The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Wednesday, October 15, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 922, 15 October 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Wednesday, October 15, 1879.

• Every mail which reaches us from England brings intelligence of the terrible distress of the agricultural classes both as respects the employers and the employed. A debate has taken place m the House of Commons on a motion for a Royal Commission to inquire into the causes of so wide an extent of agricultural distress, and this enquiry was remarkable m many respects. It proved the lofty, earnest eloquence and truly patriotic devotion of the leaders of this the greatest and noblest representative body m the world. But more important than this, the enquiry marked an immense stride towards the abolition of the law of prinogeniture that great curse to England — the curse which leads to rich men becoming richer every day, and the poor poorer. Lord Hartington's strictures on the land 'laws have created not only uneasiness but great consternation among the whole of the landed aristocracy. His remarks were applauded to the ceilings by the Liberal and Whig parties and his denunciations far exceeded the criticism of Mr. Bright and others of his talented following. Lord Hartington is heir of one of the largest landlords m the United Kingdon. He admitted " that the English land system had completely broken down, and must be radically reformed.." He declares that what

the present land system teaches is not that foreign corn must be taxed to preserve English agriculture, but that the land must be enfranchised. That their must be inoi'e owners and fewer serfs. That men must not be allowed to hold immense estates, bringing them m enormous incomes while millions are starving. It is not that the price of bread is to be enhanced, but that cultivation is to be cheapened by cheaper land, and that private parks, and hunting grounds, and large domains, must be swept away, that the poor may be enabled to become better fed, better paid, and better treated ; otherwise the kingdon will pass away as kingdoms of old have passed away, because the autocrats of great | countries had trampled on the multitude, and had ignored their cries. The following passage supplies the key note- to the whole of »a magnanimous and courageous speech. "It is a system under which the cultivation of the soil is carried on by a class of men who are not the owners of the soil, and not the actual cultivators of the soil ; and under which the actual cultivators of the soil are never, and can never hope to become, its owners. It is a system under which, the land is cultivated by men who have this claim npon it, — that m the case of old age or absolute destitution, they should be supported without expense and almost without labour on the land. Such, is the laud system of this country, and, as I have said, it is one which prevails m no other country m the world." Fairly formulated, this declaration implies a condemnation of primogeniture, of the law of entail, and of the present cumbrous and costly impediments to the sale and transfer of freehold estate.. Lord Hartington, m fact, would abolish all restrictions on the tenure and settlement of land, leaving estates to be accumulated and dispersed like other kinds of property, and would make the mode of transfer as simple and direct as under Torren's Act. This implies an advance m the land reform agitation at home which indicates that momentous changes, thought to be yet far distant, hover m the immediate future.