The Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1881. MR. PYKE'S LAND LEAGUE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 110, 4 May 1881, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1881.

MR. PYKE'S LAND LEAGUE.

The object of the above great and brilliant undertaking is to strike terror into the hearts of the squattocrats, who occupy largo runs in central Otago. The ten years leases of much of the land expire in another year, and notice must be given before September next by the Board, if the runs are not to be re-let. Mr. Pyke adduced figures to show that 1,500,000 acres were held under lease by some twenty-one persons. That is doubtless true enough, but he carefully avoided stating anything about the character of the land. He failed to mention that when about a year or fourteen months ago, the leases of a very large area of similar runs in the Lake District were offered for sale, they barely realised the upset price. That some of them, comprising nearly 100,000 acres, were let by auction as low as £ of a penny per acre ; that it was admitted by at least one of the bidders that he intended to use the run for rabbit breeding purposes, and that practically, if, as Mr. Pyke says, the runs have been " transmogrified into a desert " since the runholders obtained them, it is chiefly due not to the sheep, as he avers, but to the rabbits. We could point out to him runs near Lake Wakatipu which a few years ago carried fully ten times the number of sheep which they can now carry, and in .many cases the owners have been ruined by the invading horde of rabbits. If Mr. Pyke had chosen, he might have adduced a more telling instance of the monopoly of land than any mentioned in his speech, by informing his audience that Run No. 20, Wakatipu District, containing 241,000 acres, nearly a quarter of million acres, bad been lately let for ten years at a rental of f of a penny per acre, the upset rental being £25 per annum. Let any one go and inspect this country, and he will quickly perceive that a stout heart and a long purse are needed to tackle such rugged and steep mountains. It is true that where the land is level enough, the quality of most of it, combined with the dry summer climate of central Otago, makes wheat growing there, if within reach of a railway, a fairly profitable undertaking. But such patches are few and far between, and Mr. Pyke was simply " blarneying " the electors, when he tried to persuade them that it was kud suitable for sub-

division into small larins. Not long ago, a gentleman, of experience as a sheepfarmer, returned from a visit to the district, and stated, that if he were offered one of the mountainous runs in central Otago for nothing, he should refuse it, because, he said, " for one man who has made money, there are twenty who seem latterly to have been losing it there." Mr. Pyke's Land League is to try to " make the Governor think fit to coincide with their wishes." Probably their task will be an easy one, if they ask for only such land to be set aside as is suitable for small farm settlement ; but then they must certainly get rid of Mr. Pyke as President. The author of "Wild Will Enderby," the lucky chairman of Vincent County with only tbe trifling salary of _sSOO a year for undertaking the duties of the office, is doubtless perfectly disinterested in his efforts to start a land league. Nevertheless it is impossible, under the circumstances, to shut one's eyes to the fact that a well-paid chairmanship may be, to use a colonialism, 11 sticking-out." Hitherto, we had always believed all land-leaguers, and all great writers on land reform were opposed to the State surrendering the fee-simple of the land, but Mr. Pyke approves of Sydney Smith's theory : " Give a man a lease ot Paradise, and he'd make it a desert; give him the ownership of a desert, and he'd make it a paradise." The land-leaguers of New Zealand ought really to try and agree among themselves, before formulating any more doctrines. A similar association in Wellington not many months ago debated a resolution as follows : " That in order to promote the settlement of the land it is desirable, in the opinion of this meeting, that settlements of ten men should be established at intervals of half-a-mile on opposite sides of the main roads ; that the price of land be £1 per acre, to be paid in seven years ; that the Government should provide each ten men with a plough and team, and each man with a cow, and sufficient timber to build his house." The object of the association being, that greater facilities should be given to working men to obtain land upon reasonable terms. The resolution appeared to be quite in accord with the sentiments of a majority of those present, but was withdrawn in favor of a less alarming manifesto. If Mr. Pyke will take the trouble to ascertain accurately what proportion of the runs are suitable for small farms, and will advocate such portions being thrown open for a mixed-system of settlement, partly on deferred payments, partly for cash, he will receive the support of the Press throughout the colony. So long as he confines himself to stirring up the class prejudices of tb,e people by abusing the squatters, and talking such nonsense as this : — " The | great question of the day was : ' Should the land be opened to the people or not ?' on that point it depended whether Central i Otago was to remain a howling wilderness and a desert, or be transformed into a blossoming, fruitful garden " — he will but injure tbe cause which we all have at ; heart.