CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7650, 29 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

Whatever we may wish about it, nationalisation of land is not a fad. I do not exactly know what a fad i«, but it' it means a whimsical fancy of which a man gets enamoured, nationalisation of land has gone ii good deal beyond that stage in the history of novel theory. It is devoutly believed in by many, and though the instincts of individualism rebel against it, there is plenty to be said for it in its social aspects. 1 am not going to do anything so heavy as discussing it, but if there ever was a country favourably prepared for putting it to the teat New Zealand is. Certain members of the Government are believers in it, but they seem to go rather a roundabout way to get at it. The system of perpetual leases is that of j the nationalisation of land ; but if tho ! natives are the permanent landlords the cardinal principle is certainly wonting, and people who have no patience with fancy legislation of any kind have a stronger stimulus still in the utter repugnance to Jhe Betting up < f Irish landlordism in New Zealaad, with blackfellows as lords of the manor. There would bu racial interests with a vengeance, and a territorial nobility with black skins, and the all-conquering | Anglo-Saxon as the tenant peasantry would | be the world's wonder. It is strange that j Mr. Ballance ever dreamt of finding accept- ! ance tor such a reversal of the right order of things, and the incongruity of the idea will be the bane of his proposal. But the difficulty can be simply overcome. Let tho State become at once tho tenant of the Maori and the landlord of tho settler. Native.? do not wish to sell as a rule, but they are willing generally to lea.io. Let the Government accept the land on lease, but with perpetuity of leasehold. The rental paid to the Maori owners becomes in etTect a tribute, a pension, an annuity if you will, and even if fixed at the nominal rate estimated on present values, would be a noble income to all the Maorii-a and their descendant* for ever, living in comfort on their ancestral reserves. Tho friction of landlord and tenant and the indignity of recognising the seigniory of an inferior race would be avoided, and the State exercising the rights of landlord in perpetuity, could carry out all the principles involved in lan.i nationalisation as freely aa if iu freehold possession. 'ihe tenure to the State - tenants could be cither in perpetuity or for a limit of term, or even the year of jubilee might be applied if desire i, cu the earliest lines of laud nationalisation. But if perpetuity of lease were given, it would be impossible to say that any settler would in any way regard it as differing from possession in freehold. For all practical purposes this method of holding from tha natives by the State would have every essential point of nationalised land, and in the lapse of years or generations, there would probably be little difficulty, if desired, in commuting the rents into a lump sum, and purchasing out the freehold rights of the natives when the Maoris had passed the period of pupilage, and were able to take e\»ro of themselves. Tho system would have further the convenient advantage of requiring no big lcau. The land could be leased from the natives as required, or in a lump, and while giving the land for settlement on terms of the most liberal kind, there might be a margin of difference between the rent to the Maori and the rent to the State, which would represent an enormous revenue from the lands of the State. _ A careful inquiry into the distribution of public charity would give some curious results. The assertion that in one district out of fifty families resident one-half are receiving charitable relief is warm, but commonci me to the Blues of Parnell, They are a stalwart, vigorous couple with plenty of go, and if their vigour ie directed into practical channels they will develop into useful and enterprising citizens. They can both work, and they own a large aad commodious house in a genteel suburb, and for anything that appears they may be among the nobs of the place. But they have fastened their children on a charitable institution, and they have been thtmselves living on rations at the public expense, and altogether they appear to have been nicely provided for. <± little hitch has occurred in their arrangements, however, and they are very angry. Now. censorious people may say that they are unreasonable, and no doubt there are many people paying taxes on which the Blues live who have not a handsome house in a genteel suburb to lot. .But that is not the Blues' fault. Aβ Mr. Blue says, he has always "been ambitious" to have a place of his own, ant! if other people have not such honourable ambitions, what right have they to complain about his thrift and providence? But Mr. Blue has another luxury in the form of a mother-in-law, and she also appears to be a handsome contributor to the family exchequer, and Mr. Blue reseats ia tae strongest terms any impolite references to his respected relative on the part of the Relieving Officer. ______ Now here is the case of a man who has a wrong and a grievance, which he appears to have submitted to all the papers of the city, and it ia fitialle to see that no one has had tbe manliness to defend the injured man. And yet, taken separately in its constituent parts, his case is eminently capable of defence. Mr. Blue's children are or have been ia the Industrial School, but then if they had not been, they would have been, as he says, " herding with the criminal Classen" in the streets of Parnell. Nov., nobody would wish that, and as Mr. Blue desires for his children a genteel education, he does the part of a good citizen in saying them from contamination, and he has them admitted into the Industrial School; and Mr. Blue very naturally asks what right has any man to blame him for