The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER, 21ST, 1891.

Southland Times, Issue 11899, 21 November 1891, Page 2

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER, 21ST, 1891.

We published on Tuesday that portion of the very able speech delivered by Mi Donald Reid at the Balclutha banquei in which he referred particularly to the effects of the Ministerial policy in regard to the agricultural and pastoral interests of the colony. There is no man more qualified to speak with authority on this subject than Mr Reid — no one who more deservedly possesses the confidence of his fellow settlers as an upright politician, who throughout a lengthened public career, in tbe course of which he has held high position, has never sacrificed principle to party but has unswervingly advocated true Liberal measures, especially in regard to the settlemeat of the land. Hiß name is a household word in every homestead in Otago where, in the Provincial Council, h< fought with conspicuous success the good fight against land monopoly, under conditions most unfavourable, and laid the foundation of a system which, notwithstanding some defects which could hardly be avoided in the rapidly changing circumstances of a new country, ha~ proved practically successful, notwithstanding the difficulties encountered owing to the cessation of rural immigration and the prevailing tendency of the Legislature to encourage adventitious industries at the expense of the real producing classes. It was Mr Donald Keid, as Minister for Lands in the Atkinson Cabinet, who, in 1877 introduced and carried through Parliament the first colonial Land Bill, che main principles of which, adopted from the Otago Ordinance, have been maintained up to the present time in subsequent legislation. The principal feature of his land policy thus presented to tbe colony was the facility afforded to bona fide settlement through the deferred payment system, which has done so much for the colonisation of the country, and made so many happy homes. He was far too practical to entertain fads as to land nationalisation — too sensible to imagine that under any possible scheme of disposal, men utterly without experience in rural pursuits, or knowledge of agriculture, and, moreover, destitute of means to effect absolutely necessary improvements and stock their holdings, could possibly be converted into farmers or yeomen. This idea of the new Liberal school, which we believe originated in the fertile brain of Sir Robert Stout, who in the .opinion of himselfand his worshippers is omniscient, is so preposterously absurd that it could only have originated in utter ignorance of the subject. Notably, however, this is a prominent point in the land policy of the present Ministry, who would seem to conceive that " placing people on the land " is a panacea for all social evils, and that those who have gone under in the contest of life and proved failures in their own particular calling, can at once be turned into agriculturists and enjoy every comfort with a very small modicum of work. It is not realised by these empirical politicians and social reformers that the man who lives by the soi literally earns bis bread by " the swea of his brow •," that no employment is

90 toilsome, or so unceasing, as "cultivating the earth and subduing it." The occasion, it may be recollected was that of doing special honour to Mr T. Mackenzie, the representative of the Clutha, and there was a gathering of the leading members of the Opposition, which gave Mr Donald Reid the opportunity of impressing upon the electors generally, through the considerable number who were present, the doty of testifying their approval and appreciation of " The noble and manly action of those honourable gentlemen, who, at much personal discomfort, and under very disadvantageous circumstances, being in a considerable minority, nevertheless made a determined stand in preventing, so far as lay in their power, the ill-advised, injurious, and mischievous measui es which our self-styled Liberal Government endeavoured to pass into law, and which, to some extent, they have succeeded in inflicting upon this unfortunate country. It is refreshing and encouraging, besides being a cause of much satisfaction and a cause for hope, to find in the general decay so many good men and true, so many able, honourable, trustworthy and patriotic representatives of the people — who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and who can be depended on to contend against injustice and against conduct and actions that are calculated to bring discredit on our Parliament, and through our Parliament, on the good name of the colony." This is very plain speaking and entirely to the point ; coining from Mr Reid who expresses himself not as a politician or a partisan but as a colonist, thoroughly identified with the material interests of the people, it must needs have weight. Mr Reid is equally explicit in his remarks upon the change in the incidence of taxation, which, he deolares, was brought forward and passed for the express purposeof throwing greater burdens upon lands, and with the object eventually of making the landed interest pay the bulk of the whole taxation of the colony. What he said specially upon this point appeared in our extracts from his speech published on Tuesday and we commend his remarks very specially to the farmers and pastoralists. As to the result of the fiscal policy of the Govern ment we never had a doubt that it would be positively disastrous in inducing the withdrawal of capital, and preventing investment in and upon land. This it may be noted is absolutely confirmed by a recent cablegram in which it is affirme that the principal financial houses io London deny the statement made by Mr Ballance in Dunedin to the effect that the financial policy of the Government is not expelling capital from the country. They declare on the contrary that the policy ia a " suicidal one," and that many instances are already known of the withdrawal, or contemplated withdrawal, of large amounts of money invested in New Zealand. It is further asserted that the land companies in London, carrying on business in the colony, intend to take combined action in protesting forcibly against the taxation proposals. This is not by any means turprising ; but ministers really are helpless. They are being dragged at the chariot wheels of the socialistic democrats who placed and maintain them in office, and, if they have minds of their own, do not dare to exercise them.