THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1881.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6164, 19 August 1881, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1881.

If the difficulty over the Irish. Land Bill bet-ween the Wo Houses in Westminster -were to force an appeal to the country, doubtless the result -would be not only a House of Commons, but also a Cabinet, more entirely accordant than the present with the views of Mr. Gladstone j for it is -well-known that the Premier's views on the land subject, and in regard to Great Britain as well as Ireland, are much more decided and advanced than those of his Government as a whole, or of the majority of his supporters in Parliament. But we see that there has been a yielding of points on both sides by the two Houses. , The Lords know that they can deal far more easily with the present House of Commons than they may b« able to do with the next one; nor, perhaps, would an Irish Land Bill alarm them if it were not for'the grave fact that it is the thin edge of the .wedge. The Bill —at least, as the' Government introduced . it—-contained principles of subtantiallandreforra, though theimportant tribunal for arbitration between landlords and tenants is , to be composed of what we term in - the colonies County Court Judges and other persons, who in Ireland are usually the relatives or connections of landlords, and aire therefore more likely to be more favourable to ..their side. But the Bill lays the foundation of. great changes, and, as the Peers are . aware, Mr. Gladstone means much more than he is at present able to, effect, and means it, for Great Britain as well as Ireland.

For in' Great Britain also the land question is a pressing matter indeed. It .is, in truth, the question, of. questions, requiring to' be looked after without, delay. England has come to depend for her prosperity on her manufacturing industry, ever enlarging, which has now attained monstrous dimensions, and which needs a continual enlargement of the markets which'take' her goods. But, so, far .from enlarging, the markets are falling off. At the present moment there is commotion about the 1 new French tariff, which ■will .keep. out..large classes of' British goods. A telegram from "London, m our columns 1 of Wednesday," says':4— " Complaints ."are "made that, owing 'to the policy 'of protection maintained by the .United States and, several most important colonies, the export trade 'of

Great Britain is seriously injured, and her industries threatened." Even innovations :upon the present commercial policy are spoken of "A very strong feeling •" is growing in England in favour of modifying • the present Free Trade Tariff, with a view to establish reciprocity with other countries." Already it Seems Ilia tin the . mamifactur- 1 ing districts an agitation with this object is on foot, and that a " National Fair Trade League" has been formed* "with influential support." Such a state of things, threatening for some years, and rapidly getting worse, sufficiently proves the utter folly, and even madness, of resting the national industry and welfare on a basis intrinsically, artificial, ever liable to convulsion and even collapse in the change of foreign circumstances. As for the experiments talked about, they do not seem very hopeful when we consider that manufacturing and commercial rivals are now everywhere rising fast. The political changes looming on the Continent will give such rivals an extraordinary development,*—for instance, if Germany obtains that maritime frontier, which she is likely enough to obtain. Nor will it avail to open up entirely new markets, —for example, that sometimes referred to ' in the lately unknown African interior. A market for manufactured goods among the naked barbarians of torrid Africa will be small compensation for the loss of civilised markets. And even then there will be competition, for half-a-dozen of the other manufacturing nations have this moment exploring expeditions with trade . objects in Central Africa. No; England must " try back." She must go back to the land for employing her people and sustaining her progress. She must do as other nations do, —lean mainly again on a natural basis for her welfare. But her land system stands in the way—a system which has been got rid of all over the neighbouring Continent, but has its last refuge, and still holds its place, in the United Kingdom'. There, too, it is now breaking down like the manufacturing system. It is breaking down not from any patriotic interference on the part of the legislature, but by its own intrinsic unsoundness. It can no longer yield its former "three profits" for landlord, farmer, and labourer. And so the great landowners are quite willing to remedy it after their own fashion—to let the-farmers "go by the board," and the bulk of the few agricultural labourers still employed, and so, if it can no longer yield the old "three profits," it will still yield one and ahalf. The proprietors will be quite content to take their estates directly into their own hands—turning the good lands into pasture, and the poor ones into game preserves. That sort of thing goes on already—has gone on for a very long time, even before the landowners felt the present occasion for it. The town populations have been swelled to incredible proportions by emigrants from the country,' the Government and the legislature— Commons as well a« Lords—not only countenancing it, but favouring all sorts of landlord aggrandisement. What has become of the vast tracts of common land possessed by the mass of the people for tillage as well as pasture, even so late as a hundred years back? They have been gradually encroached upon and enclosed by the neighbouring magnates. "Where are the yeomen and copyholders who once abounded, cultivating their own small possessions—a J prosperous steady race, the backbone of! England 1 All have disappeared. Where is the hardy population which once inhabited Highland glens 1 Gone also, because deer and grouse are found ' more profitable for the landlord's pocket! In no county even of Ireland has j there been such a wholesale sweeping away of population as in Sutherlandperpetrated by a family strangers to the country, and which only acquired by marriage the best estates which go with the Sutherland dukedom. It will be admitted that it is full time for the public to amend this land system, and that of Ireland also, in some sincere and genuine fashion—in some such fashion as would gradually create a rural population at the same time dense and prosperous, such as is seen in France and Flanders, a few miles away. If they still remain. supine the national prospect is not a cheering one. The great landholders are only concerned for their broad acres, but the commercial changes now going on are only too likely to touch to the quick both the middle and the humbler : classes.