THE UNEMPLOYED AND THE LAND.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE UNEMPLOYED AND THE LAND.

The colonies at the antipodes of Great Britain have long been famed, perhaps justly, for their anomalies. In Australia, as travellers have often told, all the native trees are evergreens, the swans are black, the owls hoot by day and the eagles shriek by night; almost all the animals carry their young in their pouches, the beavers have duck’s bills, the cherries grow, with their stones outside, and it is easier to find gold than water to wash it. But the strangest anomaly of all is that now presented in New Zealand—-the meetings of tlie unemployedat Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, asking tbe government to find them work,of some kind so that they may earn wages sufficient to keep body and soul together. Is it possible that a; colony as large as England, Wales, and Scotland together,, inhabited by less than half a million of. British people, and possessingtberichest I soil and. the most healthy- climate on 1 the face of the earth, should already

own. hundreds of able-bodied men coming before the public to ask the State for'a sort 1 of outdoor relief as paupers, sterns an anomaly which the .curious trees; swans, eagles, .cherries, &o*. of Australia, can scarcely, match for; strangeness. j:

-We ate well : aware that the singularity of the circcu instance may be,‘ explained away. It is, of course, very .easy; to assert that some of the complainants were probably loafers who would not Work) 1 / even in order to obtain the fortune: of sii C ixbsus ; th at ■ some ' were' temporarily prostrated by accident' o'r illness ; that some bad been earning gbod 'wages and; spent it in drink; and that others whilst perfectly sober, 1 had not been frugal men. We admit that ail of these classes might have been represented, though we are by no means enamored of that foolish Pharisaism, in which* men.of the Bounderby stamp ate apt to indulge, and though we do not believe that menof industry, character, and intelligence are always sure to prosper, in the case now.before us we are informed through the press by men of integrity,- like Mr Stevens of Christichurch, and others, that there are really very--in any ' able-bodied deserving laborers in New Zealand at present iwho cannot find employment. The ‘question therefore comes, why is it that there is any dearth of profitable occupation. - -

Jt certainly is not because the soil is poor, or because there is no market for produce. Land in abundance and of excellent quality, one of the great ■factors in the production of wealth, lieS iround us everywhere unoccupied. Labor, another of the grand prorequiistes for money making, is apparently not merely abundant, but in excess, bapital, the third requisite, though rather more scarce than it was a few years back, is still amply sufficient for all profitable enterprizes in producing. And lastly, the market for the produce is accessible by our railways and water communication in all directions. And though the prices of our grain may be just at present lew, and though 3s a bushel foi wheat may not pay the grower, nor Is a bushel for oats yield anything but a loss, surely it is not a matter of necessity that a farmer should do nothing but grow grain when grain growing is unprofitable. How about the prices of other agricultural produce? Milk we find sold at our doors at 5d a quart, butter at Is per lb, cheese at lOd, beef at fid to Bd, mutton at 4d to fid, pork at Bd. These prices would certainly pay those who brought the articles to market. In the United States of America where farming has long been far more of a scientific pursuit than it is with us, where vegetable produce,—grain growing—does not pay, it is simply converted into animal produce, and returns a good profit then. ■ At Cincinnati—-Porkopolis, as it is called, —wheat and oats are annually converted into pigs flesh, and thousands of grunters are incessantly converted in,the course of a few mihutesfrora living receptacles of wheat or oatmeal, into pickled pork, bams and bacon, their bristles and other appurtenances being also all carefully utilized, so that every part of the body into which the grain has entered contributes its share to the profit. It is

difficult to see what obstacle there is to our following the-; example of ous Yahhee cousins in turning; our o' surplus oats which;■ won -t ’sell, into pigs flesh which certainly -will sell; So again ona far’ larger scale with to beef and-mutton. With land capable d£ being converted into first class grazing * land by the simplest means/.or? eyen by employing no particular means at all, it seems strange: that ■ we ’ must of necessity grow grain when it does not yield- a profit to do so.; In the im-] mediate neighborhood of our larger , towns, _at l^t;/;double ; ',,tbe, present, number of milch cows might easily : bekept on the available but unused land, ’ and on the smallest patches of ground, 1 on quarter acre sections lying idle for years, fowls, ducks, geese, arid turkeys, might be raised in such numbers |eggs and poriltry might be sold at an., profit, though at half the present price. The general: cheapness of' the produce of the soil, too,* would tend 1 to render all other articles cheap, be*' cause the cost'of living arid eVrin of pn«i joying luxuries would be.,,, less, and* house, rent and all other articles would sooner or later fall in some kind of pro- -

portion, - ' " What, then, is the obstacle to- th© labOringclasses embarking savings from their wages, in times of : comparative, prosperity, in undertakings such aa l these? There is one obstacle, and that ■ is a great one.. The land is there at ■ every place that can be mentioned, but very generally in the neighborhood of~ large towns, and it has all been, bought ;i up by speculators, who allow it to lia idle, and have no thought of ever utilizing it, trusting to the general progress of the country, and to the industry of their neighbors, to raise it in ■ value. This unjust system ought no; longer to be tolerated, and the State Should see that the land is only owned by those who use it. In China for centuries past, in some respects, foolish r celestials have been wiser than we are. ; An intending cultivator has only to put his eye on a piece of land that has been lying idle for some years, and he,goes, to the nearest land office, registering .it r as his, and pays a certain amount of: rent in,; advance. The land then re- ■ mains his so long as he keeps on cultivating it, no matter who has bought it before him. This system is indeed the same as that which we have our- . selves been obliged to adopt with re- y gard to mining on auriferous land. la the Australasian colonies, however, many of our old world superstitions 1 about the absolute and inalienable right to purchased land still cling to us, to the great detriment of our prosperity, . and to the great increase of our unemployed class. Yet this notion of the absolute right to property in the soil is only an idle chimera, however much the defiance of it may terrify 1 weak minds. ; Not indeed that the un| employed should break the law, but . our land laws need an entire alteration, k not merely in detail, but, in principle. . And when the law is thus altered, when, the user of the land is recognised as the lawful owner, it is for the people to avail themselves promptly of the beneficial alteration. At present they are. slow to agitate for so decisive a change as that indicated, however much it would be for their advantage. It is

said that if you. draw a broad chalk line before a certain bird, it will not trespass beyond it though there should be heaps of grain just on the other side of it, but will rather That'bjrd is]the goose.