SMALL FREEHOLDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 96, 4 March 1864, Page 4

SMALL FREEHOLDS.

TnEUE is a class of persons in this country who, if they could speak or write, and had the opportunity of "being heard or read, could give many lessons of experience to our public men. Those public men, indeed, have their experience, but they have al.-o their theories, their policies, their party, and their objects. These all blind the eye in ore diivoiiot), and give it preternatural powers in another. They cover half tlie earth with darkness, and raise up here and therea scene of dazzling brilliancy and of microscopic minuteness. The less prejudiced witnesses we have referred to are they who. in this age of motion and change, have lived successively in town and in country, in the metropolis, deep un.ong the midland dairy farms, far in southern and western downs, under the smol;e of countless mills, by the surge id' the German Ocean, among mechanics, uiiiong yeoman, among fishermen, lunong men oi' lued and men of Jimitey, among clergymen and among philosophers, with their eyes evcryiviiere - open, their memories always at work, and their pens collecting piles of memoranda, destined most probably to the mimes. But their recollections fade anil die, overlaid with new experience, or no longer serviceable for any present need of life. 'J'he mind's-cyc view of half a dozen counties, tlie maps of parishes, rentrolls, assessments, terriers, and the inner life of hundredsof hous. holds, becomes dimmer and dimmer, till the necessity of living for tlu; present reduces them to the faint vestiges of au earlier writing discernible under the text of a niediieval legend. There are many such men in this country, ami wc should like to have their testimony iu to llieimwl, favourable conditions of life for tho many who wish either to live honourably and usefully in their own rank and station or to rise. The question that we have put is one for experience not for theory. It depends, indeed, upon the estimate of character, and, ut least. 11 preference oi* character to station and circumstances, Vet, perhaps, we shall have no yreat ciitlieulty in ajVMHig «» tc th* uieii «Uo, oa tii* arc a.

credit to their class, or who may bj considered to Imvu risen out of it. The i|\iestion. out ol miuiy, which we wi*h to put At thin moment is whether tho possession OV nequijitimi of a fret-hold has bean observed to be u frequent ;no:m- «'f rising out of tho peimur class or doi.. s well in it. That insliuiecs may he found »c think as likely as -lh;it by sitting mumtons of earth vou tntiy in some places find sonic grains of eold : bur'we believe (lie instances to be ns rare its tluwo of liiidiiii? the precious me'inls. "Wo may Wish it were otherwise, but the facts arc against ""There lire a few simple considerations which explain what is really the fact 0/ the t:n«o. 'Lite isles, unci 1 ho'more p'eu-unt or more habitable port ions of them. arc too small for (lio population and wealth which' bid for tliem. The prizes are few, and the competitors iiouuiii r.ihle. hat is more, manv ofrheni are much richer than the otheis. The r<vv, the, mart, ihe lottery, or the auction-room, wlmk'vi'i- we mav cull it, is open to all comei'a ; ami the only peculiar'ily of some politicians is that they make more sure first of all the .-oil run for,, beifi" on the market, drawn l'or,_ or brought to the hammer, than perhaps we do. Wo conclude that thev wis'ii to bring every iutc in tliestf Ules under the law's of free trade, If'they ever succeed, then the result which we wis'ii Jo point out us now existing will be largely aggravated. The present result is that land, and indeed, a freehold of any kind, is hero a luxuw. ov a fancy article. Its price is out ol proportion to its pro/it, and not regulated by its profit —fit least, not by its proiil aione. Even in htrge tjiian til it r. and under management, it never viclds so iiood an intorot for its puce or its saleablo 'value as the lou,t pro lunti/e of the public stocks. Xljc posst stor of a piece ol freehold land, therefore, pavs largely for tlie indulgence of a mere R-ntiment. If"lie attempts to eulthatc hi* own freehold of twentv ncivh, lie lives in misery and anxiety; and as he could po.-siMy sell hi- bend On- a thousand pounds, Und the money on r.iortji«j»e at *1A per cent., and live better as a labourer than he did u.; a peasant proprietor, lie, in ellect, pay?, £-15 a uar tor a barren pride or a independence. .Adam thiiith describes tho tenant-farmer as a man who trades on borrowed rap tnl; his rent is the interest lie pays the lender of the land, and it is always a rate of interest much below what he would have to pay for Iho price of the 1:i:j I. Tho landlord i* the mo>r liberal of money -lenders, lending oltcn what is worth a thou* sand pounds for twenty pounds a year. When the farmer m his own landlord he lviu rally becomes 100 well aware of the facr, for he almost, invariably borrows to nearly the full saleable value of the land, and then }■ Hf" to pay some lawyer an enormous rent for his land in the >.hape of interest for a loan. The small freeholder, t deep in debt and only enjoying t!io barren name of a freehold, i* always behind'the world. He is- in arrears for his rates and taws ; his house, built originally, perhaps, for a supported competence, is out of order, a room or two di;* used ; hi* farm buildings let in ndn and wind, or art* on the siopD ; his fences, gates, und roads are neglected ; h;s children •;?> neither to a village school nor to ab< iter; his position feels u pride which it cannot support, und produces a generation fit neither for berviie nor for any higher work. Where th**n> i? neither the modesty bred by service, nor the dignity taught by independence, nor any habits of industry, there are sine to he worse consequences. The position is generally more or ie.-s a wreck. It. produces more social eriie.es, more frauds, inoro robinrie.s of widows and orphans, more disregard and violation of wilis, inure quiet usurpations by strong uncle-, more outrages a-jMUist law and equity than any other state of life I'ubiie opinion, which glares at the great landowner, und is all eyes for the MiiaUeM; shortcoming, cannot penetrate the tangled mass of binall pi'opertirs held under all sorts of written and unwritten condition*, and with no owner who can bo said io be answerable for ihem. If you are run over iu the streets by a drunken your wife and children may become penniless. If the poliee* man who topped the cart saw on it; the name of a railway company, they may recover £s.i>oi>. There is piveUely thai didetvnee as regards all moral re* sponfibility between small fro;holde;v. wliere they exist, and proprietors. former will do a« jijtie as po.-sible either tor thenihclvcs or foJ' anybody else ; the latter are amenable to publir opinion , they are remmd-'d c«f their unties every time t'uey see their tenants j they are expected to do everything that nobody else will do for the par.j'h and the lnkourers. We know snores of eases of men who have risen from the ran** in the t and even in the country, ■ but not a tingle wliere a freehold properly iu i land wes the menus of risimr. or anyihing else than !an eneumbranee. A villager rites by aeralt, bv *hopi keeping, by.-ervieei by jonhing, by jutrveyint; food | and liner tor cattle, by doctoring catta , by conlraetj ing !br roads and other works, by kee}>ini; a u public.'* | by all sorts of ways, but ihe sciii-y which enables him ! to rise tells him that he puts his savings to very bad | account hy the purchase of land. He may, indeed, j buy an ncr.- lo build a flo/.en collages <-n it, but that