doing the proper thing for these young and rising citizens. Again, he tats rations. "And why shouldn't I?" thinks Mr. Blue. "1 must live, and to live I must eat, and to eat 1 must get fcod, and if I don't get feed from work which I do not, then why should i not get it where I can? I mustn't die," thinks Mr. Blue. Now nobody would wish Mr. Blue to die, £0 he can Bay it with a triumphant assurance of the point being at once conceded. Then, again, hia mother-in-law. Why shouldn't he have a mother-in-law ? Surely there ie no hat in in that. Other people have mothers-in-law, How darts anyone to interfere with bi3 domestic circle or lay a finger on his mother-in-law. Quite right, Mr. Blue; your arguments art: unanswerable. And then the villa. Why should he not have a house ? There is nothing discreditable in that. It is the duty of every man to strive to have a house ; aud an Englishman's house in his castle, and Re lieving Officer or anybody else that intrudes there is nothing better than a burglar. .Mr. Blue claims the of a citizen, and if i any attempt 13 made to deprive him of | hie privileges he ought to write to the papers j at home, as other people, do, and denounce , the tyranny and wrong of this misgoverned j end heartioaa country. Our bravo defenders of the peace are in danger of being demoralised. There can nothing perhaps be said against a chain and locket being presented to a policeman—nothing at all —unless it be that too frequent gazing oa the fair face contained may have a too softening influence on the rugged temper that in needed for adequately dealing with the roughs. But a diamond ring given to a policemen, sb I reid a few days ago, and a breastpin of rare beauty presented a little while before, do seem a little incongruous, even apart from the tendency such articles de luxe must have in sapping the manhood of our stalwart defenders. Now, ther- is a great error in treating them aa curled darling*, and in ail such gifts there should be a fitness in thing?, and tbe article mi"ht be made to serve a useful purpose in •timubting the recipient to pride in his profusion. Instead of a diamond ring, how much more appropriate a tasteful and artistic pair of knuckle-dusters, a silver-mounted baton or bracelets of such rare and chaste workmanship that it would be pleasure to put them on a man. There is evidently a lack of the imaginative faculty iu the torco ana this tendency to adopt the mere conventionalities of civilian life, and to doff the severe and uncompromising garniture of the stern defender of the la* for the gewgaws of the citizen and the meretricious decorations ot the dandy, compel us to think sadly that there must be deterioration in Kobert s physical aad moral being ; and that if these effeminating influences continue hie activity Wid usefulness will depart, evea as a grea

tom-cat, fat, sleek, and somnolent, purrs gently to the caressing hand, but indolently refuses to catsh mice. The pretentiousness of our friends in the South is strikingly shown in their railway nomenclature. They have long had their Central Railway, and now the straggling appellation of the East and West Coast Uailway lias been altered into the grandiloquent designation of the "Midland." There is nothing in a name it may be ; and tho Midland will be about as profitable as the liast and West Coast Railway would have been. But there is tho assumption, that has never been absent trow the minds of Souther* people, that their island is New Zealand. By the side of such fine-sounding titles there is something real mean, as Jonathan would pay, in our "North Island Trunk Line." One would think it was intended for passengers' "goods r.ii'i chattels" only, and if it were not fur tho j extreme modesty of our members, it would i long ago have been christened respectably. The Great Northern would be an appropriate sequel to the opening of the Midland. Or why not trump their pretentious names with "Great New Zealand Railway"? Hut " Trunk Line"—pah ! General Roberts has been ordered to Ulster, to restrain tho exuberant loyalty of the people; and General Wolseley is rej signing his position in order to go over to Ireland to head the loyalists in their insurrectionary movements against the Crown J ami constitution of the realm. It will be ! rather a novel position for the only two great generals in the Kinpire to find themselves ; ami, if matters only mature, there will bo an opportunity of testing lha lighting qualities of the two great leadeis. Roberts in India, and Wolseley in Soudan, have each shown the stnlV tiny are, and as they have each his friends and backers, it will be rather an interesting tussle. Lord Beresford has "admitted," whatever that may signify, that Ulster cannot bo coerced, from which one is warranted iu thinking that he is intending to join the stall of General I Woleeloy. As t.iero are two hundred thou- ; sand inegulara coming over from Canada, au 1 an unknown number o:' similar levies preparing in England, and as the landlords j themselves are to furnish a powerful contingent, Lord Wolseley will have rather a numerous force of independent corps with which to make the assault. 11".3 opponent, General Roberta, will not have so many, but deficiency iu numbers will bo balanced to some extent by the discipline if his re 1coats. Altogether, tho scene will bo possessed cf considerable interest to surrounding spectators, but it is to be hoped tine the hero of the Nile pasfaga will not precipitate matters by a premature attack until ail hia forces are on the ground, Ho is not given to too much precipitancy or "parlous" haste : witness his passage to Soudan : and in this is our hope that lie will exercise all requisite deliberation, and not offer battle until his numerous army in in a state of t-mcieney, and until all the powers of diplomacy have been exhausted in the effort to avert tins terrible encounter. Lord Wclsaley is evidently Irish—very ! IVi.u.x.