THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1404, 20 August 1881, Page 2

THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

tST Thin column id published by Hubscript'on, and all person* dcnirii>K to aid 'n publishing paper* under above headinjf , are asked to forvard cash or literary afmisUiicc to CkoHOR. H. WiL-.OS Post orHce, uisbonic. Tlie land shall not bf. *old for ever : th* Livid in Mine.— Cod?, Jehovah ; Political nlministrator, Musks: str, hi* third book, c, xxv., v., 23. " It M the conduct of (he communit;/, not the inclination of individual*, that need* investigation." --T. E. C. Leslie, Barrister, London. Anyone who seta about teaching men that they are not au well governed aa they ought to be, shall never lack ready and attentive hearers. The truth of this we have already proved in a very satisfactory manner ; and this makes us wish for the power to give the wisdom to profit by the advice wo tender to readers from time to liimv On this occasion we have a ctsrtntu class in view whilst writing, and that ol;is< is tin> clergy, and proceed at oncu to auue Uie question by quoting fioiu Milman's " History of the Jews," and his words are so well and bo clearly defined, that their perusal will refresh the minds of readers : — " The average extent of the landed properties of the ancient Hebrews we assume at about twenty acres ; the whole land was subject to the common law of property. The great principle of this law was inalienability of estates. Houses in walled towns might be sold in perpetuity, if unredeemed within the year ; laud only for a limited period. At the jubilee, every estate reverted, without repurchase, to the original proprietor. Even during this period, it might be redeemed, should the proprietor become rich enough, at the value which the estate would produce during the yean unelapsecl before the jubilee. This remark. ible Agrarian law secured the political equality of the people, and anticipated all the mischiefs so fatal to the early republics of Greece and Italy, the rpproprintion of the whole territory of the State by a rich and powerful landed oligarchy, with the consequent convulsion of the community, from the deadly struggle between the patrician and plebian orders." We ask readers are not the above concluding sentences correctly descriptive and suggestively applicable to the British Empire at this moment ? " In the Hebrew state, the improvident individual might reduce himself and his family to penury or servitude, but he could not perpetuate a race of slaves or paupers. Erery fifty years, God, the King and Lord of the soil, as it were, resumed the whole territory, and granted it back in the same portions to the descendants of the original possessors. " We ask, how in the name of common sense, has it come to pass, that the clergy have been silent on this principle, during the last two thousand years ? " It is curious to observe in this earliest practical Utopia, the constant renovation of the State according to the tirst principle of it* constitution. The outline of this plan may have been Egyptian. The King? of that country, during the administration of Joseph, became proprietor of the wholo land, and leased it out on a reserved rent of one-fifth, exactly the two-tenths or tithes paid by the Israelites. Thus the body of the people were an independant yeomanry, residing on their hereditary farms, the boundaries of which remained the same for ever ; the removal of a neighbour's landmark was among the crimes against which the law uttered its severest malediction ; and invasion of family property, that of Naboth'a vineyard, is selected as the worst crime of a most tyrannical King i and in the decline of the State, the prophets denounce, with their sternest energy, this violation of the very basis of the common wealth. In this luxuriant soil, each man had the only capital necessary to cultivate his property to the highest degree of productiveness, the industry of himself and his sons. Hence large properties would by no means have increased the general wealth, while they might have endangered the independence of the people. Each estate was held on the tenure of military service ; all Israel was one " standing army." We very earnestly beg readers to give a careful attention to the above extracts, and ask, have the ciril Jaws of the Hebrews been repealed 7 and, by whom 7 The Church of England, in the seventh article of her code subscribed to by her clergymen, lays down the rule — " Nor the Civil precepts ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth " : — See, the Thirty-nine Articles. This is a very serious omission, more particularly whon we have seen how these Civil precepts worked — »t least in reference to landed property— amongst the Israelites of old. Our Spiritual teachers have calmly set the teaching of the Bible Rside, and have as calmly taken up the rules, usages, and customs which the Romansmen of conquest, and masters of slaves, have bequeathed to us ; rules, usages, and customs which we hesitate not one 1 moment to designate as inhuman. This is a very serious but most clearly .proven charge ; proved by the historical analogies of the position taken and persevered in by the great Churches of Christendom. To the union of Church and State rmy be traced somewhat of this heresy ; for little short of heresy suoh conduct really is ; and a most condemnatory species of heresy it mirely is. Will Gladstone cut the knot that ties the Church to the State 1 and if he does, will the cutting of it mend matters in this direction ? The people are wandering hither and thither in pursuit of a better basis than their present one, whereon to take a decided stand. Socialism, Nihilism, Communism, anything that promises a steady foothold, is eagerly caught at, taken up, examined, held for a time, thrown aside, as worse than disappointing, and still the "mighty army of the clerics " make no sign. Dumbness has seized upon them ; they — scripturnl dogs— cannot bark. To return ; the land-laws of the. Israelites were calculated to preserve the people in a state of complete independence ; and we find that in the best periods of their political history they waro accounted as possessing weight and influence amongst their neighbours. Whereat, on the other hand, too land-

laws of the old Roman — exactly, as our own are now doing — only served to break up the independence — such as it was -of the people; and surely made the descent to extinction a rapid one, of what was once the great Empire ; an Empire to which our own bears most striking political and social resemblances. Still our spiritual teachers make no sisfn ; although, as Beaconsfield has said : "Everywhere Socialism is making rapid progress : as yet, it is only a slight breeze which hardly stirs tho foliage, but soon it will be the unchained hurricano, overturning everything in its path." And still clergymen make no sign. '• Ah ! But the rich landed proprietor," a cleric might make answer, "would be sure to take offence, if I dared to infringe upon his ideas of pro perty in land." Exactly so ; the fear of the rich shuts your mouth. But what is your position I C«n you for a moment compare your influence with that of the newspspaper ? We hope that these hints may not be lo«t upon those to whom they are especially addressed.