SETTLERS AND FLAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 5

SETTLERS AND FLAX.

"Don Quixote" writes: —Truly we area curious people. We make it our boast that we live in a free country, yet we allow ourselves to be robbed and bullied by innumerable free institutions such as Road Boards, County Councils, etc., in a manner which would not for a moment be tolerated by any country cursed with the obsolete aristocratic form of Government. It is an old saying that there is no tyranny like the tyranny of a democracy, and we are now proving it here. The reason why the above saving proves true is, that in a democracy responsibility is so divided up among a great many people that no one has any feel;} ing of responsibility at all, and the Jacks in office fool away our money on every fad that comes into each Jaok(ass)'s head. The latest development of this form of democratical tyranny is seen in connection with the great flax industry, which is to deliver us all from debt and taxation and all our other democratic evils. When first this industry was started, all the up-country people thought that it was going to be a perfect God-send to mauy a poor, hardworking settler, who was fortunate enough to be the owner of some good flax land ; that these same settlers would be able to pay their store bills, and for the first time be able to make enough out of the land to pay rent to the Government. Do you suppose that any New Zealand Govern- j ment will acknowledge that the prosperity of the State depends on the prosperity of the individual ? That if our settlers cannot prosper, the colony as a whole cannot prosper. Not a bit of it. Directly the flax became of any value, the ever-rapacious County Councils opened their mouths. "Now," said they, "there is a chain reserve on all our rivers ; we are not going to let the settlers have the advantage of that 1 flax. No ! we will seize on it." The County Councils had no right to this flax. The chain reserve had never been taken by the Governor for the purpose of making a tow path, for which purpose it was originally reserved, so the settlers had the right to the flax. The County I Councils were not to be put off so easily. They applied to the Government, aiid the Government instead of standing up for the interests of their own settlers who held the land from the Government and paid the Government rent for it, made over to the County Councils what to many of the settlers would have been their only profit for the year. Now, look at the absurdity of the whole thing. The settlers may put any amount of stock on to the chain reserves, and we all know that a few old cows will clear and destroy a large area of flax in the winter, when hard up for feed, in about half no time. The settlers are at perfect liberty to destroy their flax, they may even burn it to clear the land ; but if they cut and sell it, thus adding to their own wealth and the wealth of the colony, woe betide _ them ! j They are immediately liable to pains and penalties innumerable. Now, look at the hardship of it. Here are many settlers who have ground away at'their sections year after year, have suffered every sort of hardship and toil, and all just to get a bare living, and now those who have been provident enough not to destroy their flax, are rewarded by having it taken from them and given to the County Council, who let the right to cub it by tender to a contractor, whose object is to cut the flax in the quickest time, with the least trouble, and who comes up with men and dogs to worry and frighten the settlers' ewes at lambing time, to break down his fences, leave open 1 his gates, trespass on his land, and steal what little bush he may have for firewood. Yet the contractor and his men are not to blame. How else can they get the flax cut and taken away ? True, the flax goes away in a barge, but the men have to go and get stores, etc., and cannot always avail themselves of a private steam launch to take them up and down the river, so have frequently no choice but to inflict the above evils on the settlers. Hurrah for a free country ! Freedom to annoy your neighbours, and bully those weaker than yourself. It is time this was altered, and the settlers allowed to cut the flax on the chain reserve in their own sections.