TRAGEIDY OF THE GANGPLANK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVIII, Issue LVIII, 4 December 1909, Page 4

TRAGEIDY OF THE GANGPLANK.

"Havel you ever waitched; an emigrant skip depart?" asks a Hamei con.tein> porairy — '"bearing 1 aiwaiy, pea-hapsi froan, Ireland, or Norway, oa* Deimiiark, its freight of young life) — drawm to sonnet new land) or thrust out f^xm, am old ome by what seieansi same; irresistible 1 law? If sot, you havei witnessed the tragedy of .the gangplank, when, the final woirdd aa'ei said by the broikein-| hearted old people oa* the friends of thosei whose) faces tHieiy niay never oeo again," A) Dam©, Attorney Stuphus Beirtheilseni, a feiw nnooitlisi ago addressed a Daaidsih-Aniericain) assembly at Raeskilda in Denmark, enquiring into the reiasonsl for "this exportation en masse of young mem and warne-Di, who,

as if by sO'inc 1 unsoeoi. power, aa'o drivem from theiir native' lajid a.ga,in&t. tlictir innermost good will, and drawn towards a neiw and l unknown country which they expect will give tlxerai what in vain they sought for a,t horne — richer opportunities of life." Thousands upon thousands have 'left, and are still learving, the old lands aamually. Irelaind has lost as many as 60,000 im one yew, Denraaork 10,000, aaid Norway 25,000, and other countries equally alairmaMg numbers. Why cam foreign lands offer these strang and lusity thousands better opportunities for livelihood than, theiir own; country 1 Is thei causei to bei found in thei inability oai thei paa*t of the hoanie land to offer, all her children greater a*nd richer " opportunities than any other country on eao^th? Not so. Ireland, foir instance*, is now barely supportinga population of about 4,000,000 : at one timie sbe supported in comfort 10,000,000. Then,, there 1 ax& 150,000 exiled" Danes in America and 150,000 m Sleswick (Prussia.), and this Danish writer shows that Denmark's .mother earth is largei enough to give homesteads to all of these) and to many more. In fact, in all the: old lands there are millions of acres of land lying idle, thei natural haritage of the people, which bad) economic legislation has closed to these people and driven them abroad' upon the) face of the earth, to whatever new countries offered tihem| cheap and lucrative! homesteads. Look' at the history of England. During the sixteenth oecatury thei enelosurei acts deprived this people of a largei part of thedr cooirmm lands, which, aib one time oomprised from onei-third to one-half of, the? nation. The) commion peiople lost all interest in the land. Thei land becamei the private) property of thei lord. Large areas were converted into sheelp pastures and private preserves!. This is the date! of the disappearance of the" yeoman farmer who had' once been nearly universal. During the sixteenth and seventeenth oemturieiS tb> population increased very rapidly. Acoording to Thorold Rogers the populartion doubled during the I7titu century. This moreaisedi the comipetitian for the land, while thei enclosure of the commons and' thei growth of great estates limited thei aiiiuoun,t which could ba used. Rent rose rapid/ly and poverty made) its appearance, among the fanning class. It was than/ that free land in America lured the emigrant. / Rayond the. seiaia there was no overlord to appropriate one-half of what the worker produced. The overlord has tnutniphed 1 in England ever since, and tihe real inlieaitora of the land have been driven to the corners of th© world. Maiay, many years ago an Irishman nanned James Fintan Lalor wrote an illuminative treatise: to prove that no country could prosper tohilch-. did next oultiva,tiei its latnd, that iaa]ge uncultivalted estates, held in a fehv hands, spelt national ruin. His was a voice crying in the wilderness; but the truth of "m's contention is realised to-day, not only in Ireland, but in all the old countries where landlordism holdia sway. "It was America's' open, cheap land 1 /' says the eloquent Dame, "under free homestead law, which called Europe's' landless masseia, and lifted even those who do not directly profit by it, to higher economic comfort than they could obtain in the old countiy. For Nature/ a economic law of the price of land witnesses! that, cheap land brings high wages toi all occupations, eivea to the) industrial * worker and the office) clerk im the gimt city, whila, onj the other hand, high-priceid land is the true cause of the poverty in. urban as well as rural ccmununitieig. And only such municipal law as accordsi with this economic law of Nature and dispoe/es -matters accordingly in the interests of thei people is good popular la,w. This, then, is the true, chief caiuse of emigration : legislation, the written laws, the bad one® at home, the good oneis yonder — as long and ais far as they were and are effective." The writer comes to a conclusion which has an applicability not only to Denmark, but to all the old cottntries, and it is not without fas lesson for the nei\y countries too, including the 1 Domimion of Niew Zealand. "The reason for all this emigration," hei says, "is rot that thei home, country has not room, for all its childran, — quitei the other} way ! Even in our small country we can say, not only with. 1 the) poets, but with the most matter-of-fact surveyor, and with literal truthfulness, that here are grainfields enough, if onljr wei kad hoiman kindlneßsi enough, or, more correctly flpeaking, plain sense of justice enough ; for what ■is needed is not sacrifice, or charity, or gifts, or alms, but just plain justice, the natural- coa> sequence qf citizenship, equal home right to the native earth. It is this right, translated into cjvil law, which our people are im n-aied' of Here are millions' of acres of land' which, wouldlbel tilled many' times 1 better than now, if thei artificially screiwedr up price! of land did not prevent ita beat' possible) usei through, small holdings. Amd for every day that passes tetohndcai Science) givea us somei new hint for the better development of possiibilitieig and for richer harvests for labor spent on -the) land. And under such conditions we should all find ourselvesi richer and stronger- — the great, great majority of us."