The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1925. THE ISSUE IN FRANKLIN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 17 June 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1925. THE ISSUE IN FRANKLIN.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock -n Hawem, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatnki. Kaponga. Alton. Hurleyvillo, Pntea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wliakamara, Mcreniere, Fraser Road, an Ararata.

Fimiii Hhe voting in the Franklin byelection to-day it .should, be possible to get. .so liie guiiue -ils to liow the country is., thinking politically. With no double-banking ot candidates, and cmvsequen,tly no splitting oi votes, the issue is cleair-crii-t 'and definite. It is a battle between Labour and Nationalism! even although, as yet, we have no actual national party. Until sides are “confident of •.success. - ’ It would not he a real, election if they were not-—publicly; but the country wilt, be very much surpuLsed it the Labour confidence should prove to be justified. As might have been expected in a rural constituency, the question of land tenure has been ,a. feature of the contest; and it i* nob to be imagined that bhei strangely unpnaobical and impracticable scheme of “usehokl” tenure supported by Mr. Montgomerie will have commended itself to the other farmers' of the electorate. Possibly the lie are weaknesses in our present land system, and the evil of trafficking is •admitted on ail sides; bub the usebold tenure is not the solution which the country seeks. 'the Prime Minister went right to the kernel of .the position at Pukelcohe. on Alondav night, when he .said that “no son oi the soil would be worth Inis .salt un-lesi-s he knew that the little piece of land he was working would, be his. own come day.” It is all! very well to say that the land of a country is the common heritage of its people. That is a fine, -bounding phrase which, sprung at the light moment upon an emotional city audience, may lift its members, to a very paradise of romance. But the trouble with this common heritage is that if -haft to be developed ; and as- a rule it is not. possible ito: get far in the business of development without exceeding the eight-hour day and five and a-bailf-day week so beloved of the Labour Party. There are owning land in New Zealand to-day men who bought it with fortunes they and left them, or from the profits of speculation, and other men who farm lands which, they inherited. But the great hulk, of the small! farmers of the Dominion owe their present position if, indeed, they have won through to anything worth calling a position—to. honest hard work. • A young man of twenty-five packs a tent, six months’ provisions and a, coup'e of axes on an old horse —.possibly all he has in the world — and disappears into the bush. Now and again he comes out for fresh stores, and presently a few of hiP young cattle begin to find their way to market. In five years’ time, perhaps, some sort of a rude, unpainted cottage lias replaced the tent and the immediate surroundings are cleared and grassed. On. one of his halfyearly visits to civilisation the young farmer stays a little longer than usual. .and when he goes back his bride is with him. Then they begin milk-

ing a. lew cows anil making bu/tter. Neighbouring dealings appear here and there, and in another ten or a dozen years the settlers dub together to -start a small factory. In time, it may be when the young man of twenty-five is fifty-five or sixty, he has a. welli-iiinpioved freehold, farm, all clear in the double sense-, and the wife who has hardly known a moment’s leisure in twenty years has, a house and homeof which she may be proud, with a family grown up around her, and the prospect of some real ease in the old age that is coining fast upon her. Tine father admits that he lias had to work hard, hut -it has been worth it. The place is his own now, there is none better in the district, and the boys are taking the load off hit? slvouldeas. When he dies the place will go to those hoys, who have stood so- loyally by him. No ! That is where a Labour Government would -step in. The land is not freehold; it is the property of the State—the “common heritage of the people.” No matter that be has spent a lifetime in winning it- from the hush, no matter that he and his have denied themselves, and slaved and saved to bring the place to it s present level of improvement, the old pioneer cannot call the laud his own. A share of it- must be kept for the gentlemen on the wharves, who get anything up to four .shillings an hour whenever they feel disposed to work, but who frequently have not felt- disposed and have held up the farmers manures and implements and fencing wire in consequence. These must have their share in the common- heritage. What’,s that? They haven't developed it? Of course they '-haven’t. They’re not such fools. Fancy >a man burying him,.self in the heart of the bush for a dozen or twenty years and working sixteen hours; a day for next to nothing!. There are easier ways of -spending life than that, and, if there be any dividend available from the com,mo-n heritage which other people are developing, the Labour Government will see that everyone gets a share. Our farmer friend who has given his life to the improvement of hits l place cannot will it to his sons. The Labour programme expressly lays it dlown that “privately-owned land shall not be sold or transferred except to' the ’State.” The sons, will get valuation return for the old home farm, but they cannot inherit- directly from their father the a;cre.s all have[ loved -so well. At the ballot-box today the farmers of Franklin will bq) telling Labour what they think of that policy; to-morrow all New Zealand will know.