POLITICAL POWDER AND SHOT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 20

POLITICAL POWDER AND SHOT.

BY IGNQTUS.

“ The small body of members who style them' selves the Opposition, and who at the be' yiuniny of the session went throuyh the form of elect iny Captain Hassell as lender, do not deserve the name of a Parly. Ihey are united by no stronger ties than were the denizens of the Cave of Ad ullam —discontent with thinys as they are and antipathy to those in power. They are simply a fort nitons concourse of political atoms, without cohesion in policy or princijde. Let no such men be /rusted.,” — Wellinyton Eceniny Post. Mr Buchanan’s half-hearted sympathy with tho dairy industry, as exemplified in his address at tho annual meeting of tho Wairarapa A. and I‘. Society, lias, I hear, badly disgusted many of the small settlers in the South Wairarapa district. Mr Buchanan’s idea of country industries is summed up in the word “ sheep," only that and nothing more. What Wairarapa wants as a candidate against Mr Buchanan is a man who will warmly urge and assist in the starting of a host of small industries, which will enable the man of 40 to JOO acres to make a living for himself and his family, and render him independent of the sijuattocracy. The candidate ought to bo a good platform speaker, a man who can put facts and figures before his audiences, and above all a man without prohibition or other fads. Surely such a man can ho found. \\ hat do you say, you Wairarapa Liberals ?

With reference to Mr Buchanan’s foolish remarks about the dairy industry, the attention of readers of the Mail are directed to the article “ Mr Buchanan as a wet blanket," which appears under the heading of “Editorial Notes "on paged of this week’s issue.

Why should country settlers be specially wise in returning Government candidates at tho next election ? Let tho Napier News furnish a short but pregnant answer : —The country settler has every reason to fear the return to power of a Conservative Government, for that would mean the suspension of Government loans to settlers and a consequent rise in interest. It wculd mean tho hanging up, if not the repeal, of the Lands for Settlement Act, and the repeal of the graduation clauses of the Land Tax.

Agents of tho National Association (for the reduction of wages) aro busy just now all round the country endeavouring to cram it down the tin oats of tho workers that the Ass. is in complete sympathy with their interests and aspirations. But 1 notice that in tlio last issue of Liberty (N.S.W. edition) there is quoted with evident approval, “ a vigorous letter from Mrs Lynn Linton "to the Poplar Labour Electoral League, in which that worked out novelist and hysterical female Tory of tho Tories says“ I do not think that working men have any business whatever with the administrative business of public life." This sentiment is precisely what tho Ass. wirepullers themselves hold, isn’t it, Mr Chairman of the Wellington branch. But you shouldn’t let your organs expose your hand in this way, especially when vou’re trving to capture tho workers’ vote. ‘*“ * * *

Lady Stout (of the Southern Cross Conservative Women’s League) isn’t tho only Conservative lady who believes in Cldnese immigration. Up at Auckland a Mrs Daldy, of the Auckland Women’s Political League (a Conservative organisation, sort cf female appanage to the male National Ass.) has been boldly announcing that “she would never vote for keeping the Chinese out."

And whilst on the subject of Undesirable Immigrants, let me here find place for a story told me the other day of a little conversation which took place in tho train the other day between Woodville and Palmerston. Two gentlemen, one of whom is n. promim-nt, Hawke’s Lav Mjualtcr were dbcus-ing the 1.1. Pull a,id the general p.iiicy of the Gnvei nnn iif. The squatti r loudly declared that so far as lie was concern: d “ :f Tie \ a pawa seat goes to Hall I’m d d if I’ll have a local hand on the station. I'll show them which way (heir bread's buttered." His com;) mi 'ii, a mare reasonable, less bigoted Oppositionist, expostulated with, “ Oh, look hero , that’s going too far. V u must allow men to have their own political opinions." But flu squatter would not listen In reason, and proceeded to say that “when i’us si il and our people " get back into (Alice we'll have this Bill (the Undesirable Immigrants Bill) repeal: d, and we’li d > hoic as they're doing in Queensland, have nigger “ latour on the stations, and that alone." The story cairies its own moral. ' need not point it out.

New Sonlli W:■ 1 i~ (i idiug ißelf compel led to follow New Zealand proeiih ills. Thus the Balk fa saw-.: —The continually increasing lack in New South Wales of available land within easy reach of a market, and of such quality that it will afford a living, or even an existence, to the small holder, is driving the Government to follow the example set in Maoriland and take measures to “ burst up the big estates." According to Minister Carruthors, an attempt will probably be made next session to pass an Act whereby tho Government will be empowered to com-

pulsorily purchase large holdings, and resell them in small lots on easy terms. The large property-owner has become so widely recognised as a public evil that hardly anybody, save the National Ass., seriously defends it. * * * *

! And now let us have an imaginary trip down South and a look through the • southern papers. Oh, here we are, here’s 1 something particularly interesting (in the Southern iStandard , a Gore paper) which shows that the Conservative kettle can call the Conservative kettle black sometimes. “ A meeting to form a branch of the National Association was held at Edendale on Saturday. The meeting had to bo adjourned on a previous occasion because Air I. VV. Raymond could not attend. On Saturday evening Mr Raymond referred to tlio action of the Southern l’olitical League in inviting the Hon G. F. Richardson to contest the Mataura electorate, and adversely criticised the League’s action. Ho said that it was a very Conservative body, and its influence did not extend beyond the township of Mataura. He had attended one of the League's meetings by request —they called it tho regular monthly meeting, although only three persons were present —and lie suggested that tho League should merge into the National Association. But tlio League was now riding the high horse, and had even gone so far as to select and declare a candidate for the electorate of its own choice, lie denounced the League’s action as premature, and quite unnecessary, and all thoughtful men would agree with him that it was so. It would bo tho duty of the delegates to tho Central Council of the National Association to say whether they would approve of the action of the League."

