Chapter XVIII.
Settling The Land.
Sufficient has been said in previous chapters to show that the land question has always been an important one in New Zealand’s politics. It is necessarily so in a young country, with large areas of well-watered and fertile land waiting to be used. Settlement has meant prosperity to New Zealand, and those who have done most to place people on the land are ranked among the colony’s greatest benefactors. It is not invidious to select from the large number of politicians and writers who have worked in this direction four notable men. They are: Sir George Grey, Mr. Ballance, Mr. Rolleston, and Sir John McKenzie. Mr. Seddon has named them as the most prominent land reformers who have sat in the New Zealand Parliament. He has repeatedly given much credit to Mr. Rolleston, who was opposed to him in general politics. It was Mr. Rolleston who, as Minister for Lands in the Hall-Whitaker-Atkinson Administration, which turned Sir George Grey out of power in 1879, introduced the perpetual-lease system of tenure. Before the Liberal Party came into power in 1891, more than 1,000,000 acre had been taken up under this very popular tenure, although the area that could be leased by any individual in that way was limited to 640 acres of good agricultural land and 2,000 acres of second-class land.
When Mr. Ballance became Minister for Lands in the Stout-Vogel Coalition, he set the village settlement system on its feet. It helped many of the unemployed to take up sections, and it has proved to be a great blessing to the settlers and their families and a decided benefit to the colony. The tenure of these sections was based on perpetual-lease, the rent charged being 5 per cent. on the unimproved value, which was about £1 an acre. Mr. Ballance, however, was in office on that occasion
289
