Our Wellington Letter.

Opunake Times, Volume VI, Issue 287, 8 June 1897, Page 2

Our Wellington Letter.

Wellington, June 8. THE RAT COMMISSION. Fisher, Steward and Co. are taking a rest, and probably deliberating as to their next move. So far they have only succeeded in proving that there was no warrant for their appointments. They exonerated all theU.S.Si Co. employees in Dunedin who had anything to say against the Private Benefit Society, and the sum of it all was that the malcontents bad very hazy notions about registration conferring benefits. They could not, or rather did not, give any reasons for their belief, but the mere fact of there being malcontents at all was as balm of Gilead to the Royal Commissioners. Then the Secretary of the Foresters’ Lodge was presented to give evidence, Mr Fisher candidly remarking that it would give people an opportunity of criticising if they refused to hear the only witness preferred in defence of the U.S.S. Co. The secretary not only saw no grievance in the Private Benefit Society then on its trial, but acknowledged that it had been the cause of inducing men to join the Foresters. After that the Commissioners proceeded to poke their noses into the affairs of the McLeod Co.’s Soap Works and the Phoenix Biscuit Company, and in both instances the witnesses deposed that the men themselves controlled the management, and all the companies were guilty of was providing the subsidies. In neither case was there any compulsion on employees to join, and the whole business was entirely for the mutual benefit of the men and boys, who received for threepence per week equal benefits to those in the regular 'societies for one shilling per week, owing to the generosity of the employers. The Royal Commissioners, therefore, have found nothing to report on as yet, but they have till October Ist to find something. They stated during the proceedings that they had over 20 societies to enquire into. As they are resourceful men it is possible they may strike a patch when they reach Wellington. The Trades Council can be trusted to find some mare’s neat for them ; the only drawback to a sitting here being that Messrs Fisher and Tregear, being domiciled in the Empire City, will be debarred by statute from drawing any travelling allowances. CROWN TENANTS. The Land Board is face to face with the problem of what to do with tenants who are in default with their rents. The law says they must pay or be evicted, and Mr Hogg, the member for Mastertou, who is the champion of the small bush settler, is indignant. To turn these men off their little clearings would be unpopular. To let them stay and pay no rent would deprive the colony of a part of its land revenue, already too limited to meet the outlay for interest on money borrowed to convert City un? employed without means or experience into prosperous settlers. The Minister of Bushy Park is the landland of these unfortunates, and when one comes to look hack and consider the inducements held out to these people to leave the towns and take up land, it seems that the chief sinner is not the defaulting settler, but the Minister who put him there and then failed to keep his part of the bargain. The majority of these bush settlers were induced to take Up land on the promise that road work would be provided for them. That promise has not been kept. Under the old conditions men of means took up large areas and employed labor, and it often happened that among the bushmen were individuals with an aptitude for that sort of life. who secured smaller blocks for themselves, and by the aid of occasional work from their wealthier neighbors they were able to clear their own land and finally become independent. But Mr McKenzie altered all that, and dotted the North Island forests with settlements of people most destitute of means, and whose only chance of existence was Government road work to pay their rent with. Everything was done that could be done before the elections were over, and then work stopped. These men have, morally and legally, a good case against government for breach of agreement, but Government is perfectly safe, because its victims are not in a position to fight. The plan of settlement looked very attractive when Mr John McKenzie, as the friend of the people, promised farms and employment. Now, after the experiment has run its course, and the unfortunates find that the toil and misery of bush life and want of roads have resulted in failure, the consolation they get from the author of their trouble is that he has arrived at the conclusion that it is necessary for any settler to have a little capital and a good deal of experience to make a successful farmer. In another remote place something of the same sort has happened. Norfolk Island is an out-of-the-way dependency of New South Wales. Till within a few years ago it was governed as a Crown Colony by a Magistrate. There is no money there, and the people gave 21 days’ work each per year in place of paying taxes. They cried aloud for liberty and got it. The New South Wales Government, instead of the Governor, took them in hand, and gave them a Customs tariff and officers to collect it, and other benefits which come with officials. Formerly they got their tobacco and whisky for next to nothing. Everything •else they required they either grew on the island or did without. Now the State w T aats cash and the 21 days’ work per annum as well, and as there is no trade there they are in a bad way, and they have not even a member to represent them to see justice done. They asked for the bread of liberty, and they got the stove of taxation. They are to be pitied, and so are our bush settlers, who became

