COUNTRY LIFE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 August 1924, Page 7

COUNTRY LIFE.

CAUSES OF DECADENCE IN ENGLAND. INFLUENCE OF THE TOWN. Country life is a privilege, and the obscuring of this fact constitutes a decadence that is now noticeable in England. This is the view of Mr Christopher Hussey, who writes in the Quarterly. In some respects the country life is as flourishing as ever, and the personnel as vigorous and cultured : hut for nearly a century political changes have been working against the landowners and preventing their discharging their duties to the full. Until the passing of the Reform Bili of 18851 one of their duties was the governing of the nation. Candidates for many State appointments, and Unseats in Parliament, were required to possess land. A knight of the shii-e needed to have landed propertiy worth £6OO a year, and a borough member £3OO worth. Other vearly rates of land value required of candidates for office were: Justice of the peace, exrept the heir to a peerage "or an estate. £100: denutv lieutenant. £200: colonel of militia. £1000: lieut.-colonel. £6OO. The franchise was given by land tenure, though frequently, by the end of the eighteenth century, this was oul\- nominal.

The larger landholders showed interest in the welfare of the people of their districts, os in the prosperity of their land. Often they introduced improved methods of agriculture, to the advantage of the tenant farmers. These proprietors brought home from London and AVestminster new ideas not only in husbandry, but in culture of mind and character. The libraries of old conntry houses illustrate their wide practical and humane learning. From such families came soldiers, sailors, clergymen, judge!?, and ambassadors, who

gave to public activity in the qualities and talents slowly, acquired in the wellused leisure of their country life. It was the land and the life in the open which counted. The towns might speed learning, provide the more showy forms of pleasure, and afford opportunities for winning place or acquiring wealth; but still it was the man of landed property who led. Now the centre of gravity has submitted to the towns. Wealth alone seems to he the ultimate standard of the dominant element in society. Many who spend their nights in the countrygive to the towns their serious interests. They recognise their own need of the country, but neglect its life. Changes in industry and in matters of transit have greatly affected the country life. Some landowners have adapted their property wisely to the requirements of the new time, but the majority are deficient in leadership. As Sir A. D. Hall wrote before the war, almost the only working part they take in agriculture consists in the breeding of pedigree stock, and that rather as a form of social competition than for th'e improvement of farming. There are “fashionable” and “old-fashioned” landowners. The second class live and die obscurely, yet they take, on the whole, higher views of the duties of country life. The “fashionable” are apt to think mainly of the superficial advantages of their position. They are the decadent element. says Mr Hussey. Chief among the superficialities of country life, as contrasted with the essentials, is sport. So long as sport is spontaneous and personal, it is the finest exercise a man or body can have; hut when it becomes organised and fashionable, and huge sums of money, generally amassed in commerce by townsmen, are spent upon it, then it is admitted to he “hardly sport.” It is worse if it occupies the capital, energy, and attention which are due to the land. The true landowner* is too busy to hunt or shoot often. It is only the parvenu or the decadent youth who sees in sport the supreme purpose of country life; yet this is the type of person who is gradually succeeding to the famous estates of the country. One grave indication of the decay of English country life is the economic. During the last five years there has been a great transfer of landed property. This indicates the increasing poverty of the old squirearchy, in whom, move than in any other section of the community, the rural life of England preserved its fine characteristics. _ Most types of country life are suffering through modern conditions. Owners of estates are taxed almost to extinction, and a constructive Governernment, w-hich really had the welfare of the people at heart, would lighten the load.