a spc'Uiation which rests* on iis own merits, ami need Dot be noticed iiere. .\s a general rule, a strivsaving man, such as we suppose and have before us. might as well go it lid bin- a diamond. or an antique statue, or a. vase t>C LUvsdcn china* as ten su its of' freehold land. The purchase would diminish his incoiiiv by twenty-live pound* a 3 cal', while ho tou!d prohaHy rent the .'and fur ten or fifteen. Moreover. he jst* tin re is a goad deal to be done on the laud. and he would rather come on somebody eise to do it than himself. In towns there is still more opening tor the awbiiioua and indus-trious, though nor by the vf freehold.*. Jn the metiopolir. there are many inManee-j of men who have risen to .nvia. fortune mid position from humble life. Perhaps tbis may be thought not e-o cominort or B (i poosibie in a 'fuict country iov.n, whiclris usually regarded as a rather s?lagnant bodv. But even there it is a matter of every-duy occurrence lor the labourer or artisan to baco.uo the >hopktvpcr, Jbr the idiopkeepcr't? family to become professional, and Jor the professional family to become landowners. Every licig hbourhood tan supply histories of that sort, and it- is impo->ible to Know one town for a generation without lacing the half-starved lad, the castaway orplmn, the son of a needy mechanic, or even ot the domestic servants become leading p ( piaces perhaps with the children of tho.-e who were once their betters. A* this is not the piuce lor a discourse upon l< wit' help/' or the :u-t uf we will content onm-lves with observing that there can be no real kindness in tellinir the sun king poor that they cannot rise in this country, that they are .-erfs and slaves, and that they liavc been rubbed of their just WiihU. .Still less is !c kind to ttart them on Mich a moite of rising, or standing where they are, as they purchase of irechold land. Jn their ease it is simply a. waste of nimifV ; it is tying n niilU(om> round ! heir necks; il is iitlncliiiitf tiu-in to oni! spot white the niiiv bare siood mison i".»r migrating to another; it it sinking 'heir earnings in tilt: ground, when a working man ought to have thorn us much as passible at his disposal. It is the interestot the working man himself we are considering, tnid liis weans of rising. There are other asjiects t>f the question which it is needless to touch on. "With hundreds of cxau.ples before us, tv t ! tell (lie .llritisli labourer £iiici >irii.*im th»t, it In- Hants either lo rise or to holti his pound, ami, in order thereto, to liinLellii! host of his strength, his skill, his time, and his money, he had better not meddle with lantl. — '/Vuio. Uciriuber IS.

X.vv.H. CuntT Murrbw..—The court martial oonvcne.l lov tbo trial <>l' Mr. Job Annablo, sts.siht:mC engineer of til.: lVloru*, lot* ili\ i ult on t hfj occasion of that ship's la U; acc.dont ncir!i<rfintJy niluwiu OHO of liur boilers to lie burnt, re-av-i-mkd on boiinl tho b'oyal Adelaide, ::t l.Vvonpoit, on jUondny afternoon. .Mr. John J'»crr, ivad a und al'lo (li't'oiH'O on buhall' of <tie prij-oner. The £i'.-t .if the dolVnco was, Ibut it wa.- admitted l.v the prosecution that tijo ;<«'( it]i jit must have iitison from the blow oil' eotlvs b;\v\ug Vvvn o\>euee, vr luit, \mvtially open. Ibe evidence lor tin; deli-nee proved ttiat those cocks had not been meddled Willi during the watch, they lun-t liavo therefore heen .-miLTe-l to ronuiin_ partially open from t\»>. previous wutch. iiie ihjVukt did not know tliis, through lUi\ .'o.-cph Irvin, engineer, who kept the previous wateb, having taken upon himself to removo tln.' feather of the spanner, whereby the spanner could be taken otf w.tliout, tiio cock bring 1 securely clused, the preview* piactko bavin;; boon always lor tbo cock to Vo securely closed when the spanner was oil', tbo Ihithti" ho 11;:; intended to enforce that practice, and tbo prisoner unaware of the removal of the feather. A long list of /irst-cli&s Ct'i iiliratcef of wem ro.ici on ht*]iulf of tin* juisoner, hjhV an excclWt character giwu him by Mr. l)iniH-.n, inspector of n.achinory afl<•»*( at Ix-vonpoil. The court onnsiiierfd iho ch.-mrt* piovea, mul ajiutod the prisoner to "b'} hom his ship, to be placed at the bottom of tuc utfcitt-unt-CEginowcj to • tUepj iiurwc