SMALL FARM ASSOCIATIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 239, 15 August 1879, Page 2

SMALL FARM ASSOCIATIONS.

To the Editor of the Wairahapa Daily. Sir,—ln your issue of, the 12th instant I noticed that you had devoted some of your space to a leading article upon lands on deferred payments; this is a question which I feel a great deal of interest in, believing that it is very desirable for the interest of the country, to settle lands on this system were practicable.

I feel that it is the duty of the Government to foster an encouragement for this system if they want to retain the bone and sinew of the country, that bone and sinew which has cost the country tens of thousands, should not be allowed for the want of encouragement to settle, to wander up and down the country, and when our public works are completed, probably leave us for some other lands, At the present time we have men, aye, and good men in the district that are in want of employment. These men, or numbers of them might have had homes for themselves if they had been encouraged to settle upon waste lands; It is true that they may be many years in redeeming the fee simple, but what matters that if they are able to support themselves and families in the meantime, which undoubtedly they would. Our. Scandinavian neighbors for instance, have any of them the means of subsistence settled as they are in anything but a favorable district, so would these men that are now partly in want in consequence of no employment if they had had the samo advantages. Where a more successful settlement than the Feilding settlement as.a proof that the Government might go and do likewise. I am of opinion that we should support the return of any aspirant to the House of Representatives that will pledge himself to support liberal land laws for "the working men. No doubt there is something to be said in favor of your remarks re the settlement of lands by companies or associations, but you would require capital to acquire the fee simple, on the other hand the Government hold the fee simple. I f oel, Sir, that there were some truth in the remarks made by one of the gentlemen on the platform of our public meeting the other night j he looked upon the Government as a joint stock company that had financial arrangements to manage, and it appears to me that the management of these lands are not the best of these arrangements. I beg to be excused for trespassing on your space. I am, &c., J.V.