CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1928, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

WES! OF ENGLAND SOCIETY. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Seeing that New Plymouth wna a \\ est of England settlement, wo thought you may bo kind enough to publish this letter. We are only 12 months old, but have over 150 active members. Our subscription is only 2s G<l in Christchurch. Therefore we are not a rich one. We have many prominent citizens, includin'; Dr. Whetter, Messrs. Bevan Brown, O’chard, Aeland, H. D. Aeland, G. 11. Andrews, and E. D. Howard, M.P., and many others. Our membership in Christchurch includes natives and descendants and associates of Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Gloucester. We rind that the West of England Society is filling a great gap between exiles in New Zealand an:] the West of England. We would like some West Country pe’son to convene a meeting in your town so that the West of Eng l and folk may be. able to enjoy the association of such a society. Ji' any more information is required, I would, on behalf of my committee, Le only too pleased to convey same. —I am, etc., W. T. CONIBEAR (Exeter), t ;orrespondi:ig Secretary. 47 Averill Str., Christchurch. "THE SURVIVAL OF IHE FITTEST.’ (To the Editor.) Sir,—ln your paper of April 3ap pears an article by W. S. Hickey under the above title. Mr. Hiekey states that in Australia, out of 6,000,000 people only 3,000,000 occupy tho land. He says at least two of the other three million are city parasites or drones living on the first three. If he means Australia he would, of course, apply the same to New Zealand. Mr. Hickey’s sense of justice is not very keenly developed. As a matter of fact we are actually living on one another, and cannot exist otherwise. The farmers are not organised. Business men would realise that the price cutter who sells below the cost of production is a commercial mrniac—he kills his enemies, slaughters his friends, annihilates himself and scuttles the ship in which he himself is afloat.

Mr. Hickey’s reference to the Hon. Hawkon is a personal attack. Electors do not distribute bequests for personalities. Mr. Hiekey states Mr. Hawken also said it is foolish to talk of putting unemployed on the land. Electors would support Mr. Hawken’s statement. If experienced fanners find it difficult to hold farms, how would penniless and inexperienced men succeed. Mr. Hickey states a larger and prosperous land population from which a million soldiers could be drawn is desirable. “I hae ma doots.” In the days of our good old great grandmothers, the mission of our fair sex was looked upon as motherhood. But we are now living in an age of birth control, the tide of which it would he useless to endeavour to stern. Modern people look upon childlessness as a short cut to better times and the eliminating of endless drudgery. I am sure it would be she greatest pleasure of my life to listen to Mr. Hickey having sufficient moral suasion to bear on our modern fair sex to persuade them to provide him with largo quantities of gun and gas fodder. Mr. Hawken may give quite an attractive aceaunt of himself before the next election. He may prove to be a Limerick. Mr. Hickey states luxury creates disruption, and the battle of the survival of the fittest go to the strongest. The point is this: The man brought into the world with the greater intellectual powers sells at above the productive value to the man of weaker bargaining power, because he has been brought into the world not possessed of a similar amount of intellectual power. These natural conditions cannot be eliminated by an Act of Parliament, and so the survival of the fittest will flow on, like Tennyson’s book, for all time. Mr. Hickey states that the Govern nient are weak-kneed opportunists, with an eye on the ballot box. As a matter of fact the Government provided tho long dated Mortgage Act, which will eliminate the renewing of three and five year mortgagee in duo course, and will mean a great saving of money and worry to farmers. The Government has also granted a pork bonus of £90,000 with a view of saving the industry. I would suggest that the greatest effort to solve the land question in New Zealand was made by John McKenzie nearly forty years ago, when Minister for Lands. The son of a tenant farmer, born and educated in a part of Scotland from which he saw cotters and small farmers cleared out of their homes to provide deer forests and grouse moors for wealthy strangers, he brought to Nevz Zealand a hatred of the selfishness of tho large landowner which be never forgot. Therefore when his opportunity arrived he led the House of Representatives with determination and great tenacity of purpose to pass laws to prevent the further accumulation of such estates in New Zealand. He introduced the lease in perpetuity tenure and this gave to the farmer a land almost equal to a freehold, with a moderate rent. Mr. McKenzie introduced and carried through the Land for Settlement Act, which allowed the Government to buy back large estates and divide and lease them forever to a new independent tenantry, but immediately the settlers improved their position they bit the hand that fed them, and with other assistance set up a freehold agitation and finally the Government was defeated on the leasehold policy. The more people a Government puts on the land on tho usehold policy, the sooner those people would place that Government on the political scrapheap, because the speculative spirit of tho Colonial does not favour leasehold.

The portfolio of land, has been held in New Zealand by some of tho most courageous and brightest brained men that have graced the House of Representatives in the Southern Hemisphere, and their legislation has been copied by other parts of the world. The Hon. A. D. McLeod having commenced life as a worker himself has come up through the hard school of experience. He has a thorough knowledge of the requirements of the struggling farmer and run-holder, and has a genuine sympathy for the farmers and has the ourage to say yes or no irrespective of the consequence.— I am, etc., W. F. McCULLOUGH. Warwi.-k Road, Stratford, April 24.