The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1830.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 6, 1 May 1880, Page 2

The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1830.

Mtjch has been written about the necessity for putting the people on the land, and we are fully as anxious as any of our neighbors can be that no effort should be spared to bring about so desirable a consummation. But somehow or other the attempt made to do so very often end in failure. Both the aim and the object of those who frame laws in favor of special settlements, free selectors, deferred payment, and small farm associations, are admirable ; nevertheless, the outcome of their efforts often show that they have succeeded in getting rid of a large portion of the public estate without much benefit either to the State or to the actual occupiers of the land alienated. These remarks have been forced from us somewhat unwillingly by the humble petition of the Southland deferred payment selectors, who, in a recenty published address, have requested Parliament to absolve them from all the overdue rent or progress payments, on the ground that their farming operations have been rendered unprofitable by a fall in the pi'ice of corn. They assert, in effect, that they occupied the land with a view of making a livelihood •by grain-growing; that the opening afforded them two years ago was apparently a very favorable one ; that they paid their first half-year's rent in advance, and commenced operations on the strength of it. Now, however, they find that prices have drooped to such an extent that they are unable to meet the calls made upon them. They have invested their money in the property ; they have in many cases no other funds to fall back upon ; and they point to the original price given, and the money since invested, as affording substantial evidence of their good faith at the time of purchase. Our readers cannot fail to sympathise with the petitioners. The landlord (in this case the State) certainly never desired to impose rack-rents upon those who have leased land from him under a sort of progressive purchasing clause. In many instances, as the petition shows, the occupiers, at the auction sale, actually ran one another up for the sections until the rents offered were exceptionally high. Now, these high rents are indirectly blamed as one of the causes of the present distress. ' >r: ' / We altogether fail to admit the validity of the plea urged in favor of the farmers, that great improvements have been effected. la a few individual- instances, possibly it is so ; but in the great majority of cases, the very terms of the secondary petition, forwarded by neighbors who support the distressed petitioners, forbids the belief that the land has been really rendered more valuable by the work done by the farmers. The settlers who have supported the petition of the deferred payment farmers assert that great progress has been made in " grain-growing." This might seem to be a recommendation to some people ; but the practical farmer knows better. An English landlord would laugh at the idea of any man basing a claim for the reduction of rent on the grounds of having "scourged the land with successive white crops," for that is the language which he would use to convey the idea euphoniously expressed above as " progress in grain-growing." The farmer who takes successive grain crops off the land, and does not manure, cultivato green crops forage, and clover, on some regular By»tem of rotation, is in the eyes of

any competent judge simply a robber of the soil, and consequently a very undesirable tenant. It may, perhaps, be worth while to point out that in some parts of New Zealand numbers of settlers have lost all their capital through investing in Crown lands at prices which were higher than the buyers have been able to afford to pay. The list of hard-up sheepfarmers in some parts of Otago, for instance, at this moment, is a very long one. Yet, if they had gone to the Government with a humble petition asking to have a portion of their purchase money refunded to them, the idea would have been at once scouted as ridiculous, ff a portion of the progress payments is remitted by the State to the Southland freeselectors, the practical result will be that they will ultimately obtain their land for a less price than they originally agreed to pay for it. As a matter of principle, we desire very strongly to point out both the evils and the danger of allowing any large class of debtors of the State to I c fostered by our land laws — tenants who in all times of difliculty would be i almost sure to repudiate their liabilities, and to evade payment of their rents. In point of fact, the deferredpayment farmers know very well, or at any rate, have a shrewd suspicion, that If they simply refuse to pay, and succeed in combining together so as to come before their landlord in a body, and say, "We cannot pay you this year, the harvest has been bad," or, "the price of corn is low," or, " the working expenses have eaten up all the profits of the business" — if, in fact, they can come before their landlord (the State) with any decent excuse, they know that for political reasons it will be well nigh impossible for him to evict them. This fact cannot be disputed. We recognise it so clearly that we are prepared to support the petition of the Southland settlers heartily. They must be let off. It is not even worth while to expend .£IOOO, or perhaps more, in inquiring whether they are all equally deserving of the concessions asked for. The fact remains that they say, and probably in the main say truly, that they cannot pay their rent. This will remove past difficulties. The remedy for the future is simple : Let the Government value the land on the basis of what it will produce, and let the system of putting land tip to auction be done away with, as it often results in ruinous prices being given. Let the Government further decide that no settler shall be called upon to pay more than 10 per cent, per annum on the assessed value of his section. This payment should be held to cover all liabilities, both for rent and for progress payments. The example set by the Southland deferred payment selectors will no doubt open the eyes of our lsgislators to some of the dangers of the present system. Our land laws are far from perfect. What is wanted is an easier method of occupation, without creating a class of debtors to the State. Let longer, and therefore easier, terms be given 1 to the occupier, and then we shall hear of no more petitions such as that to which we have referred. Theoretically, our present land laws are supposed by many to be almost perfect. In practice, unfortunately, they fall very far short, indeed, of perfection.

