The Ellesmere Guardian. WEDENSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1891.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume X, Issue 963, 25 November 1891, Page 2

The Ellesmere Guardian. WEDENSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1891.

No one expects fc> find lit itch 1 big tea J ir-'utn. Nt m the columns of tl\o -Li/tte ltbn Times, or indeed anything mote than j fuho iw au lation of the Government ! iinu-r b ! d nun iatiov of tlo.e'who are I not followers - of the new gospel. Hence j tlie m title's m the issues of that brgati ! 'luring tl c last fow days, will' stirpri^e j nobody,— unless, indeel, th_» writer him j ' j self should drop across them at some f b>. \ ture date. A. a specimen of- the style' of argument the writer employs, let us quote the following. Alluding to the statement recently .made by the cable' agent, to the effect that certain contracts were being cancelled because capitalists were afraid to trust their money m -• ew Zealand under the present Government he asks seriously, if they were contracts, how could they be cancelled ? And yet the immaculate Government of which our contemporary is the prophet, calmly ! avows its intention of cancelling all the contracts the State has already entered into with tbe original purchasers of land, by rendering it impossible for those purchasers to retain their property. The Ttmes draws a charming picture of the prospeiity which the colony is to show when every estate is cut tjp into the. historic three acres, but it quite neglects to point out whence are. coming the sturdy peasantry, the country's pride, who are to till these three acre farms. At the present prices which have, maintained for years past, for cereals. and produce af all kinds, a small farm is ,by no means a profitable speculation, and the small farmers know it to their cpst. Indeed, it is only by employing a good' deal of their time m working for the owners of the big estates, that they have managed to pull through all. But the day of large estates is gone. The present owners are only too eager to get out of them, and despite the panegyrics of the Government organs, foreign capitalists are not eager to replace them. It is not difficult to foresee the ultimate result. Under the apparently favourable conditions offered by Government, numbers of people will take up land who are about as unfit for the work of a farm as they can well be ; a year or two will undeceive them as to the value of the industry, and the small farms will gradually but surely collect into larger and larger estates, Until .by the invariable survival of the fittest, the best men again hold all the land. Then,, it is to be presumed, a new liberal government will preach a. new crusade, and. untaught by bitter experience, the poor elector will be again led by the nose by the loud voiced demagogue, with the same" cry. Verily the old: laying holds good of New Zealand-^* an army 1 , of. lions' led by asses 1' .:,; ]