The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning, News, and Echo. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1893.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 285, 1 December 1893, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning, News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1893.

For-tlio cause that lacks assistance, For-:t_o -vrronE that noeAs rsßlstancs, For the future in tho distance, And tha eood that wo can ao.

The overwhelming majority returned in favour of the Government for the South Island was undoubtedly due mainly to the determination of the people that the vast system of land monopoly which has grown up there should be broken down. The cvi* of big estates does not come home to North Islanders, except to those living in the Hawke's Bay district, as it does to the country settlers of the South Island. Here there is still ample land for all who are in search of it. Then' again, the country occupied by the big estates is of a class that cannot be made available without cultivation, and thus a large amount of labour has been furnished with employment. The big estates have not proved a serious evil in the Auckland district hitherto. They have in many districts been a positive benefit by employing labour in breaking up the land for subdivision, later on, into farms of moderate area. In the South Island, however, vast tracts oi land, clothed with natural grasses, have been left in a state of nature, and the farmer who sees the whole country blocked up by such estates, while his sons have to either become tenants or go to the North Island in search of homesteads, feels keenly the evil, and appreciates thoroughly the energetic and practical measures adopted by the present Government to secure beneficial occupation of the land without resorting to any confiscatory measures.

Absenteeism is also an evil which is more felt in the South Island than in Auckland, and the measures adopted by the Government to cope with it, therefore, meet with greater appreciation. Absenteeism has been the

curse of many countries. Amongst all the wrongs to which Ireland has been subject, many of which have been removed during this century, we question if there is one injustice which has done so much to injure and impoverish Ireland as absenteeism. When so large a portion of the wealth yearly produced by the bounty of nature and the industry of man is expended, not in the country which produces it, but in some other country, then the producing country is impoverished. When a landlord resides amongst his tenantry, and spends the greater portion of his time and of the rent he receives amongst the people who cultivate his lands, some of the worst evils of the rent system are greatly mitigated, and the landlord, by the kindly offices he does amongst his tenantry, becomes their friend, and is a benefactor and a patriot in the country he lives in. But when he resides in some other country, spending his rents in London or Paris, rarely or never visiting the estate from which he draws his living, knowing nothing and caring nothing for the hopes and struggles of the people by whose toil he lives, he is not a» benefactor, but a curse to the land from which he is an absentee. No country has suffered more than Ireland from the curse of absenteeism and from the evils which follow in its train. No wonder, after a century of impoverishment and neglect of which absenteeism is the fruitful cause, that the Irish nation is determined to put an end to this crying grievance. Ireland, however, is not the only sufferer from absenteeism. Every one of the Australasian colonies has long been injured by it. Every one of them is aware of its evil influence. In New Zealand eight million pounds worth of land is held by twelve hundred owners, who spend the moDey they draw from New Zealand abroad and discharge 'none of the duties which they owe to the country from whence they derive their wealth. From very early days various proposals have been under discussion in the colonies to lessen the grievance; but until the other day nothing was done until New Zealand in this, as in some other directions, set an example which will probably not stand alone very long. When the Ballance-Seddon party carried the very reasonable tax of an additional 20 per cent upon absentees for three years, above the amount of taxation the absentees would have paid had they been residents in this colony, the first real step in advance was made to lessen absenteeism, an abuse which threatens, if left unchecked, to become almost as rampant and injurious in these colonies as it has become in Ireland. The late Opposition opposed the absentee tax, as they have opposed almost every measure carried by the Ballance or Seddon Governments intended to secure fair play and to promote the rights of the great body of the people. If the former Opposition had regained office in the next Parliament, there can be very little doubt—no doubt at all if their future may be measured by their past—that they would have promptly repealed the absentee tax, and allowed a number of wealthy absentees to dwell at Home at ease, whilst the hard working and industrious people of the colony would be paying more than their rightful share of taxation, besides by personal and patriotic efforts striving with all their might to build up this young nation. The old maxim that " a man may do what he likes with his own," is one of those half-truths which are more dangerous than downright lies. This dogma, like some other dogmas, supposed to contain what is called "the wisdom of our ancestors," is rapidly receiving a new translation. The broader doctrine, that a man is more a trustee than an owner in the old sense, is steadily gaining ground. That property has its rights everyone readily admits. But that it has its duties also is becoming firmly rooted in the general mind. No Government has done more to establish this truth than the Seddon Government in the teeth of the strenuous opposition of the Conservative party. They have governed New Zealand in the interests of the many and not the few. The South Islanders, who have understood this matter much better than those living in the North, have given an unmistakeable expression ot opinion on the subject. Only four representatives of the Opposition in that Islaud have been able to secure election. The electors have thus shown their determination to have New Zealand governed for the welfare of the many and in the true interest of all.