THE LAND QUESTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3267, 12 July 1911, Page 2

THE LAND QUESTION.

REMARKS BY MRU MACDONALD’,* m.P.'S : NEED FOR SPEEDY SETTLEMENT. Touching upon the land question at his Motu meeting on Monday evening, Mr MacDonald-* M.P., expressed the opinion tlhat. with the growing demand for land the Government, after the next election, must go thoroughly into the question of. the speedy settlement of all the available waste lands of the Dominion.

Mr MacDonald considered that the Government had pursued the only possible course- in dropping the Land Bills of 1909 and 1910. As far as the 1909 session was concerned, there was no possibility of getting a Land Bill through the House unless the session was continued well into the next year. The 1910 1 session did not afford an opportunity for the passing of a Land Bill, as there was so much other work in hand. , It was not advisable to tinker with land legislation, and unless a radical and beneficial change could be made, it was much better to continue on the present lines, seeing that very satisfactory progress was being made as regards settlement. For himself, he was a freeholder, hut felt that the chief difficulty in regard to settlement was the high prices asked by the owners- of improved land. The work of settling •the remaining Grown lands must necessarily be somewhat slow and costly, in view of 'the need for reading, etc. Even at the present rate of progress it would only be a few years when the whole of the lands would he under profitable occupation. When the Opposition inferred that the present Government was a leasehold Government. it misrepresented the position, for, with the exception of national endowment land, mining leases, etc., all the Crown and waste lands were open, for selection on the optional tenure. Mr MacDonald added that he believed the Land Settlement Finance Act would prove a popular and useful measure.