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 believed that all men should be allowed to obtain the absolute freehold of their homes. He had intended to submit a Bill that would do away with the freehold tenure; but he felt that he must give way to the desires of the people of the colony. The first Land Bill he drafted in 1891, therefore, retained the freehold system. It contained the deferred payment system, and it also provided for a perpetual lease. Sir John McKenzie, bowing to the wishes of the “freeholders,” said that if a man had cash he could pay it and get his land; if he had not the cash he could still get his freehold on the deferred payment system; and if he preferred the perpetual lease tenure it was there for him, and he could take up the land on lease for 50 years. The Bill was not passed in 1891, and when it appeared again in 1892 Sir John stated that he was prepared to go still further in the way of compromise, and would give a system under which tenants could take up a lease for all time, the lease-in-perpetuity. He offered this to meet the objections of people who said that there ought to be no re-valuation. It was quite an afterthought. The lease-in-perpetuity was not in the Bill of 1891. It was not in the Bill of 1892 when it was circulated among members, but when he moved the second reading in the latter year he struck out the perpetual lease for 50 years and substituted the lease for 999 years; and that is how the lease that many people now consider a great mistake had its origin. It was a compromise on a great principle, and it has produced a harvest of discord. The great feature of the Bill was the optional system, under which an applicant could choose his tenure. He could purchase for cash, the Crown grant being issued only when improvements were made; he could have an occupation license at a rental of 5 per cent., with the right of purchase after 10 years; or he could have a lease-in-perpetuity at a fixed rent of 4 per cent. on the prairie value.

Mr. Seddon realised shortly before his death that the time had come for a new Land Act. He had made up his mind in 1905 that there should be improved conditions in regard to leasing the remnants of the colony’s Crown lands. The scheme he had adopted was that all the Crown lands available for selection should be classified. The poorer land, he considered,