SETTLEMENT OF THE LAND.

Evening Star, Issue 7259, 9 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

SETTLEMENT OF THE LAND.

■ TO THE EDITOR. Sib, Notwithstanding your arguments against the various land proposals of the Government, I cannot help thinking that the Premier was perfectly justified in claiming credit for the existence of such arrangements. Ho was also right in appealing for support to the majority of the electors— i,e., the working classes—on this question. Popula ions composed to a large degree of immigrants from other countries have at first a tendency to stay in towns. Any measure which would be likely to check this evil in a healthy and legitimate manner, and at the same time induce people to settle on the land, should be heartily supported by all. An industrious rural population is the backbone of any country, and the more we can extend the occupancy of the land and place it within the leach of the humbler classes the better it will bo for everyone. The village settlement scheme, however faulty, will undoubtedly assist in securing this desirable result, and the wisdom of the Government’s action, in advancing money at reasonable interest to the settlers, needs no better proof than the one shown by the strenuous opposition to the scheme evinced by the banks and loan and mortgage agencies. These modern Shy locks sec in this a way of escape for their victims, who in the past, owing to 12 per cent, interest, commission on sales, cost of agreements, liens, etc., have been paying something akin to cent, per cent, for temporary financial accommodation.

Perpetual leases are another step in the right direction, retaining the ownership of the land in the hands of the crate, while (with the exception of sale it allows occupier all the rights of a freehold tenure. It also removes the temptation to greedy speculators of buying up large tracts of land on the outskirts of rising towns and allowing them to remain idle, in order that they may be sold at n vast advance in price directly the artisan needs them for building purposes. The real weakness of the Ministerial land schemes lies rather in the application than the conception. The land utilised in most cases is either sterile or inaccessible; the temporary shelter provided is of the most inadequate description; while the salary of the official superintending operations is out of all proportion to tho amount of work required of him. Finally, tho present House of Representatives contains but few men who have the practical ability to remedy these defects. The working classes should use the unlimited power they possess at tho ballot-boxes, by returning a large number of practical working men to the House. These men, having passed through tho fire, would understand the wants and necessities of the people, and would be prepared to supply them. Let only a score of the men who manage our enormous friendly and trade societies be returned at the next election, and they will soon send the Vogels of the Colony to the rightabout, and at the same time so stiffen the Premier’s back that he will once more become the democrat that he used to be. Then we' may be within a measurable distance of obtaining a “ government of the people by the people and for the people.—l am, etc., H. Warner, Hon. Sec. Oaversham Labor Representation Committee. Dunedin, July 8.