A LAND POLICY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 8385, 21 January 1888, Page 6

A LAND POLICY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Both the State and large private properties seem to be in for a bad time in the near future. Whether the policy of the State holding hack its lands from sale is’wrong or not, the policy seems probable to have a disastrous termination, alike with those large private properties, which have been held .to tbe detriment of New Zealand’s prosperity, for higher prices, or . other purpose. The invading forces of those armies of living and obnoxious weeds are not only knocking at the gates of the citadel, but are rapidly over-running the land. Coupled with others, whose name is legion, and whose occupation (Nature seems to have so ordered) is to fecundate - and spread, they are a terror and a dissress to man. Although, to give Dame Nature common justice, these are the

consequence of our own deliberate acts. We institute a wedding feast, and failing guests to fill the chambers, we have rioted about in the streets and by-placea of the world, and taken in strange and fearful things, hugging them to our bosoms, because some of them were fond and familiar spirits; others crept in with us to feast in the fra.lla; crept in as slaves, small in number; we saw them, but we were callous as to the future. The hour was our life; and the outcome of such strange ways is coming home in a very retribution. The only foe to New Zealand’s prosperity was that marriage feast. What came and is coming of it? Behold the guests, invited some, honoured guests; other self-invited ones, but which it was in our power once to have turned away, now never so. Those old haunting words never rang out in. truth or sung their stern verification of hope, purpose, or wish destroyed—“ Too late! Too late! ”to more purpose than in our present case. “Ring up the curtain,” you call out. Yes, up it goes. First scene.’ Does it show you more than you know ? A maiden New Zealand, with a sunny clime, a beautiful country, without a pest; a land of promise. Are ye tired of gazing at the glory of such a place ? at the wealth which Nature so bountifully endowed her with ? She, New Zealand, might have been a second Garden of Eden ; and what she is, we know. Well, you are not tired of gazing at her shining rivers, running literally on golden sands, her magnificent plains, snow-clad mountains, the scenery of rock and forest, unrivalled in. the whole wide world, her mysterious lakes, light and shadow, and all magnificence. No, not tired, but time presses; pass it; down with the curtain, and with it, the scene is gone for ever, so far as part of it is concerned. The bell rings, the curtain rises. Second scene; New Zealand the morning after the marriage feast—the groom and the bride. Mr Civilisation Christian, to Perfection Nature. Aught of them, or of their condition, need I describe ? Need I become the loud-voiced showman, and explain it P I think we know it to our coat. The writing on the wall, look at it; it is the reflection of to-day : dismay, distress; the rodents devouring the herbage, the thistles pushing aside the golden corn, the birds devouring all things; the mortgagees, public and private, demanding their pound of flesh; and—but I stop; the day is, and of it we are. When the curtain rises on the third scene what, ah! what will it show ? I hope New Zealand for the New Zealanders, no Government estate, but a New Zealand estate. Sell the land or give it to the young New Zealanders now; and if the private land-holders are wise they will do the same, and so save themselves from the self - inflicted perils and terrors—bird, beast, interest, and weeds—which otherwise will surely run them to the death.— I am, Ac.,