, who only want their interest. Landed security is the most approved form of investment in tho ease of trusts, and there are any amount of mortgages which represent the savings of a man’s life time which he has left in trust for those dependent upon him. These people are quite as much entitled to consideration as tho mortgagor, and. further, it is the bounden duty of the State to protect them from alleged land reformers who seek to destroy security and plunder ono section of the cum unity in order to carry favor with another section representing more voting power. It Mr McNab’s speech is to be taken as an expression of tho mind of the Government on the land question, we arc satisfied that the Bill is ready for its coffin, and that it will be nailed down before long by its authors.