THE LAND BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8240, 19 September 1906, Page 5

THE LAND BILL.

BITTERLY ORItIOISKD BY A CORRESPONDENT.

THE STORY OP NABOTII'S ' VINEYARD.

A. correspondent to the Christohuroh Press writes as follows, in a recent issue, in regard to the lantf proposals of the Government:— "As an onlooker observing ths political development of the colony, I shouid like to etate as briefly as possible my conception of tho trend of land legislation. "Before doing su, I wish to mako it clear that 1 hold no brief tor either party, i do not own an a?re of freehold—God forbid that lever should own anything worth stealing in such company as I find myß»lf in, where every man's eyes aie upon his neighbour's property ayd unrestrained rapacity cloaks itself under the mask of 'Liberalism.' "Is it not true that a little mors than sixty years ago a handful of undaunted pioneers took up, each, a portion of this land, nud with maoh labour and infinite hardship turned a wilderness into u garden? Theae men had a bush-track whern we now have a railway or a motoromnibus—and a whaletoat where we have a steamer. Their labour, of which we now speak so lightly, is buried with them in most cases, and their sons conjure it up as an oft-told story. They had no 'Stateaid,' nor 'old-age pensions,' nor 'eight-hour legislation,' nor 'compulsory half-holidays';* no costly legislative machinery to tenderly guard them against over-fatigue. "To-day 1 see a generation of 'decadent boobies' oryiug out, each for/ his portion of land—not land as* theße oourageous pioneers took itfresh from Nature's lap; but the very land which these men spent their lives upon and made workable. "Surely one does not need ta point out that theru are thousands of broad-acres lying in a natural state awaiting the axe and the plough—but, alas! the axemau and the ploughman have vanished from our colony, and we who wore wont to be proud of our colonial traditions have by some cursed Circe been transformed into a race of agitators, believing forsootjb that unscrupulous legislation can" do for us what our forbears knew that only hard work can do. Each, like the oaokoo, is looking for a nest of another's building. 1 wonder if any of theae ever read the story of Naboth's vineyard? Perhaps 1 may be pardoned for quoting it in the face of our hyper-intelligent, 'socialreforming,' modern colonial. 'And Ahab spake unto Naboth, seying— Give me toy vineyard that 1 may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto ray house, and [ will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. "And Naboth. said to Ahab 'The Lord forbid it me, that 1 should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee" —l. Kings, XXI., 2 and 3. "If, having read so far, no ball rings to compel the reader to stop work for the day, he might get to the end of the chapter without ! unduly tiring himself and learn something of the fate of Jezebel.,"