WANTED A POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8404, 4 November 1890, Page 3

WANTED A POLICY.

TO THE KDITOR. Sir, —"Political revolutions," tho author of tho Runnymede letters has said, " arc always effected by abstract pleas ; justice to Ireland is about as definite as the rights of man." Has anyone ever read or heard a satisfactory definition of " nationalisation of the land." I have tried to find one amidst the flowers of Mr. Henry George's rhetoric, but in vain. As the master in his writings and in his speeches has not contrived to put his real meaning into plain words, it is not to be expected that bis disciples on the stump should be more intelligible ; all that they can give us is an " abstract plea " —nationalisation of the land. I was in hopes that the invitations recently given to the great reformer to visit New Zealand would have been accepted, and that we should have had the opportunity of looking him in the face whilst he advocated national robbery and confiscation of private property, in order, if possible, to form a judgment of his sincerity; but he is wise in his generation, and kept away. There are patent facts in this colony— the surface, - visible—which would have exploded his theory without a word being said. I should like to have heard him discussing the question of the "single tax" with King Tawhiao and his rtinanga. That enlightened potentate could have told him that for hundreds of years the land in New Zealand had been nationalised, in the sense t..at there was no individual property in it; that there was general poverty all the time, and occasional starvation, but " progress" none. An attempt on Mr. George's part to put his theory into practice in regard to native lands might even in these days result uncomfortably for him; his mana might be extinguished in a " copper Maori," and himself served up hot, with potatoes, a la cannibal. I suppose that it is the difficulty of finding a gt)od election " cry" at this moment that has driven the wire-pullers to take up " confiscation" after the strike. Sir George Grey's worshippers have' been hard upon him in forcing him on to the stump, and insisting upon his educating them, when, as appears—like the needy knife grinder of the anti-Jacobin—he " had no story to tell, sir." As a public speaker the great proconsul never fails to please his audience, he has the knack ; but without the contagious enthusiasm of the crowd, without 1 the glamour of the lights, and of the vener- j able presence and most sweet voice of the j aristocratic speaker, the report of the, speech as giveu' in your journal is the dullest of reading. There is really nothing in it excepting some chuckling self congratulations over the one man one vote triumph, and some hypothetical objections which somebody is said to have made use of which nobody did make to his old land tax scheme which the orator sets up, like ninepins, in order that he may fill up the time by bowling them down. The critics, in literature are, it has been said, the authors who have failed ; in politics, the unsuccessful statesman beoomes Sir Oracle. From 1877 to 1879 Sir George Grey was Premier of admittedly the very worst and most extravagant Government: that has ever afflicted Now Zealand. It would seem, moreover, nowadays, as if inability successfully to manage one's private affairs was accepted as being the best qualification for Ministerial office, and for the favour and confidence of the people. What shall we do for a "cry?" The Tadpoles and Tapers are in agonies, but there is no reliel. Wanted, a Prophet! Sir Robert Stout has given us away, "intirely," as Paddy would say, and has become sweetly transcendental. Mr. Vaile, I am afraid is not big enough. I had a friend who had a theory that no man could be a successful faddist who was under five feet ten, or weighed less than sixteen stone; if we had ten times our present population, Mr. Vaile's scheme for restoring general prosperity might bo tried without perhaps serious loss of revenue; at present it would be the play of "Hamlet," with the Prince omitted by particular desire. Sir George Grey is not " in it" ; his place now is the platform at the Choral Hall, with a sympathetic audience of true believers in what they do not understand. Sir Harry Atkinson's "programme" is not yet published, at least I have not seen ifcj but I

anticipate that his panacea will be roads, encore roads, ioujoHrs roads. Oar art 'sans are leaving our stores, became, population being at a standstill, the men can no* find work ; we are huxterfng our waste lands* and whenever we cabch a settler or sell an allotment there is a universal cackle of publie satisfaction ; settlement there is not on any large or reproductive scale, and for the best of all reasons, because we hare neither settlers nor population to make them ; bat still the Atkinsonian remedy will be probably roads, more roads; that is, more expenditure and present waste of money. Now sir you may fairly ask, that haviag been sneering at other men's bobbies, I should trot out my own and show his paces. Mine is a donkey, peaceful and unpretending, content 'with thistles for the present, and patient of labour. I believe, with all the economists who have written on the subject, that the first ©Jensens of national wealth is population ; hands to work. Ida not believe that our present six hundred thousand men, women, and children—lean in number than the inhabitants ol: many a single city on the other side of the equator— are capable of developing the immeasurable resources of a territory as large as that of Great Britain ; I do believe that if we one unable—as for obvious reasons w« are unable— attract population it would be the very best and most cerbainly reproductive expenditure to buy fitting settlers and past them on the land ; that means to resume at once nominated and assisted immigration on a large scale, and to borrow money, if necessary, for that purpose. I deprecate the jealousy and scorn of tin! working man, who on reading this may cry out, we don't want any more "paupers;" I answer, neither do I; but as we um barked twenty years ago upon a policy of immigration and public works, and as we have completed or nearly completed the public works, I ask that we shall be wise enough, having opened up, at the cost of many millions, the country for settlements, to find means now of bringing here settlers lot the lands.

I am afraid at present to trespass further on your space, but if you think ife worth while to print this letter, and will permit me, I shall return to this subject another time.—l am, etc., X November 3, 1890.