MR. RICHARDSON AT WYNDHAM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 3, 10 May 1889, Page 13

MR. RICHARDSON AT WYNDHAM.

TO THE EDITOR N.Z. TABLET.

Sib, — It appears to me the present Ministry are not exactly what you would call a happy family. They seem to be rather badly assorted, judging from late incidents now before the public. First we have the big row with Mr. Fisher on the beer barrel question, and his final retirement from the Ministerial ring. Next we nave the curious spectacle of the Premier in the North, at Hawera, sympathising with the deferred-payment and other settlers of the Colony in their hopeless position and pouring forth words of consolation to them in their difficulties, giving promise of relief and asking his hearars what good can accrue to the State by compelling a man to pay an impossible rental for his holding. Truly a very pertinent question as things exist here. Now in the South we have another member of this happy family (the Minister of Lands) at Wyndham breathing forth words of confiscation and eviction against all deferred settlers and others who are in arrears, warning them that he at least will have his pound of flesh. The whole bond, and nothing but the bond, it appears, will suffice to appease him. That he has very old precedent for this course of action we all know. You will observe how artfully Mr. Richardsoa in his speech leads up to his great eviction pronouncement. In almost his opening sentences be carefully drawn attention to the fact that the bulk of our produce is now at a fair price ; and further ou he concludes that, such being the case, all defaulters are now in a posi f ion to pay up if they like. But he carefully ignores the fact that for the six or seven previous years all produce has been sjld at ruinous prices to the producers ; the effect of wh'ch has been to reduce the majority of our settlers to bankruptcy, or to the very verge of ba.nkru| icy. Has Mr. Richardsoa the assurance, or rata«r the utter igaorance < i" business, Lo tell U3 that one year of only moderate prices is enough to recjup the farmer and place him iv funds, as against the six or seven years ot he.ivy conunuoua losses and hardships suffered by him 1 Verily if that is the cabe farming must bj au extraordinarily profitable business. lias Mr. Ricoaidsoi in his own experience fuund it to be so very profitable 1 It is uot ihe case, and every man whose opinion or experience is worth having knowd the statement io be utterly untiue and absurd. His reterenca to the Fair Rent Bill seemed to me extremely uuhappy. Of course he casts the whole, blame of obstructing this measure on the Upper Houhe. It was defeated by the Upper Hoiue, he cays. True. But let me ask him — Dii the Government, of nhicu he is a member, ever expect cj pass it as it stood 1 hay, more ; did they ev^r make an honest attempt to pass it 1 and, further, did they ever desire to pass it? If tney dii, tuen I have beeu seiiously misinformed ; but all the surroundings distinctly go to show that they never meant to pass it. lc was only a politic tl dodge. I believe a good many of the electoia in the Alataura district wiJl understand why it was introduced an t why it was ultimately left to its predt^ttned fate of being lgnomimously shelved. And so far as legarda Mr. Bicnardson's action in the mutter of tbis bill, he would ba the last maa in creatiun I would expecr to lither seiiously introduce or assist euch a measure — that is, it we are to judge from Ins public utterances reiterated again aud again during his election stumping tour at the Mataura. Mr. Richardfon further says that the 30u0 ec-f.lers who are iv arrears are simply trading oa the Government — that id, ttut they are dishonest mea, who could pay if tney liked. It is evident he has been studying Irish landlord literature ou this subject, and upon th' 3 whole he sterna raiher a promising pupil, as ho does not scruple in the least to follow their example and hurl tue. charge <>t dishonesty at the heads of a large number of deserving aud hardworking colonisis. He says theie are very few cases of men paying extreme piices for their lands. By extreme cases he kindly Btaies that he means double and treble the proper values. Then it is cluar from his statement theie are some in i hat position ; a ftw, he says. But instead of a few only being s> situated, you can count them "by the hundred on almost every deferred settlement block in Otago. Some others, ac says, piy 25a for laud unU worth 20s an acre, Toeu it follows that these people are paying the State 25 per cent, per year over and above jusi values fur t.ieir lands. Do.*s thai, sort of tr.ing not call loudly tor a remedy ! aod the only remedy prop )sed la evictioa and confiscation ot improvements! True, he speaks daikly of some revaluation made or to hi made, tome hole auil corner arrangement, the upshot tf which will be to work it with a view to political capital being mide of it. Seeing he acknowledges the fact of several settlers paying two aid thiee the proper value of their holdings, and a large body of others ljaying 25 per cent, more thau juat values, is theie any business can

stand terons of that kind 1 Can a struggling settler stand a constant drain of 25 per cent, deducted from his little earnings to enrich the Government" till ? I rather think not. Yon will observe be treats this overcharge of 25 per cent, in an offhand manner as if it was a matter of no moment— a mere bagatelle not worth notice or wort*) complaining about. But what is it lo tb« victim who has to endur-s tt ? It may mean to him the final stone in his burden that sinks him and his family into bankruptcy and ruin. Mr. Richardson all through labours hard to show that »o reductions in values are necessary. His remarks as to petitions sent up to him asking reductions, where one man states he bought land at 20s, and claims a reduction because land adjoining him was recently sold by the Government at 16s, ar« totally misleading — are incorrect, simply unmeaning twaddle, a sort of special pleading, and very poor fustian even at that. Suppose this buyer at 20s bought this land trom the Government six or sexen years ago at the above price, then, no doubt, he paid for it the highest price for the time being. Does Mr. Richardson mean to tell us that this land, in the face of the seriously altered valueß now prevailing, is worth as much now as it was six or seven years ago? That is the point to answer, and I challenge him to do so. The thing is preposterous, and no amount of specious talk can obliterate the notorious fact that the value of land has decreased from 50 to 30 per ceot. during the last six or seven years. Many of these 6et tiers contracted for their lands six or seven years ago during better times, and to compel them to pay now the values then current, and what the Premier calls an impossible rent, is impolitic, is unjust, and is not conducive to real settlement, and no amount of special pleading oa tha part of Mr. Richardson will settle the difficulty. It will have to bs faced in aa entirely different manner, as it has had to be facad elsewhere, and Mr. Richardson ia not the man to grapple with any comprehensive or liberal measure, such as is absolutely necessary in the case of the Government selectors of Otago. — I am, etc., Mataura, April 29. FABMEB.