BURSTING UP IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 9

BURSTING UP IN AUSTRALIA.

TO THE EDITOR. ; Sir, — The Editor of Tho Press, Christchurch, iv a sub-leader in last Saturday's issue of that paper, under the above startling heading, questions with apprehension the justice and wisdom of such policy l there, and asks : Where are the people coming from to take up this land, and where are they going to find the money for it, with the banks and the land companies all affected by the land tax? May I venture to hope, as a landless pioneer colonist, who has given some anxious thought to this question now exercising the minds of the multitude in Australia and New Zealand, in the interests of such as I am and ail who are worthy of sympathy and duo consideration, to offer the result of my ego to this question, in hopes of dispelling any necessary disquietude such alarms may increase coming from such a source. There are thousands in New Zealand, young, strong, and with an adequate margin of cashto start with, ready to take over at a fair price portions of the surplus areas held by monopolists, and to secure to all concerned "their Qound of flesh," and to themselves some small reward for their labours and daily bread, in some proof of which I may mention that I have applied to our Premier for a passport for my son, to the Minister of Lands that he may join the_ influx of New Zealanders now abandoning this country to acquire land at a living price in a country like the Commonwealth .of Australia, where inducements are offered to all worthy settlers of kindred race, and the humblest can gather full share of the fruits of their toil without transgressing any of the | seven deadly sins. Such a wise policy ! leaves nothing to apprehend there, but, alas, there is much for sad and painful reflection here. I cannot refrain from venturing to quote the sage lines applied to my unhappy native country, and truly exemplified by the sad historic fact that in the year of my birth its population was over eight million inhabitants, whereas to-day, though the most virile people in Europe, ifc is less than half through oppressive land laws : A glorious peasantry, a nation's pride, Onco removed, for evermore destroyed. Beware of this, all ye who are left to carry the white man's burthen, all who toil not neither do they spin, the plutocracy who strive fo hold the people jn bondage, and the pilots of our party who waver in a course of ill-imagined good. The hopes of the brightest and best of our young people are now centred there, ai they are debarred by the native landlords and their voracious pakoha compeer from any share of their birthright here, while called upon to protect privileges denied to them by an administration slow to stem the desolating tide to this great land of promise alluring our etrength and pride away and leaving many homes desolate. — I am. etc., FRANK EGAN. Opawa, 4th September, 1910. CD. ACT. TO THK ETMTOH. Sir,— Will you kindly 'allow me to draw the attention of men and women who are thinking- over this question to the book "Josephine E. Butler," an autobiographical memoir by G. W. and Lucy A. Johnson. I hope- it is on tho shelves of our public libraries; if not, I recommend every thoughtful man and woman to procure a copy and lend it round. May I give a short extract? "Even if we lack the sympathy which makes us feel that the chains which bind our onslaved sisters are pressing on us also, we cannot escape tho fact that we are one womanhood, solidaire, and that bo long .as they are bound, wo cannot bo wholly and truly free. We continue to bo dragged down from that right placo and influence which wo aim at, by the dead-weight of this accursed thing in the midst of us." — I am, etc.. MOTHER. Wellington, 6th September, 1910. The Wellington Slaughtermen's Uniorv has received tho sum of £35 from four unions, as the result of its appeal for support of the Glebe Island strikers in New South Wales. Smaller sums have been donated .by other unions,