HARD TIMES AND CRIEM.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 484, 17 April 1909, Page 9

HARD TIMES AND CRIEM.

'■■'■', $£k THE EdIMU,)' '. ■ ;.:Sir,— Along with' hard "times there-almost ' ln 7 a [ l! W oom es an'increase in crime..: When s all .the people are fully employed and getting . good wa°;es there is less crime than when ■ armies of unemployed not only dissrace but , threaten our civilisation. It is not possible to ~ stamp out such crime without getting at the , .motive,and'causei at the back of it. Petty theft, vagrancy,.liavins.no visible means of l support,..etc., are- crimes which are''often' '■' brought on : by ,the force of circumstances. i" and even murders and suicides'are frequently i brought 'oh.through being unable to get work. ■ as your cables'frequently prove, but the last-, named xquld only be with,unbalanced minds ■ and .criminal tendencies.'Alf ; :' wo.-are going* to' i punish people;fo'r'having, hovisible meana of i; support we should see that natural opporturii- ' ties for wort* are. open, to "them,-, and it ; is .', land alono ..that. gives the opportunity :■ to work foir a living.. Though many of/us only ■ handlo the of the land at oiir work, the whole problem rests, on Labour's access to the land just the tame. Land is far too dear,m New Zealand. It is so dear that those who own enough to make'a decent farm: need not work it, but lot it and live on the'rent. It is so dear that to buy a farm out of wages saving is a; mighty big hurdle.' If land had no ; capital:Value, but,only an annual value which the-State collected every vear, then poorer men could tackle the' independent life : and would, do so, as can be .'seen'' by the , scramble at the land ballots; ■ -Then, and not till then, will the'towns bp rid of their conjested '•humanity, their;:surplus'labouri-and the crime attachable thereto.—-I am, etc.j ' -.'■;■ ,:,.^ ■'■; : E. STEVENSON. .'Hastings, April 7;