EDUCATIONAL RESERVES

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13395, 19 September 1907, Page 7

EDUCATIONAL RESERVES

.(To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald.'") Sir, —I cannot, refrain from expressing great satisfaction on' reading the paragraph in vour Wedntsdry's issue announcing the Canterbury College Board's resolve to" cut up some of their reserves for the purpose- of closer -.settlement at the suggestion of Sir William Steward. It is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and will have to be done -sooner or later, and the sooner the better for all educational trusts. If there were many Boards in.the colony, like the Timaru High Schcol Board, with their dog-in-the-man-ger policy, I am confident the time would not be far distant when the administration of reserves would be taken out of their hands- by the Land Department- and the surplus revenue handed over to the Boards. There is no reason why the reserves suitable for close settlement shotiid not be cut up into smaller blocks. It cannot bs urged that the revenues would suffer; on the contrary I believe it would be necessary to fix the rents go as to prevent it. being too high owing to the keen competition for small blocks. It cannot bs urged the reserves would be unduly cropped or worse farmed as the. term '"small settler" is synonymous with good management- and good cultivation so as to enable the land to yield its utmost. Such a system has the advantage of enabling a man to thoroughly understand his business in ' making the best of his holding, and also to use it as the stepping-stone to more land and greater opportunities. In advocating smaller holdings of firstclass land I disclaim the slightest intention of doing anyone ; an injustice or; injury. I conclude like all sensible rational human beings that all land let for a fixed term without any implied conditions of right to re-lease for a further term is at perfect liberty to be put . up in any sized blocks that may seem judicious or necessary by the body controlling the trust —of course payment of all compensation to the out-going tenant. Pre-emp-tive right there is none. It , would be stupendous folly to absolutely ignore the demands of a very large number of capable men de.sirous of taking up land with a view of considerably, bettering their condition. Some of us remember the closing years of the Atkinson Government, with all its old-fashioned Conservative tendencies, amongs't -which were an utter inability to grasp and realise the keen and growing demand for land by -what had up till then been the body of working men in New Zealand who, having by toil and steadiness felt their feet, were naturallydesirous of bettering their position. We know the sequel. It came with the Balance-Seddon Governments, of which the lata Sir John McKenzie was the safety valve with his far-reaching and comprehensive scheme of land settelment I by which thousands of families in New Zealand attained not land alone but the means whereby' they have amassed a competence, and many 1 a fortune. Landowners who owned large estates of the best land which had been obtained in many instances by questionable and oftimes grossly unfair methods to the detriment of a more desirable and legitimate class of settlers and settlement, were made to feel the inevitable reaction by tho impo- ! sition of graduated (axes, and the compulsory re-purchase of their estates. It was but retribution for a long continued and deliberate disregard of a powerful body of would-be settlers, whose aims were to get land and attain prosperity, aud at the same time turn this fair land' from a sheep walk into, a land dotted with smiling homesteads, prosperous towns, and a- thriving, progressive, prosperous, and contented people. It has been done. In these days the demand for land for settlement is quitei as k-een as in past years, with this difference, that a man can derive as much revenue from 50 acres to-day as from 250 acres 25 years ago, when there was no outlet- for any surplussheep, eti;. To seem the tide of settlement- is inadvisable and foolish, and cannot long prevail, so surely the example set by the chairman of Canterbury College deserves commendation, and is a well-merited reproof to our own local governing body, -with" its antiquated ideas. In thr.se days of strenuous competition there should be only one material doctrine viz., the gospel of "equal opportunity," whereby every man can make or mend his fortune by that oftimes tedious process known a,3 "the nobility of toil."—l am, etc., G. J. W.