THE LAND QUESTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1903, Page 13

THE LAND QUESTION.

(By A. W. Hooo, M.H.R.)

XII. EVILS TO bF REMEDIED. In connection with the land question, it will be observed that mo abuses requiring most attention aro landlordism, absenteeism, speculation, nnd monopoly. That ono person should mako tho land productive and another pocket his gain is obviously unreasonable nnd unjust. A combination of landlords can starve tho" peasantry into submission; Reuce the long hours, hard work, and poor wages that aro driving tho British agricultural labourer from his native soil. In proportion as tho toil of the agricultural worker degener. ates into ill-paid drudgery or slavery, tho profits of tho landlord increase. Honce tho huge incomes of tho plutocracy. In many instances, if tho farmer employs labour, he is simply a buffer between tho lord of ' the soil and the ill-used servant. Both farmer and servant suffer in company. Tho absentee, while deriving an income from tho land ho owns, but rarely or ever visits, has no great interest in the welforo of thoso who ui'e producing that income. Ho cares only for improvements when they are likely t*o increase his revenues. Roads may go to ruin, bridges bo washed away, but unless they are essential to the maintenance or inflation of his rent he is not likely 10 willingly contribute to their restoration or improvement. Ho lives, sometimes luxuriously, on a reutrolt derived from human management and labour in which he does not take tho trouble to participate. All tho advantages conferred by wise legislation, the discoveries of the scientific investigation, and the energy of the industrial crowd, without tho slightest effort on his part, becomo his property. Young as this colony is, I question if it contains a district or town of importance that does nbb pay Substantial tribute to tho absentee and S [lobe-trotter. It is true that tho absentee and tax has Boon increased, but it is ludicroiialy inadequate. There is A growing feeling that tho absentee should be included in the schedule of noxious weeds 1 , and exterminated. At all events, ho might bo brought face to faco With tho ultimatum : Reside, transfer, or forfeit. As Shakespeare snfa : "Time's glory is To Wrong tho Wronger till ho render right." Although a distinct lino may bo drawn between the /^peculator nnd tho monopolist, tho results of their operations oro pretty well identical. Aro they not responsible for the locking up, unutilised 6r only partially improved, of large areas, that properly employed might bo adding to the Wealth of tho community and producing food, clothing, and comfort for tho million? Should not tho misuse oj land bo considered a crime- of tho first magnitude? The pickpocket or burglar injures only tho individual. Tho person who iocks up land in an unproductive Btato against labour seriouflly injure* the community. But human luiva are like fisl)ing iiof», Tho mestica caplvro tho sniall fl«h; tho largo ones break through. In tho Words of Hum©: "All history abound* with examples where tho great tyrannise over the weaker sort '" What is tho condition of tho land quo* tion in tho British Isles? In Great Britain, the h,omo of tho freehold, where there is frectrade in land m in everything else, not ono man in n hundred owiw an nero of land. Teri-elovenths of the area of the United Kingdom is owned by one two-hUndredth part of tho population. Onc'-fifth of the whole of tho land is owned by about 600 iVcrs. Illustrations might be given of the despotic powers of tho landlords j of the eviction of tho inhabit Ante of entire villages; of people who have been turned out of the homes they loved and venerated bocauso of their political viows. In Ireland, in four years- 1849-82— there wer© 221,845 evictions j whole town lands being depopulated, nnd their human inhabitants driven out to make room fdr cattlo and Sheep, nn being more profitable to the landlords. These, poor people were often forced away from their homes, even though nil rent dv© had been fully paid. The nouses which had becu built by their own labour (or purchased from tHoso who had built them) were pulled down; and when tho houseless families, having JlOwhere to go, lighted fires hi tho ditches to cook some food, the fires wero extinguished to drive them off the land. A report to tho Poor Law Commissioners states that many occupiers wore forced out of_ their homes «t night in winter, even' sick women and children not being allowed to etay in the houses till morning. The Scottish high Unfa can tell of cHmes equally revolting. The clansmen woro robbed ; the patriarchal system destroyed ; and tho full rights of possession given to tho jchiefs or landlords. Clearances and evictions were dignified by tho nnmo bf improvements. By hundreds nnd thousands at a tiriio the occupiers of tho soil wero. driven from their homes, and many of them forced to leave tho country which they had so bravely defended on many a hard-won battelofield. In tho words of Dr. Mncdonald.' "Tho extermination of tho Highlanders hae been carried on for 'nany years ns systematically and relentlessly as of. tho North American Indians. . . Who can withhold sympathy ns whole families havo turned to take a last look at tho heavens red with their burning houses? Tho poor people shed iio tears, for there wna in their hearts that which stifled such «igns of emotion; they wero absorbed in despair. They wero foraid away from that which was noar and denr to their heart*, and their patriotism was treated with contemptuous mockery." Tho power to do uft this, bo it remembered, is a necessary consequence of unrestricted private property in land. Yet there aro land-owners in tliis colony who are demanding that this power shall bo handed over to tho tenants of tho Crown ! Tho State, having purchased tho freehold with tho people's money nnd credit, is asked to surrender tho freehold again! Could anything more dishonest o» un^ reasonable be^ suggested ? But for the bail distribution of land and its products, poverty or crime would hardly exist. Man ia "a land animal." Ho cannot produce; tio cannot live without «*. • lis is> of COUiao » patent to all. Yet it is ffequently forgotten in ecohohiic discussion. Aleu interest themselves in this and that so-called "practical question, and overlook the fundamental fact and necessity of land to human lifo. Of tho fundamental importance of land to human lifo there can bo no question ; hence the necessity of examining the effects of it* monopolisation. Here in New Zealand wo are rapidly* approaching 0. grave crisis. Nearly nil the best land is occupied, and the resumption 01 private estate for closer settlement has becomo an absolute necessity. Yet wo find a ten tiro so extremely favourable to the occupier a« the lease hi perpetuity menaced by tho«o who declare for tho freehold. They insist on the right of the occupier to convert his lease into private property. This menus the building up of a, landed aristocracy— a thing that rir> democracy can tolerato. A »onw< of justice n'loho demands that the land shall be kept under public control, and not monopolised by the few. „ A hopeless case.— ."A great big, ablebodied man like you ought to be ashamed to ask a stranger for money," said the well-to-do citizen. "I know I ought," answered Meandering Mike ; "but mister, I'm joa' naturally too kind hearted to tap 'im on de head and take it %way from Turn*"