LAND AND LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9067, 30 May 1888, Page 3

LAND AND LABOUR.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Being one of the many who have to seek "fresh fields and pastures new," I write to say that I am much disappointed at having to leave what I once thought to be my adopted country. The voice of labour is so contemptibly neglected and the chances of success so very small that, come what will, we can't be much worse. Gum-digging—■ the principal employment in the province—• is now simply a matter of earning a crusb or bare living to most; and, except the few that are able to clear, thousands will have to slave away, night and day, for the benefit of' monopolists. Such being the case, what prospects are there ? Settlement on land is out of the question, — except the land is given free, on conditions of improvement; fifty acres of poor land is useless for a living. If "the powers that be" would adopt sensible and enlightened laws, which are working well in other Countries, instead of trying to be original, with their fads and experiments, the country would be different now. Auckland had a chance (that is now almost gone) in placing thousands on land within reach of gumfields, who would be at present able to find employment on such land. If practice makes perfect, surely the working man, who is always among land, knows more about what it ought to be worth than the Government man who spends nearly all his life about town, who will class the land, and tell the working man this much it is worth, take it or leave it!— am, etc., May 29, ISSS. Spade and Spear.