THE LAND QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 426, 10 April 1880, Page 12

THE LAND QUESTION.

'w TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TTMES.

Sik, —The land for the people, and the people for the land, is ever a most popular cry. In this doctrine there is a great amount of truth, inasmuch as the land and all proceeds derived from it belong to the people at large, and as such, should be devoted to purposes of the greatest public utility. This can no doubt best be done by the settlement of the largest practicable percentage of the people of this or any other country on the land of the country. Notwithstanding .the large number of landowners in this colony compared with its population, it is to be regretted that a much larger portion of our people do not possess an interest in the soil. This is by many attributed to our land, laws, which are often denounced in no measured terms. The administrators of such laws also come in for a good share of blame. It may be that the machinery by which the less opulent part of the people can obtain lind for settlement is faulty, and that those to whom the administration has been entrusted have not done all they might and should have done in furthering Jthis very desirable object. There are, however, other and less easily remediable causes why a larger portion of our people are not settled on the land than either our defective laws, or their inefficient administration. The principal causes are that so many of them lack the skill, energy, and capital necessary to make them successful settlers. How many of the unemployed of Wellington can take a team of horses and plough a piece of land in anything like a workmanlike manner? And yet these very men are told, and evidently believe, that if they can only get on to a piece of land there will be an end to all want and trouble. It is a pity to see men thus led away by the claptrap of stump orators, as they were again on last Wednesday night, at a public meeting held at the Academy of Music. Young and enthusiastic men like Mr. Evenden may well be excused—be is no doubt anxious to do good service to his country, and make to himself a name, but for such men as Mr. Hutchiaon, the mayor and member for this city, there is no excuse. Mr. Hutchison knows full well that if the present unemployed in Wellington were placed on t-mall farms on the West Coast to-morrow, with all the requisite stock and buildings, that many of them would be in the Insolvent Court within three years. "Why does he not tell the people, if they would become farmers they must learn farming as well as any other business or profession, and possess some capital into the bargain ? He, however, does nothing of the kind, but with professions of the most righteous indignation denounces the land laws, the land administration, the Government, and all who possess landed property, as if they were a band of public robbers.

Admitting that too much of the public estate has gone into the powers of a few individuals, who is most to blame for it ? Not those who possess it, certamly • because they have obtained it under the laws of the colony. The fault muft be in the laws, and consequently in the lawmakers, who are the representatives oi the people. It is the people of this colony who are to blame for bad land laws and bad administration, and why does not Mr. Hutchison tell them so ? As the people are so will be their representatives and tbtir laws. Would not Mr. Hutchison or any of th»se who sympathise with him, have

obtained land at the same price and on the same terms if they had the chance of doing so?

Mr. Hutchison went a little out of hi 3 usual ! course on Wednesday nig!»t. He generally confines himself to vague generalities, but on > that occasion he made a specific charge against certain persons connected with the purchase of the Murimotu Block, which, if true, are of a most scandalous character, and should at once ; be exposed. Mr. Hutchison is bound in honor to disclose and substantiate such accusations, i or withhraw the same, and make a public apology. If he can prove the statements he made at that meeting to be true, he will not only gain the ear of the unemployed in Wellington, but the sympathy and thanks of all right-minded people in the colony. If the present Ministry is guilty of what Mr. Hutchison, by implication, accused them of, it should by all means be known before the next meeting of Parliament, that they may receive their due .reward. These statements are either true or fals«, and Mr. Hutchison should take an early opportunity to place the public in possession of the fullest information about the matter.—l am, &c, Ajax. to the editor op the new zealand mail. SlB, —The able letter by "Ajax" demands some notice, and I quite agree with him as to the causes of so few settling upon land offered by the Government ; but he by no means enumerates all the causes. With regard to his question as to how many of the unemployed could plough in a decent manner, I would just suggest that a first-rate ploughman is not necessarily a good or successful settler, any more than a good sawyei would necessarily be a good carpenter. It is the handy jack-of-all-trades, fearless, enduring, and persevering, who forms good material for a successful settler. I, at least, have never told the unemployed or the employed that all their wants and troubles will end with the possession of a piece of land ; on the other hand, I have pointed out more than ontfe the numerous difficulties that beset those who begin a new life, under new conditions and unknown difficulties, upon a section of virgin soil. I do not think there is the least tendency amongst working, men to underrate the difficulties which beset the path of the would-be settler, or there would be more attempts made than there, are to " settle up country." A little more enthusiasm amongst our young men anxious to settle up country would do the country and themselves good, making at the same time a name which should in time to come be as much honored as that of the enthusiasts and early colonists, whose names we honor now, and whose success or non-success as settlers, so far as I can learn, was not due to having learnt " farming as a business," or " the possession of capital into the bargain."— I am, &c,

R. E. Evenden. Wellington, April 7, 1880.