THRIFT IN IRELAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 4

THRIFT IN IRELAND

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.” Sir— The recent cable announcement that ’the percentage .of savings in lielaid is higher than m cither Scotland, England or New Zealand, is one that cdfs for more, than passing comment. The namo of Irishman has been fci turles synonymous lor eluftlessiiess and unthrift. Yet hero we fine suddenly, as it wero, tho Irishman coming on W-ev-en of the canny bcotsman. M hat i the reason? Can it possibly be supplied in the latter part of the cable. Which says that “the LugUsh -Oo'evnment having bought out the landlord® ie affording -unexampled opportunities foi the Irish tenant to own his onn i»i n > ■ Surely not! Why. the existence of the TVtrlifih landowner has always been con be elves! “Ho vr necessary it is, too, * i.M otrainG-t one another tor the w^ansfmftfari , fiiipd if there wasn t so much gambling * laud that no mail without a farge capital has a chance to. become dm owner of his farm? AVhy, it takes the -flraer in New Zealand, now all his time to pay the interest on bis mortgages, that represent not what s gone into the. laud to make it productive, but what otbei people have taken -out of the land values that the community has produced. He has no time to improve hie land, lie has too many landlords, otherwise mortgagees to work for! Oh its a lovely System ’ “Could you make it bettor? yJ, I could. A stiff land tax would make, it tetter. It would moke land cheaper, and more accessible to the man with small means. It would, it stiff enough, force millions of acres of unused or only partly used land into the maiket. "Why tlieiA would ho more laud than people could take up.” Quite right, and so there should be in a young colony like this. Instead of 204 applicants for fourteen sections, it should be the other wav round. What chance now has a 'young man with £SOO capital of tiykiug »n land? About one in 300 at a Government land ballot, or about 1000 to one of taking it up and dropping Ins JlaOO in ai* months on a ‘'cheap dairy farm with the usual meretricious addenda. Troper wa»*es for farm labourers, with fixed hours an! decent accommodation would make it better. Better for the farmer, because ho couldn’t then give tho present mad prices for land (which al 'e> upon sweated labour and unlimited hours], better for the labourer, tor nc would then be treated at least on a level with the beasts he cares for. Now he’s cheaper than slave, lor a slave costs money, the labourer costs nothing (at least to his employer). If ill a slave was nursed because it ’ paid his owner to get him fit quickly. .A labourer i* sent to the hospital and anodier engaged. Better for the community. Tiieies.nothing really for the community in this business of making a few rich and-keep-ing "the many poor. Better for the laud. At present it’s only half tilled or not at alb Fences are down, ditches filled up, the place running to waste, and yet the value and the rent rising every year What a system 1 And. above all. tacuei for us when “the day comes when we shall aneet the enemy at the. gate. «oe Unro us in that dav it, with the land problem, still unsolved, we cannot go. forward with our children around us because of the fields that are empty and the homes that aro not. —X am, era-* 1 **