THE CHEVIOT CROWN TENANTS.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 115, 16 May 1895, Page 4

THE CHEVIOT CROWN TENANTS.

TO THE IDITOB. • .. SIR Ti? y,°. nrs of *!"» you state " that the political influence of Crown tenants will prove a great danger to the State if the present system of land settlement ia pursued to any considerable extent." As usual settlers are made the shuttlecocks of politics, and the right or wrong of the subject is made subservient to political' capital. la it not true that settlers all over the colony (and especially those who have recently tnken up land} find themselves in very fight places? -fcee the prices of meat, woi 1 butter, &o. The value of bni con only TOi. 111 i( L to *"• TaJne of its Products. When Cheviot, was sold the market for produots was higher in price than at present. Settlors took up the land on tho then market values, and now find, in company with most settlers, that if the prices oJE. products continue as low as at present they will not be able to pay the rents which they agreed to when produots were higher. After an exE!"f Do ! °1 2 } yeirß> X Im( " f of no times harder to the farmer than the praeent. This is, however, due simply to the enormons reduction in the prices of wool, mutton, butter *°i ,ABk, ABk of Jonr highest agricultural men. and tne unanimous reply will be that at the present prices for produots there must be a re-adjustment of rent and land values before prosperity, oan ensue. It is idle to bttijd on a rotten "foundation, and I apprehend that the Be tilers of New Zealand « * w f">w are above seeking for favours without imperative reasons;; and on the otnar hand I recognise tbat eaoh and every case can be dealt with on its equities, so that fairness to all concerned can belob- ™ m n ■ j h^ H °v- Mfrtooro* Lands has recognised this byhis Fair Kent Bill and makes an honest attempt to grapple with this enormons question.' Without prosperity among the settlers of this cojony, how can *SL -fSf illi ll pro ffi. BSB , in y° nr towns? I Sn »» th fi. the Poetical influence of settlers wiii save this colony from keeping to a track which can only leadto the beggaiy of all? I am, &c, W.D.