THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9178, 6 October 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1888.

Ix his lecture last night on " Land Settlement and Land Ownership in New Zealand" Mr. Crombie has given utterance to views that are now asserting themselves among all classes and conditions of men, as to the paramount importance of small ownership in land as best adapted to the peculiar circumstances of New Zealand. Whether it is that the commercial depression has been the producer of sober counsels, or that those who have been grasping large areas of land have generally overreached themselves; or whether it is from the competence and comfort that have usually come to those of moderate ambitions who have contented themselves with "a little farm v»>ll-tilled," it is certain that a change has come over the spirit of our dreams in relation to the most profitable use of land ; and the general consensus of opinion is that salvation mustcometoNewZealand from themu ltipl of hersmalland industrious settlers. The greater question of whether farming on a colossal scale, or the minute subdivision of agricultural industry, better meets the requirements of the world in our time, is one that may not so much concern us.. With cheap and abundant labour, and a market near and accessible, no doubt colossal farming produces remunerative results ; while the possibility of employing the most efficient labour-saving machines on the widest scale enhances the ability of farmer-princes to control the market in the open held of competition. Whether this has conduced to the greatest happiness of the greatest numberthe test now commonly employed in social questions—may be a subject of debate. Like many another thing in the progress of the age, while it has increased the wealth of the wealthy few in many cases, it appears to be among the factors that have intensified the destitution of the many, and that are widening the chasm between wealth and poverty which it is the aim of social reformers to bridge over. But however this may be, in looking to our particular case in New Zealand, with our high rate of wages and our distant markets, it is qitite apparent that the class of farming that will bring the surest, returns i th fanning of small settlers tilling their own land. For a large part of their produce they have an immediate and never-failing market in the mouths and on the backs of themi selves ? q their £am ;, 'fts: and in their

case all surplus production for an outside market is net gain. Assuming, as he is warranted in doing, that this is the class of industrial settlement we require, Mr. Crombie proceeds to suggest the means for. securing it, and in doing so proposes a somewhat drastic remedy. He would have every landowner compelled to reside on his own land, with -liability to forfeit it in the event of' ceasing to occupy and cultivate his holding. The illustration which he adduces from goldtields regulations is certainly one that lias worked satisfactorily in that particular case, under which a man who does not sufficiently man and work his claim is liable to have it "jumped.' 1 It may be asked why it should not lie equally applied to agricultural as to mining land ; and we are not prepared to give a reason, other than that public opinion has yet a long way to travel before it is educated up to such heroic treatment of the tenure of land. That something should be done to prevent men from holding more land than they can possibly make use of is not to be questioned, but the power to "jump" any land not adequately manned and turned to beneficial uses, is one that the public would be loth to see put in operation. There are means by which—as by a land tax on land manifestly kept only for speculative purposesa similar object may be compassed, without resorting to such trenchant treatment which would shake all confidence in the stability or tenure, and conflict with something instinctive within us which prompts men to desire a portion of earth's surface of which no one can dispossess them. This instinctive feeling would raise up barriers against Mr. Crombie'd scheme, which would prevent its acceptance even with the landless classes, who cherish the hope that some day they will own a piece of land of their own. The reason as it seems to us why the same instinctive feeling does not operate in the case of mining lands is that on such lands the occupancy is commonly looked on as of a transitory kind at the best, men intending t{> work there only until the minerals are exhausted, and then to seek elsewhere tor a more permanent home. We cordially agree with all that Mr. Crombie says as to the superior healthfulness and happiness of rural over city life, and of the evil tendency which seems to prevail in these colonies of people crowding into towns and cities for the precarious livelihood which these offer in lieu of the independence, and the comparative freedom from carking care enjoyed by industrious men who are their own masters and employers in their own homes in the country. In so far as factory enterprise has a tendency to congregate the people into cities it has its unquestionable disadvantages ; and if all our working classes could nnd their employment amid the healthful surroundings of farming life it would be incomparably happier and better for them than factory life. But a certair amount of manufacturing industry ap pears to be desirable to extend the area of consumers of agricultural produce, and it may not necessarily follow that factory life should be city life. Mosgiel, Kaiapoi, Petone, Onehunga, etc., are all removed from city life, and if the principle is adhered to of fixing .our factories in hamlets and rural districts far away from cities, a good deal of the evil of factory life may be obviated. All the same a man whose fortune takes him to the cultivation of a little homestead for himself, has unquestionably bettei chances of health and happiness and o4 moral as well as physical well-being foi himself and his family than the man who brings his children up among the whirr of machinery, even under the exceptionally favourable condi tions of factory life in New Zealand. We agree with Mr. Crombie that not in all earth besides does any country present more sterling attractions tithe small farmer than New Zealand, and more especially under the genial clime and favouring circumstances of our Northern district; and we sincerely trust that the growing taste for rural life, which is generally felt at present, will continue to grow even more rapidly until all our waste places are dotted over with little smiling homesteads.