farmers in name, while expecting to be co-operative road contractors in reality. Now they hav;- tv» means of earning money, and the Sta’e says “ I must have ray rent.” The situation is an impossible ooe, aid the Minister for Bushy Park nnd his special advisors in the Land Office are offering a reward for the be st essay on “What to do with Perpetual Lessees*” ’ THE RABBIT QUESTION. , Politics and the Ward Association affairs have had to give way in Southland to the more important matter of rabbits. There is division among the people and the poisoners on the one side and the trappers on the other, are monopolising the columns of the papers. A payable industry employing from 1500 to 2000 wage-earners has suddenly sprung up. No less than £IBO,OOO has been disbursed in five months among people who otherwise would have been hard put to it to find work and make a living. A million and a half of rabbits have been frozen and exported, and what was a costly pest has been converted into a substantial addition to the national wealth. But, on the other side of the question, is the fact that there are a large number of Rabbit-Inspec-tors and agents drawing salaries who are expected to report on the means adopted by the settlers to destroy the rabbits. Their view of the case is that if a rabbit is frozen or tinned that the Act is not complied with, and if the present system continued their billets might be in peril. They, therefore, counsel poisoning. It is very clear that as soon as poisoning starts rabbit-freezing will have to cease, and the thriving trappers will be stranded. The Acting-Premier has declared that the inspectors must do their duty, and those who do not comply with the Act must be prosecuted. Some very angry correspondence has passed, and Mr Ritchie, of the Stock Department, has gone to Southland. So far as the law itself is concerned there is nothing in it to compel a land holder to keep down rabbits to the satisfaction of jj}ie Inspector he is held to be obeying the law. But the Inspector’s opinion is what rules. Even a magistrate who sits on a case against a land owner has no power. When the Inspector says he is not satisfied the Magistrate has no option but to inflict a fine. It does not sound English, but there it is. Probably if Mataura had returned a Liberal member there would have been no trouble, but when the constiueucies go into rebellion it is only proper they should have been punished in some way. So that it is more than possible that the rabbit trappers will find their occupation gone after July Ist. L.L.D. The unexpected sometimes comes to pass, and about the last thing any one expected to hear concerning our Premier is that the Ancient University of Cambridge would confer a degree upon him. Cambridge with its solemn dons and cultured proctors, with the traditions of centuries of classical scholars and Tory proclivities, conferring the degree of Doctor of Laws on Eleven Colonial Premiers is just as much of a shock to those who studied and crammed for years for a mere degree, as the recent earthquake was to the Australians. It will be a gorgeous spectacle to those permitted to view the ceremony of conferring the honors. The recipients have to undergo the chaff of the under graduates who are permitted full license on such occasions, and “capping verses ” are the order of the day, and this part of the business is not in the vernacular, but in the choicest of Ciceronian Latin. Moreover, the L. L.D’s are attired in scarlet gowns with pink silk hoods and facings, and the head gear is what is regularly known as a mortar board. No dought the illustrated papers will do full justice to it if it comes off, but the cablegram has a suspicion of the canard about it. However, if our Premier does come back as Dr Seddon, we will all feeel an inch or two taller, and he has a right to some distinction in that line, for he has doctored more laws during the past six years than any other man in the universe. And as Mr McKenzie has always displayed a bitter animosity against university men, he will for the future have to cut his favorite remarks about higher education out of his speeches, and we may now rely on Dr Seddon’s support of the university for Wellington which he has so strenuously opposed in the past.