PAUPERISM AND ITS REMEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6669, 3 April 1883, Page 6

PAUPERISM AND ITS REMEDY.

MR. GREEN AND HIS PLAN. [liV TKLKGRAI'II—riiESE) ASSOCIATION,]' Ditwkdin, Monday. The following letter is published :— "Duuedin, March 23, 1883. '' My Dear Maj or Atkinson, —I havo had 1 the pleasure of listening to your two addresses in Christchurch. I think much credit is duo to you for coming forward and trying to enlighten the people in reforence to the things which you believe to bo for the advancement of tho colony, and the happiness of the people ; aud no lover of his fellows can help sympathisng with your desire to make some provision for sickness aud old age, and thus relievo the great pressure which comes upon people at tlioso times. If your plan appeared to me to bo practicable I would give you all the assistance in my power to make it part of the law of tho land, but I must confess that the impression mado upon my mind when I heard your address upon it in the House, and after I had read Mr. Blackley's book, was still further deepened when I heard you in Christchurch. I could not help wondering how you, the Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand, with your habit of looking at all sides of a matter, could evor think auoh a scheme could bo practically carried out here. , When I say that I don't couaidcr the plan practicable, I don't mean by that that it could not bo brought into practical operation, for I know of scarcely anything you could not bring into operation if armed by' tho power of the law; but what I mean ia that the difficulties are so many and great, the cost of the plan would, bo so considerable, the feeling of the people j against you would bo so strong when ' they came to understand it fully, the benefits would be so problematical, and, so far a3 provision for poverty is concerned, so distant, leaving all present poverty unprovided for—that when these and other matters are taken into accouot, along with tho fact that you do not attempt to grapple with the pro- , ducing cause of poverty, crime, and disease ' —I use the word impracticable advisedly when I apply it to your plan, in the conviotion ttat no free colonial people would even aubmit ,to it when they understood it. Wh»n Jit Christchurch you invited those who ;<Jid not agree to your plan to suggest to a better and more practicable one. Taking you to be in earnest in that invitation, I have tried to fall in with your recommendation, and I am now prepared to submit a plan to the pnbfic which is both simple, practicable, and immediately effective, whereoy poverty, crime, disease, and Government expenditure may be reduced, increased work provided, with a tendency to increase wages, or, at least, to harden them, and the permanent settlement of the land by agriculturists be increased, and thereby increase the revenue of the colony, thus giving such an impetus to the general prosperity of the colony, and providing such a sufficiency of work as would attract immigrants, and would justify the Government in giving increased facilities for their introduction, and by those means the revenue would bo greatly improved, and the ratio per head of taxation would be lowered. Instead of its being needful, as in your plan, to take the land revenue for the relief of poverty, under mine it would not be required, for while poverty would not be entirely annihilated, it would be so greatlyrednced, and the general prosperity be so greatly increased, that no difficulty would bo found in making provision for it; and the land revenue, I would suggest, should be appropriated to the extension of our public works, instead of continuing to borrow in the English market, and tbus bring up our assets in railways, telegraphs, &c., to the amount of our whole public debt. 7 need not further outline my plan. I intend to present it at a public meeting in Dunodiu on some evening immediately after you hare mado your address. I should esteem it a favour if you could bo present and hear it, and I am almost sanguine enough to hope that the practicability and immediate efficiency of my plan may lead your great energies to immediately bring it into operation, seeing that part o£ it is, at present, in the power of tho Government, while the legislative action necessary to bring the other part of it into operation could be obtained without very great difficulty. There is no great originality in my plan. It is merely a combination of plans which have been carried out in other parts of the world, but I am persuaded that tho man who would place hiß shoulder to the legislative wheel of New Zealand so as to make the combined plan part of our colonial procedure would not only merit but would receive the thanks of all future generations of New Zealand. My letter may appear to you egotistical. Such, however, is not my feeling. It is simply the earnestness of my desire for the welfare of the people of the colony, and my conviction that a simple means is within our reach of making this colony the queen of all the colonies, that leads .me thus to write, and venture subsequently to make my plan public. if cither you or any other body of men will set yourselves to work to bring about tho state of things which I think is within our reach, you or they shall receive all the support it may be in my power to give.—lam, &0., M.W.Green. P.S.—As the suject matter of the letter is of public interest, I may publish this letter. Mr, Green delivers his speech on Thursday night next.