Mr. Ballance will address his consti- | tuents on Wednesday next. In our fourth page will be found a condensed report of Colonel Trimble's speech at New Plymouth, for which we are indebted to our contemporary, the Taranaki Herald. Colonel Trimble states that he expects the railway will be opened for traffic three and a half miles this side of Stratford in a few weeks. We regret to see by our telegrams, received last night, that pleuro-pueumonia is spreading in the Waikato distiict. W trust that the newly-appointed Cattle Boards will keep a vigilant watch, and that they will perform their duties without either fear or favor. The spread of the disease would be a calamity to New Zealand. At the last meeting of the Education Board, Miss Hills was appointed pupilteacher at Hawera (on trial), and Miss McKay was appointed to the Normanby School, conditionally on presenting herself at the examination to be held in June. €t was decided that Miss Williams' appointment, as assistant at Carlyle, should be continued. Mr. Buasell has now finished the laying of the third telegraph wire to Hawera, and will proceed to Normanby and the Mountain Boad next week. During his stay here, Mi 1 . Russell utilised some ot the old telegraph poles, and fenced in the Government reserve. Although the poles — which were, it is almost unnecessary to state, made from totara — were in the ground for over ten years, they were quite sound, only a very odd one showing any signs of decay. A rumor having been circulated that Mr. James Davidson had an intention of disposing of his business, we are in a position to state that there is no foundation whatever for it. Five tons of iron sand were shipped from New Plymouth on Wednesday on board the s.s. Wanaka, by Mr. Williams, proprietor of the Esbank Iron Works, New South Wales, for the purpose of being experimented upon at his works* Another football match came off at Oeo on Saturday, between teams selected from No. 1 and 3 companies, Wolner being captain of the forme , and Galbraith of the latter ; Major Goring and Constable Hufcchinß acting as umpires. The game was won by No. 3 company, who scored two points. The contest was a very hard fought one, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated in it, whilst the bystandrs were highly amused. The band, under Bandmaster Dixon, contributed to the day's enjoyment.