“ Only three persons were present ” at the meeting of this precious Southern Political League, which has asked Mr G. F. Richardson to contest tlio Mataura seat. Poor little G. F. !

But isn’t it amusing to notice tho idea of this Air Raymond that this “ League should rnergo into tho National Association.” The “ Ass ” people always declare that they are not “ Conservatives,” hut here is ono of their leading men in the Mataura district wanting the Conservative League—“ the three men ” —to merge into tho Ass. If the Ass. isn’t Conservative how can it expect to gain the support of these three political “ tailors of Tooley street”—l beg pardon, of Mataura. # # * *

The Southern Standard, a very smartly written, well conducted paper, has a leading article in tlio issue which contains the above report and gives Mr G. F. Richardson a very neat heckling. Says tho Standard: —Air Richardson’s whole policy was antagonistic to small settlement. Petitions from small settlers who were prepared to comply with settlement conditions were treated with contempt, and tho House and the country were informed that those men could take up land under the free selection system, and compete with speculators. Had Air Richardson had his way, Land Boards would have been abolished, and the whole administration of the colony’s land policy would have been centralised in Wellington in the hands of a luxurious Alinistor and his ollicers. Hence Air Richardson’s nickname of “ Alinistor against Lands.” The Lands Department was conducted in a grossly careless manner, while ovory line of departmental correspondence reflected an utter want of sympathy with struggling settlers and with everything that appertained to tlio settlement of tho peoplo on tho land.”

Air Thomas AlcKenzie, “ Blethering Tarn O’Clutha," recently said, at ono of his meetings : —“Then Ah' Ward said that tho debt per head was being decreased. That was because we had 100,000 moro babies. This could ho illustrated this way : A man got married, and owned a farm of ‘2OO acres. In six or seven years his wife presented him with three children. Ho bad in the meantime increased his debt from £2OO to .Dioo, and one day was deploring his situation. His friend said, I AI y dear sir, before you married your debt was 1:200, hut now your wife and family have reduced that debt to .£SO per head.’ ‘ True,’ said the farmer ; ‘ but I have slill to find all the interest.' And so it is with the Colony."

But surely, says the Southern St rnda d, commenting on the above: —“ When those babies have become hoys and girls —well fed, well (dollied, and well trained —lb.:ir labour will return the interest to the fanner a thousandfold. In so far as it is infiiii'ely better lor a firmer to employ bis own hoys and gills (who have ft sentimental and prackcal ink-rest in the farm) in preference to outside lab ur, so it is bettor for a colony to supply its own necessaries, in preference to obtaining th-.-:.> from foreign c.-untiies. The mote sous of the c 4 my there are on the laud the more wealth will he erntt-d."

“ The more sons of the colony there are on the land the more wealth will ho created." True for you, Mr Editor of the Southern Standard, but the Conservative chiefs, tho Bussells and Orinonds, the Buchanans and all the squatter ring, don’t want to see tho land “ settled." Their idea of land settlement means huge properties with hundreds of thousands of sheep and never a house to bo seen,save the squatter’s homestead,

young settler, the farmer’s son, who had j found the difficulty of getting land, who (voted on the Seddon-McKenzie ticket at j the last election, and helped to disappoiut the Conservative land-grabbing, landmonopolising party. And the same men will vote the same way at the next election, or be guilty of the crassest folly in their own interests that anyone outsido Bedlam and Alount View could possibly imagine. * * * #

"What did ever a Conservative Government do for the small farmers, for the men with up-growing sons, and who wanted to get those sons settled on the land ’? Nothing ! The very fact that the Alinister of Lands in the last Conservative Alinistry was known as the “ Alinister against Lands” proves that tho small settlers’ interests, the interests of tho real backbone of the country, were never considered. Even to-day the Conservative largo landholders don't like tho dairy industry and sneer at it as being doomed to ruin. "Whatever the faults of omission and commission of the present Government, be it said to their eternal credit, and be it never forgotten so long as gratitude remains a virtue, that they have given more facilities for the acquirement of land by tlio small settlers and their sons than all the previous Governments wo have had put together ever did. Disprove that assertion if you can, Mr Buchanan.

I have to thank a Wairarapa correspondent for a letter which expresses warm appreciation of “ Political Powder and Shot" as a valuable aid to combating tho Conservative enemy. Aly correspondent also gives me some interesting details as to the way in which so-called “ public " political meetings aro engineered by the squatter party, and of the unfairness displayed by the chairmen of these meetings. The length of his letter and tlio present state of the laws of libel prevent my using some interesting material.