NEW ZEALAND AND THE ENGLISH TENANT FARMERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5530, 5 November 1879, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND THE ENGLISH TENANT FARMERS.

The following letter is printed in the Daily Neius : — " Sir, — A few days after my arrival in England, I attended a meeting of tenant farmers held in London to consider some practical measures for their relief. Allow > me, through your, universal columns, to suggest a. remedy which I venture to think will meet their case far better than any thing they can hope for from anychange to be effected by legislation. Hannah Moore was once asked by a friend what he ought to think of himself if he allowed a person to deceive him in a matter of importance twice. ' Think yourself a fool,' was the prompt reply. So of the English tenant farmers and the Government. If, after the mockery they have received in the shape of ameliorative legislation, they allow themselves to be deceived again, there is but one possible I verdict. No. Their remedy lies in the direction taken by their laborers — New Zealand. I have just returned from that splendid colony, and one of tho deepest convictions which I have received from my visit is that if the half of its advantages were realised by the hard-pressed English agriculturalists, there would soon be an end to their difficulties. They would sell out, and like tho Irish farmers on Mr G. Vesey Stewart's settlement at Katikati, spend their labor and capital on their own land. The amount paid for rent in England purchases the freehold in New Zealand. And what that means you must go and spend a week or two with tho freeholders to know. Instead of wasting capital in enriching wealthy and luxurious landlords, they are at work enriching themselves. Instead of paying vast sums annually for the privilege of growing hares, pheasants, and partridges for ' my loi-d's' enjoyment, they are reaping the fruit of their toil and sharing with their own families the game which their own corn haa fed. No more rent audits ; no more fear of fussy and impertinent stewards ;" no' more ignoble propitiations or toll-tale gamekeepers ; no more subserviency to dreaded landlords ; no more slavery to stringent lease clauses. In a word, no more bartering away of the