In the report of the Education Board, in one of our Wauganui contemporaries, it was stated that a letter had been received from the Hawera Committee, asking " for the expenditure of about £80 on additions to the sclioolhouse." The committee did not mention any sum whatever to the Board in making their application, and it will require considerably more than the amount stated to carry out the alterations required. The Board decided that Messrs Coutts and McGregor should visit th school, and report to next meeting. As Mr. Bate, the assessor under the Property Assessment Act lor the Hawera Road Board and Hawera Town Board Districts, will be going round during this week, it would be well if persons liable to the tax would get all the necrssary data rtady, in order to save both their own and Mr. Bate's time. Mr. C. M. Crombie, Deputy Land Tax Commissioner, returned to Wauganui yesterday from New Plymouth, whez-e he had been to make all necessary arrangements for the collection of the Property and Assessment Tax. The newly-ap-pointed assessors were duly sworn in Mr. Crombie's presence. From the report of the Education Board in the Wanganui Chronicle, we clip the following :—": — " In the case of Hawera, the Secretary stated that he had received a statutory declaration, showing the amount which had been collected during 1879, towards the erection of a building, and the purchase of books and periodicals. The chairman stated that tliey had not made the application in a right iorin. Resolved, that their application be considered the same as Patea, .£54. The subsidy lor the whole district was over .£2OO, or at the rate of Bs. 7d. in the £." The eruption at the Sugar Loaves has again made its appearance in the same place as that in which it was first observed. The Herald states that the smell of sulphur is also perceivable. A Wellington contemporary has the following :—": — " To-day we hail the pleasure of inspecting a very neat and cleverlyexecurecl card containing the Lord's Prayer in ten different languages, and each version written within the space of a three-penny.piece. The work was accomplished by a son of Mr. W. H. Holmes, head master of the Te Aro School." It is reported that Mr. J. Sheehan intends to settle permanently in Napier, and to practise as a solicitor. He will probably not carry his intention into effect until after the next session of Parliament. Now that a third telegraph wire has been laid as far as Hawera, the duties of our local postmaster and telegraphist, and his assistant, will be sure to increase to a large extent. They have had veiy long hours, even before the additional means of communication, and without in any way wishing to advise or dictate to the department, we consider that it would be judicious to do the same thing as a merchant or storekeeper would do under similar circumstances — namely, with an increase of business, to get an increased number of hands. It is not a good thing to work a willing horse too much. We throw out the hint to the department for what it is worth. The Taranaki Agricultural Society, at its last meeting, passed a vote of thanks to Mr. Hately, cattle inspector, for the steps he had taken to prevent cattle being brought from Auckland, and thus preventing the spread of pleuro-pneuinonia. Messrs. J. T. Ford and Co., auctione rs, Christchurch, held a sale of racehorses last week, but only disposed of Mireille, by Traducer — Opera, for .£4O ; Blazing Star, at was bought in ; and Rover, a three-year-old, by Traducer — Corona, at M 5. The total number of deaths in the colony during March was 153. Wellington was by far the greatest contributor to the mortality list. Although her population is less than Dunedin by from 2,000 to 3,000, yet there were only 29 deaths recorded in the latter place, against 50 in the former. The following is the estimated population of the principal towns in the colony :—: — Auckland 15,022 Thames 5,814 Wellington 21582 Nelson 6,804 Christchurch 15,156 Dunedin 23,959 Hokitika 2,068 Invercargill 4,283 The sire of the bull recently imported by Messrs. Vavasour Brothers (remarks i the Taranaki Herald) is the Fourth Baron Oxford, which is from the pure Oxford blodd, and is ranked second at home of the celebrated Duchess breed. The dam is by Fifth Lord Wild Eyes, which is allowed to be one of the chief fashionable strains at home at the present time. The Duke of Wetherby is considered by all judges to be the grandest bull in England. He is eleven years old now, but two years ago he was sold to Mr. G. Fox, the great shorthorn breeder, for 2000 guineas. He is a pure Duke bull, and of the highest type in England. Malachite has won numerous prizes at the Eoyal and other agricultural shows at home. Earl Derby is another of the , celebrated Duke breed. The second Duke of Cambridge and the others are all well known pure bloods, and going clown in pedigree through the pure Bates' shorthorn strain to Young Favorite, one of the first bulls used in Bates' herd. The Government Printing Office at Wellington has exported to the Home country a valuable cargo in the shape of 34 tons of waste paper. Upon which fact the Wellington Chronicle thus gives expression to its feelings : — " What a mournful record of abortive legislation and good intentions does that cargo contain !" The Inglewood correspondent of the Taranaki Herald must be good at calculating, iudging from the following : — " At the meeting [Colonel Trimble's] there were present about 150 men, about 10 •bull-dogs, 5 cattle-dogs, and say about 200 fleas, the latter getting admitted in a surreptitious kind of way, concealed in the coats of the dogs, and, as soon as admitted, quitting those animals and distributing themselves amongst the assembly." Mr. Williams, proprietor of the Esbank Ironworks, in New South Wales, arrived last week at New Plymouth, and proceeded to the Henui ironworks, for the purpose of inspecting the" plant and works. He intends taking ten tons of the ironsand from New Plymouth to Esbank Ironworks, to be submitted to the process' adopted there for the treatment of the ' iron sand. .

Our Wanganui correspondent telegraphed as follows last night : — " The football season will be opened here tomorrow." A meefng of the Football Club was held last evening at Lloyd's Empire Hotel. The chair was occupied by Mr. T. Mason, who explained the object of the meeting. The minutes of the last general meeting having been read and confirmed, the secretary (Mr. Cunningham) stated that the club started last year with a credit balance of £2 12s 8d ; subscriptions had been received, amounting to £4 ; making a total of £Q 12s Bd. The expenditure during the season amounted to £3 13s 2d ; leaving a balance to the credit of the club of £2 19s 6d ; and the subscriptions remaining still unpaid amounted to .£1 10s. The following officers were appointed : — Captain, Mr. G. T. Bayly ; Secretary, Mr. J. Cunningham; Committee, Messrs. S. Adamson, W. Adamson, G. V. Bate, F. Baddeley, j and T. Mason. It was decided that the uniform should consist of magenta and white jersey (hoops), white flannel knickerbockers, and magenta and white stockings. The rate of subscription was fixed at 5s for the season. The secretary was instructed to send immediately for eighteen Tiniforms, and it was decided that the club should pay half the cost of same. Messrs. S. Adamson, J. Cunningham, F. Lysaght, H. Chetwynd, and G. V. Bate were appointed a committee to canvass the town and district for members. Mr. Russell asked that the club should contribute a small sum to the Cribket Club, in order that the grounds and pavilion might be kept in proper order. It was also, he stated, the intention of the Cricket Club to apply to the Sports Committee for a small subscription towards the maintenance of the ground. He pi*oposed that the amount to be given should be left to the committee. The resolution was carried. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the business.