Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] SATURDAY, MARCH 26. 1904. THE SOVEREIGN DIFFICULTY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7725, 26 March 1904, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] SATURDAY, MARCH 26. 1904. THE SOVEREIGN DIFFICULTY.

We are entirely in accord with Mr Seddon when he prescribes occupation of the land as preventative of a declining birth-rate. The steady growth of a rural population would be at once a source and an indication of national prosperity. No fair-minded person can fail to do justice to the policy of which the late Sir John McKenzie was the devoted and able exponent. The land policy, initiated by the Land Act of 1892, had some grevious defects. What Land Act was ever without such ? But its general scope and intention were excellent. In practice, some of the ideas of the framers have not been realised; on the other hand, some effects of the Act have been anything but beneficial. But, so far as the facilities afforded to the land-seeking section of the public are concerned, the Act has worked a favourable change in the country; and its operation has distinctly made for general prosperity.

The enormous growth of the dairy industry in itself supplies a triumphant argument in favour of the land policy of the original Liberal administration. At the same time we cannot help thinking the ultimate welfare of the colony would be better served by opening up still more extensively the Crown Lands, and diverting some of the energy and capital invested in the purchase of estates to settling the vast areas of waste lands. The purchase of properties by the State is all very well within limits and on emergencies; but it is not desirable to make such transactions the basis -of settlement. The tenure of land belonging to the original estate of the Crown is likely in the long run to be more secure and satisfactory than that of land forming part of an acquired estate. The purchase money of a large estate must be found by somebody—and whatever obligations the State incurs in raising such money, it is the tenants who will have to "see the State through."

It is very well in the flush of prosperity, such as the expansion of our frozen meat and dairying industries has brought, to take up these attractive sections, and, with assistance, to institute improvements, and acquire stock, implements, etc. But prospetity has never yet maintained the same level long, and we must look for lean, as well as fat, years, for fluctuations, for ebb and flow, even in the export business that is now so successful. Then, in the time of subsidence, the burden would be felt by the State and its tenants —most of all by those who were occupying the fat lands of acquired estates. It is to the settlement, the more vigorous settlement of the Crown Lands, that we must look to bring about the formation of a really rural population.

Great numbers of the persons who, attracted by the possibilities of the dairying industry, have turned their attention to the land; and, with the assistance of the creameries, have raised themselves from almost indigence to comparative opulence, are persons entirely destitute of agricultural knowledge, or the aspirations of the genuine agriculturist. And it is the farmer, the permanent all-round farmer, who is the backbone of a country. He and his industry would thrive on the Crown lands. There would grow round him a genuine peasantry, real settlement would follow and the wealth of the Colony be largely increased. We heartily applaud Mr Seddon's sentiment that in the settlement of the land lies the remedy for this alarming decrease in the birth-rate; and we counsel him and his colleagues to consider less for the future how to acquire big estates than how to more extensively settle the estate that the Colony has already acquired. Why, even within a dozeu miles of Masterton there are Crown lands fit for settlement. An intelligent Government could use them straight away; but the present Administration has so many irons in the fire, and runs after so many novelties, that it misses the more legitimate business which ought to occupy its attention. It sometimes borrows money to buy a big estate, because its owner wants to sell it, when, at the same time, it has large areas of equally good land lying idle and unused. But for the natural prosperity of the Colony, and the industry of its settlers, the country would have been ruined long ago ; but it happens to be strong enough to bear the losses incidental' to the hazardous experiments of professional politicians.