TO THE WORKING MEN OF WELLINGTON.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3108, 27 January 1871, Page 2

TO THE WORKING MEN OF WELLINGTON.

rEiiiow Settlers,— Among the nostrums put forth by candidates for tlio honor of being elected \}y you, members of the General Assembly, thero is none which has, at first sight, a more taking nspect than the formula — ' " Free land for free men." Upon examination, however, it is eminently unsatisfactory. It is so difficult to find out what is meant by it. If it is the brief expression of a hearty deßire that every man who works hard, and exorcises self control, may be able to obtain land fairly bought and honestly paid for 5 land from which the owner will derive more satisfaction than he would from land acquired in any other way — then no man can quarrel wiih tho sentimeut. But if ifc is a proposal that land should be freely given, that is, gratuitously, to freo men, it is an attempt at delusion against whioh you should be upon your guard. You mny well conclude as a rule, that anything acquired for nothing, is of very little value to the possessor. Even good advice gratuitously given is almost always thrown away. The experiment of giving land away has been tried upon the large and small scale, and proved a failure in each.. Jn Western Australia, the land being to be had for nothing, oaoh of the " free men" who

took ifc made V free" to take so large a quantity that when be came to settle upon the land lie could not manage to use it. Every nan was living at, so great a distance from his neighbor that there was no such thing as neighborhood. There was no money for roada or public improvements j no employment /or free labor, and no joint efforts possible, the people were bo far apart. Though the colony Btarted under the most respectable patronage, ifc lingered for many years, and the settlers underwent great privations. It is more than forty years since it was founded ; nevertheless there may still bo found in its present state and progress manifest traces of the mischievous working of free grants of land. Guarding against the evil of quantity, tho province of Auckland issued proposals for granting forty aores of land to every person who took a passage to and located in that province. Many people, in consequence, came out to Auckland. A return of tho comparative numbers of the land orders issued, and of persons who settled upon tho hnd awarded under theia, would be an instructive commentary on the text under consideration. The scheme benefited the province for a time. It brought ont many immigrants having each a few shillings or pounds in his pocket, and tho expenditure was useful. But mark the result. A number of these immigrants, finding the lands awarded them unspited to their , purposes, have left" for other places. Many sought employment in the town, and when to these were added the numbers thrown out of employment by the partial collupse of the goldfields, the result is a surplus unemployed population, which now threatens serious consequences. You may as well try to pile water upon a table as to devise a scheme 1 for giving to working men for nothing land which shall to them be of any greater value. The idea of a Q-ovornment scheme of sale of land upon deferred payments will be noticed i in the next communication from Common Sense.