Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1875. ABOLITION AND THE COUNCIL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 10

New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15 , 1875. ABOLITION AND THE COUNCIL.

The Aboli ion Bil which encountered so much and such determined opposition in the House of Representatives is being passed through the Legislative Council in TS The Nominee Chamber is almost unanimous on the sub X and appears to be m a hurry to annihilate the Provinces and consummate the unwise work of Centrum wl 5 ' are disappointed at this policy of the Co an " T^e etad hoped that our Legislative Councillors, not haW been themselves elected and having been appointed dSeflv to of the public iaton*. by n^lT^klnTTtC^:

vention of hasty and passionate law-making, there can be no doubt but that the precedent afforded by the action of the Council in this instance can hardly fail to prove prejudicial in the future. But in reference to the danger to the Council still less need be said. It is not, just now, nor has it ever been very p jpnlar. Its composition is very unsatisfactory in every way. A Nominee Chamber is out of harmony not only with the spirit of the age, but particularly so with Colonial prepossessions. But when, as in the present case, almost all the members of it are tenants of the Crown, and dependent on the Minister in power at the time of the expiration of their leases, for renewals and favourable terms of future occupancy of their present holdings, people will narrowly watch, their conduct in Parliament, and will not fail to make comments by no means complimentary, should it "bo ascertained that they have, in spite of the popular voice, aided the G-overnment in destroying the most powerful hindrance to the perpetuation of enormous runs, and the acquisition of large landed estates. It must strike every reflecting mind that the precipitancy of the Legislative Council in this instance has laid the foundation of an agitation that will never cease till the present members of the Upper House have been relegated to their runs to look after their shearing, and provision made for an elected Council. There are people so ill-natured as to say, that the very fact of the rapid and well nigh unanimous passage of the Abolition Bill through the Council is a clear proof that this Bill is regarded there as likely to be, on the one hand, highly conducive to the creation of'large landed estates, and on the other, pretty certain to put an end to agricultural settlement, and particularly to the deferred payment system. Many good reasons might be given for the popular conviction in this direction. No one who is at all acquainted with the proceedings of Parliament can be ignorant of the fact, that the Council has, session after session, persistently rejected the clauses in the various Bills sent to it by the House of Representatives, which gave power to the Superintendent of Otago, for example, to proclaim more than 30,000 acres in any one year, under the deferred payment law ; and that even during the preseut session, that House, true to its instincts, has endeavoured to double the price of laud set apart for the settlement of small farmers. Iv fact, it would seem to be the policy of the Council to create largo lauded estates, and ultimately establish iv this Colony that fatal system of land tenure which prevails in Great Britain and Ireland, and which exists nowhere else. But if colonists are wise, they will oppose the establishment of such a system, as far as possible. Above all, a beginning should not be made with it, that is the Government should not be permitted to part with the fee simple of large areas to individuals. The tendency of land is to accumulate in the hands of individuals. The pride of family, inter-marriages, and capital will only too soon place large tracts of country in the possession of great proprietors, who will either devote them to the raising and depasturing of sheep and cattle, or farm them out to rackrented and poverty-stricken serfs. Not only should Government exert itself to raise up a multitude of small proprietors, but laws should be enacted to discourage, and even to prohibit, as far as possible, large estates in land. We should not permit the experience of the world to be lost upou us. "Wherever large landed estates prevail, there will be found side by side, the most dangerous and galling contrasts, — enormous wealth, and the most wide-spread, and deepest poverty, as in the United Kingdom. Whereas on the contrary, where small proprietors abound, as in Belgium, there will be found the most general well-being, and the absence of extreme and squalid poverty. It is time the people of this colony should pay very close attention to the policy of the Government and the Legislature. It appears to us— we cannot help saying so, though we do it with regret— that the interests of the people at large are being sacrificed to certain class interests.