Laws.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 47, 20 November 1902, Page 2

Laws.

The Irish Land In conversation with a newspaper representative a Wellington man, who hasjust returned from a trip to the Home countries, is reported thus :—' Whilst in Ireland he had a conversation with a party of priests on the land question, and one of the party said he considered the Irish land laws were as pood as those of New Zealand. During a 10 days' sojourn in Waterford he saw no signs of discontent, and found that the land agitation was practically at an end. It was only kept alive by political agitators.' Now we-should like to know how that unnamed priest got his knowledge of the land laws of New Zealand, for without such knowledge the comparison could hardly be made. But allowing for the sake of argument that such a comparison was made, and that the rev. gentleman had some acquaintance with the Knd system which obtains in this Colony, there is not much difficulty in showing that his conclusions were incorrect. It is said that a tree is known by its fruit. During the past 10 years the landowners in New Zealand have increased by some thousands. In 1890 the number of private holdings was about 38,000, and in 1900 nearly 64,000. During the same peiiod the number of small farmers in Ireland has decreased by several thousands, the decrease being due to evictions or inability to pay impossible rents. The New Zealand Government gives e\ery encouragement to people to go on the land, as an increase of country settlers means an addition to the wealth and the producing power of the Colony ; the principal tendency of many Irish landlords, who are often indirectly aided and abetted by the

Government, has been to clear the land of human beings and replace them by bullocks and <sheep.

The first estate which the New Zealand Government experimented on for the purpose of closer settlement shows the beneficial results of our land laws. The Cheviot estate supported a few shepherds and thousands of sheep twenty years ago; to-day it carries between 700 and 800 human beingsthrifty settlers, who during their occupancy have^ added thousands of pounds to the value of the property through their labor and the improvements effected. Were it not for the opportunities placed by the government at their disposal, many of these settlers would be landless to-day, and perhaps crowding the already congested ranks of unskilled labor in the towns and cities. Twenty years ago there were many estates in Ireland maintaining scores of families, which are now devoted to the grazing of cattle and sheep, the dismantled dwellings remaining as reminders of the unfortunate people who are now scattered over the face of the earth. If the land laws of Ireland are as good as those of New.Zealand, then the results are strikingly different. The population of this Colony is slowly but steadily growing; the population of Ireland is rapidly decreasing. There are large districts in fertile Meath, and other counties, where the population is almost as sparse as in some remote parts of this Colony. This was not always the case, as these districts carried at one time a full complement of industrious, toilers, who were swept away to make room for the bullock and the sheep. The men who objected to such clearances were called agitators in their day ; the men who contend that such lands ought to be purchased by the Government and placed at the disposal of the people are called agitators and revolutionaries to-day. The men who carried into effect such proposals in New Zealand were called far-seeing statesmen. It ' is clearly a matter of geography. An agitator in Ireland is a patriot in this Colony.

The most beneficial system of land legislation ever passed in any country was that initiated by the late Sir John McKenzie in this Colony. For this he has been eulogised by friend and foe ; the Irish representatives and leaders who demand a similar law for Ireland, where the necessity for such a measure is far more pressing, are called all the hard names which the Tory press of the United Kingdom can invent, because they hold the revolutionary doctrine that the rights of human beings to exist should be considered before the rights of property. The late Sir John McKenzie had seen so much of the blighting influence of landlordism in his native High« lands that he determined no such system should, if he could help it, ever mar the progress of this Colony, and hence it was that he strove with all the determination of his strong personality, against great odds, to place the law on the statute book which gives the government power to acquire estates for close settlement. The people of Ireland require a measure on somewhat similar lines, and it is difficult for anyone who has seen the beneficial effects of such legislation in New Zealand to advance any argument against it. Mr J. C. Wason, M.P., who has a thorough knowledge of our land laws, and had been returned as a supporter of the Conservative Government, went over to Ireland to study the agrarian question, and what he saw convinced him that the party in power were not making any genuine effort to settle a problem which he felt ought to be dealt with at once. As a result of this visit he left his party and joined the Liberals. Mr T. W. Russell, who is a staunch Unionist, has said over and over" again that the intentions of the framers of the Land Act of 1881 have been neutralised by the defects in the administrative machinery, and the very apparent bias of the officials of the Courts. He has declared that it is impossible for the present state of affairs to continue, and that the only solution of the land trouble is for the State to step in, purchase the landlords' interest and resell to the tenants. Already a tenth of the farmers of Ireland have become peasant proprietors, with the gratifying result that social unrest, political turmoil, uncertainty, and poverty have given way to peace, progress, and contentment.