CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 10987, 3 August 1897, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

(We aye not responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. The writer's name, as a guarantee of good faith, must be enclosed in the letter.] ABOUT " MOLESKIN'S "BAOK- | CHAT. TO THB EDITOn. i Sir,— By way of proving his truly liberal principles, " Moleskin " wants the | proposed workingmen's. club ,to be a strictly political club and only one-side in politics to ba tolerated therein. There 'is Liberalism for yon. If such people as " Moleskin" wish fora ono-sidedpofitioal club, by all means lot them have one, but let them call it by a suitable name, say , " The Seddonian," While advocating a one sided political cjub for the workingmen, "Moleikin " at the same time abuse* the promoters of tie Ittely established Farmer s Club on the ground that sonieono he met in the street, told him that it also in a political club. How sweetly consistent ! " Moloikin " also abuses r person who writes to the News as "Oivib" but does not attempt jto roply to aay of the many hard knooks " Givia " h»8 from time to time given the present sham Liberal Government, and he calls someone a a National Ass." It -would, of course, be equally easy for me to call him a Liberal An*., but I wont, because calling names \a no argument and is generally resorted to by those who have a weak case. " Mole«kin'' says, -'the substitution of the Lind and Income Tax for the Property Tax has lightened the burden on the| shoulders of the struggling farmers." I challenge him to Bhow. through your columns, that it is bo. It ia very easy to say that it is so, as Aliuißtejy are continually doing when on

the Btmnp, but lot us have some proof. Quota a few examples please, Mr Moleskin, of struggling farmers who have derived a benefit by the change ; Minis ters have nerer done so. I have gone into the thing pretty deeply, and I can only fiud some comparatively rUh raeu, who needed no relief, who have bsnefitted by this change of taxation, and very largely benefitted too, some ef theoi ; whilst the struggling poor men pay nothing now under the Land and Income Tax a»d paid nothing previously under the Property Tar Act, so that they have really not benefitted to the extent of one penny by the change. " Moleskin " says the present Government has " facilitated settlement." Well, oven if so, it deserves no special credit for thai, as that is one of the principal duties of any Government in a new country, and so far as this district is concerned, the present Government has had a great advantage over all preceding Governments, owing to the total disappearance of Native troubles a 1 short time before they look office, and for this tley have to thank their predecessors, Bryce and AtkinsoD, who finished off the Native trouble by their wise policy with regard to the Native lands upon this coast, and tkeir treatment of To Whiti, &c. The only important changes in the land policy made by the present Govern ment are the substitution 'of the 999 years " lease in perpetuity " for the deferred payment system, the doubling of the price of land to the settler, and tbe initiation of a village settlement or special settlement scheme. As 10 the latter, one has only to read the minutes of the local Land Board to see that it has j proved a melancholy and expensive ! failure. There never before were nearly I so many surrenders and forfeitures as j under this now system, and most ot the unfortunate people so giving up or forfeiting their holdings for non-compliance with impossible conditions, are poor hard-working men, who have been gulled into tasing up land en such terms and in such a position that it was impossible for them to remain upon it and live ; so they ! have had to clear out after spending what little they hnd and working for nothiag, and suffering great hardships for a year or so. As to the other change, viz., abolishing the excellent system of deferred payment which was, to my mind, the most liberal system of land tenure ever in force in New Zealand and under I which large tracts of country in Taranaki were most successfully settled by good j settlers, ohiefly very poor men, who are now well-to-do farmers, and the snbstution of the lease in perpetuity uuder which no freehold can be acquired, but the settlor has to pay rent equal to 4 per cent upon the value pub upon the land. Let us take an example and see how the change works : If a poor man took up a 100 acres under the deferred payment system at the price charged before the so-called Liberal Government took the rains, he would have to pay 253 an acre, £125 say for it by 14 equal yoarlyjpayraents of £8 18s 7d each, and then. at the cud of the 14 years the land became his freehold. The same class of land would be priced by the present Government at not less than £2 per acre, say £200, and if taken up by the poor Iraq on Lbase iti Perpetuity, he first of all haa to pay £1 Is, for a lease then he pays £8 a year rant forever, or say for 999 years ; in that time the poor in a a and his successors will have paid £7,992 by way of rent and the land wilt bo no more his than on the first day he saw it. Will any " new Liberal," even " Moleskin, ' venture to say that it i« better for the. poor settler to pay xS 18* 7d for 14 years only? Or to put it in auother way : la it more liberal to make s man and his successors pay £7992 for 100 a<res and get na freehold after ail than to nak him only to pay £125 and give' him & freehold for it? Now as to cheap money, for which 11 Moleskin," like his leaders, claims credit to the present Government : Whsn I first borrowed money upon mortgage in New Zealand Borne 30 years ago, I had to pay 12f par cent, for it, and before the Advances to Settlors Bill cams before Parliament, or had been heaid of, I could , borrow on good security at 6 per cent., thus money, owing to a continuous steady fall in rates of intereit, dropped about 6£ per cent, b'fore the present Government interfered, and during the last threo or four years, it has, as usual, gona on dropping until it haa reached 5 per cent. j Therefore if the fall in rates of interest ; is due to the action or legislation of the Ministry which happens to be in office in Now Zualund, we must, in all fairness, give previous Governments credit for a roduction ire«n 12$ to 6, viz., 6J percent., and the presout Government lov only reduciug it by 1 per cent. O£ course it is nonsense t» credit any Government of | a colony like this with this fall iv the ; value of money, a* we know that it is not I peculiar to Nevr Zealaud, but is the same | throughout the world, and the few paltry [ thonsands lent out by our Government by dint of tho groat canvassing aud touring I efforts of the Advances to Settlors Officr, | has not really had the smallest effect upon the currant rate of interest, but, if it suits the so called Liberals to attribute changes m rates of interest to the policy of Government, let them, at any rate, give crodit to previous Governments, as well as to 'their own particular idols, for what happened iv their time. — I am, &0., Cohdukoy.