SOUTH M ARLBOR OUGH
Lower Conway, April 27. — Last evening I had a long chat with a Lower Conway settler, and our talk went round to the evidence given before the Land Commission at Waiau. He contended that Mr James Boyd, chairman of the Kaikoura County Council, was justified in. his remarks to the effett that roads to allotments were hastily slummed over, and then handed over by the Government to the care of local bodies. Oh, the uncanny turns on the Hundalee road, whereas had the corners been, cut off the road would have been wider, straighter, and more comfortable in every way. In addition to this, the road was never properly graded. The narrowest, most dangerous place in the whole length of road, for instance, is some 4ft above the proper level. If that 4ft of rock ■were cut away it would make the road 2ft wider and much safer there. My companion is a strong supporter of the freehold tenure, of course with restrictions aa to number of acres to be held. He quoted a remark of Mr Recce's last election time: " Grant a man a freehold right over a wilderness, and he will make it a garden; lease a gaiden to a man, and he will leave it a wilderness." I don't care for all the evidence from Three Kings to Orepuki or farther, myself :1 know that a man never feels the same >n leasehold as he does on freehold. He car. never put his soul into his toil. Fancy a. poor •wretch tackling the fern, fls>x, tuhi, etc.; ditching, grubbing, mowing, ploughing, fot months, years, maybe, to improve his property, and then to have to pay extra for his own toil. Absurd! — unjust! Is a man whose soul is knit to the soil he has learned to love aa he toiled upon it going to speculate with the lesults of his industry? Nay, give the man a. deeper interest in his home, and he will stick to it and pass it on to his sons. I trust that we inherit some poetical instincts — that home is more than an empty name. " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes or lords may flourish or may fade; A breath can make the.a ."-- i breath ha?
made : But o bold peasanty, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be suppliedA time there was, ere England's griefs began. When every rood of ground maintained its
man : His best companions — innocence and health; And his best riches — innocence of wealth."
Or turn from the sedate Goldsmith to the Spensarian beauty of "The Cottar's Saturday Night," and glow with the Ploughman as he sings of the peasantry who will rise in the
evil day, " And stand, a wall of fire, around their much-loved isle." Yes. we want the freehold. Why, some places in the district barely pay the annual rental, and their holders are obliged to go ou< and work for the necessaries of life. We don't •wish our settlers bound over to a life o£ slavery. We could -wish to see thenr with, leisure to cultivate a few of the amenities of life.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2669, 10 May 1905, Page 35
Word Count
534SOUTH MARLBOROUGH Otago Witness, Issue 2669, 10 May 1905, Page 35
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