THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL POLICIES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 333, 25 April 1885, Page 22

THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL POLICIES.

The address which. Mr Stout delivered at the Theatre Koyal on the 13th instant, althoiigh in its way clever, was rather a lay sermon than the political speech of a Prime Minister, leader of the House of Representatives, and head of a Government presumed to have a "policy," and a purpose to give practical effect to that policy by legislation in the approaching Session of the General Assembly. One thing at least was made clear on the occasion, and that was that the TwinPremiers — Mr Stout and Sir Julius Yogel — have not one fundamental political principle in common, and that the bond which unites them officially for the present, is one of expediency only. It is impossible for Mr Stout, holding the transcendental views which he has just . expressed, to be satisfied with the political Philistinism of his go-ahead colleague, and we know from Sir Julius' own frank avowal how contemptuously he regards the " ideals " which Mr Stout would set up as those for the attainment of which the people of New Zealand should strive. Practically, these "ideals" appear to be technical education and nationalization of the land. Listening to Mr Stout's flowing speech and well-turned periods, a stranger would imagine that he had stumbled upon a land of darkness ; that the Premier was the Avatar of a new era, and that he had put on his armour of light to do battle with the opponents of public instruction in New Zealand. Where, one may ask, ore the opponents of public instruction in New Zealand ? Who are the colonists who require to be lectured and schooled as to the advantages of education ? There is not in the whole world a community, its small number and necessarily restricted means being considered, that has in a single generation made such magnificent provision for the education of its members as the people of New Zealand have done. For a population whose numbers all told do not exceed that of a second-rate town in the Mother Country, more than a quarter of a million of money is being expended annually upon primary education, free, secular, and compulsory. We have Grammar Schools and High Schools largely endowed by the State for the promotion of secondary educati on, and we have aUniversity, which, it is true, is only an examining body, but which has affiliated colleges in every large centre of population throughout the Islands, where the highest education may be obtained at a minimum of cost ; and we venture, moreover, to assert that at this moment there are scholarships enough now obtainable to make it certain that no "bright, poor boy" in the land need miss the opportunity, if he choose to seize it, of obtaining " the best education the world can give him." It does really seem very like an- impertinence on Mr Stout's part to lecture men who have already done so much, upon their duty in regard to public instruction. We have provided all the necessary machinery for the manufacture of "great men;" we want only the raw material, and that is, and always will be, exceedingly scarce, here as elsewhere.

The other "ideal" up to which. Mr Stout -would educate us, is Ms view of the land question. Over-crowding of population in old countries makes the land a burning question. "When there are more people on a square mile than can obtain not subsistence, but even standing room, the rational solution of the difficulty would be far some of them to "move on" to fresh fields and pastures new. The doctrinaires, with Mr Henry George afc their head, say to these people, " No ; don't move. We will change the tenure ; we will take the land from the landlord who leases it toyou for revenue, and we will give it to the State, who also will lease it to youfor revenue, and thenallwill beright." Mr Stout's idea is not so advanced ; he would not confiscate private property. "I look upon land," he is reported to have said, " as an heir-loom, and no generation has a right to partition the land, or to say to the generation following, { We have decided for you how the earth's surface is to be? " He himself proposes, however, to say to the generations following, "/ choose to decide that point for you, and will now partition the land, or as much of it as I can get hold of, by lease on perpetual tenure." There is at least a want of consistency in this " ideal." . The only country in which a State in these days plays the part of landlord on

a grand scale is India. Ryotwary is the system of leasing public lands upon a perpetual tenure. The Ryot is a serf, " a bom Thrall " ; he has no political privileges, and no Ministers who seek to enlighten him in order to secure his votes. The Government of India is a pure despotism, and, therefore, the maintenance of Kyotwary is possible in that country ; the Ryot cannot help himself. But the free-born man has a sense of property — likes to think that that for which he has laboured or paid is his own. There is no kind of property of which he is fonder than land — a little bit of the earth's surface of which he can say, " this is mine." Let us suppose that to-morrow — or in the next Session of Parliament — by packing one chamber of the Legislature and corrupting the other, Ministers were able to cany Mr Stout's scheme of land nationalization, moderate as it is, how long, we ask, does any rational man believe that kind of partition of the earth's surface in this colony would be allowed to endure ? It would last until the lessees of the public lands were numerous enough, and politically strong enough in votes to change the tenure and convert the lease into freehold upon their own terms — and not an hour longer. This, of course, would be very naughty on the part of the lessees, who ought to know better ; but earth-hunger is a human weakness, and the schoolmaster will need to be abroad for a generation or two at least, before a cure of it can be reasonably expected

On the whole, of the "twin" policies that of Sir Julius Yogel is preferable as being practical. If he wants revemie he knows that he can get it by taxation, and he knows that he certainly would not get sufficient revenue from a system of national landlordism which, whilst it lasted, would necessitate the maintenance of an army of new officials, whose pay would be a serious charge upon the income, and who could not be got rid of in the end without great expense. The "practical" man of the Ministry will probably be permitted at present to have his waj' ; and, if that be so, he will generously allow the knights-errant, his associates, to tilt against the windmills of "progress and poverty" until they are tired, or satisfied.