The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Praevalebit. TUESDAY JUNE 8, 1886. The New Hebrides.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1258, 8 June 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Praevalebit. TUESDAY JUNE 8, 1886. The New Hebrides.

The cablegrams we publish this evening leave very little doubt as to the intentions of France with regard to the New Hebrides. It is all but certain that the French have determined to parley no longer, but to seize the opportunity afforded by the hesitancy of Great Britain and formally annex the islands. The gravity of the situation can hardly be over-estimated. France has chosen her lime well. Great Britain, embarassed by domestic difficulties of no common magnitude and menaced by another great European Power, is taken at a peculiar disadvantage. The eyes of the whole civilised world are upon tier. She must either meet the intrigue and the duplicity of France by prompt and courageous action, or meekly submit and for ever abandon the proud position she once held among nations. We

cannot believe that even a Radical Government, a Government that has shown a disposition to purchase temporary peace by the prostitution of all our brightest and noblest national traditions, will, in the sight of the whole world, elect to take the latter course. We will not believe, until it be made manifest by actual facts, that ail the boasted intrepidity and power of the British people have for ever departed. We should be sorry, deeply sorry, to see Great Britain involved in a struggle with France such a struggle, whatever might be its issue, would be absolutely ruinous to these colonies, — but even that would be better than the abject submission which some of ourcontemporaries have suggested as a probability. But we have more faith in the British lion. He may be long-suffering, indolent, and cautious, he may have lost some of his early love for hard knocks and developed an inordinate affection for peace, he may have been misgoverned and misled, but he is the British lion still and those who engage him in combat will find that he has lost none of his youthful vigor. To those who predict the overthrow of the Empire we still with confidence may say sfal mole stta.

Settlement on the Land.

Major Steward, the member for Waimate, has identified his name with two important undertakings— the amend merit of the Education Act, aud the settlement of the Waste Lands of the Crown. We have already referred to the provisions of the Franchise Bill, and given the text of a question put by Major Steward to the Minister of Lands with regard to the sub-division of land at present held by tenants under pastoral lease fiom the Crown, It will be recollected Mr Ballance replied in a manner which suggested, either that he had no sympathy with Major Steward’s efforts on behalf of the struggling cultivators of the soil, or that his sympathies were subservient to some other influence. The Minister of Lands simply fenced the question and suggested that Major Steward should approach the Waste Lands Committee on the subject. Now it was quite impossible, under the forms of the House and the rules which govern the business of that Committee, for the member for Waimate to adopt the course suggested by Mr Ballance, but he was too old a parliamentarian to b battled by such a ruse. He at ni., e conceived the ided of prepann a petition to the House, to be signed by the people of this provincial district, praying for the boons sought. The conception of the idea was fo lowed by its execution, and we are now in receipt of a copy of the petition, the text of which is as follows:

To TUB IiOXORARLE THE SPEAKER AND TUB Memrers of the House of Heprehextatives in Parliament assembled.

The petition of tho undersigned Settlers and Colonists in the Provincial District of Cant' rbury, humbly shewelh : That in common with Your .Honorable House, and their fellow-colonists generally, Your Polriouers are earnestly desirous for the promotion of the progress and prosperity of the Colony. That to this end it is highly desirable that every facility should be given for the settle -

ment of the Waste Lands of the Crown, and that the difficulties which now stand in the way of the extension of settlement should be as far as possible removed. That as regards the Provincial District of Canterbury especially, many persons who are ready and wiling to take up land and to make homes for themselves and their families thereon, are unable to do so, for the reasons following, viz. :

Tliat nearly all the first-class arable land has passed into the hands of private owners, or the keys thereto have been purchased by private persons. That although there are in different parts of the dis’rict considerable areas of land of second-class quality now held under pastoral lease or license, which are suitable for pastoral, or mixed pastoral and agricultural

fanning, the price at which such land is open for purchase for cash (viz. £2 per acre) is entirely prohibitive. | y That if the said land be opened for application on the deferred payment system this evil is intensified, as the upset price cannot be less than 50s. per acre, while also the maximum area of each indivudal holding (viz. 320 acres) is quite insufficient in the case of land of the description refeirsd to. That under clauses IG2 and IG3 of the Land Act, 1885 (which are practically identical with the corresponding clauses of the Land Act

of 187'.)) the Governor has power to open such land ’ for application as special settlement s land at such price (not being less than £1 j per acre), on such terms of payment, and in holdings ot such area, as he may by Proclamation appoint. That Your Petitioners believe that were this power exercised, and a block or blocks of, say, from 10,000 to 20,000 acres each, in holdings of from 1000 to 2000 acres, opened for application in North and South Canterbury respectively, at the price 20s. per acre, payable in twenty annual instalments of one shilling per acre, the same would bo readily taken up, to the groat advantage of the districts concerned and ot tho Colony generally. ; fcYour Petitioners therefore humbly pray Your Honorable House to take the premises into your favorable consideration, with a view to such action being taken therein as to Your Honorable House may seem meet. And Your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will over pray. We need not again urge the importance of the settlement of the land upon our readers, but we would urge them, one and all, whether their interests be agricultural, industrial, or 1 commercial, to attach their signatures ' to the petition we have quoted, and ’ thereby strengthen the hands of Major ’ Steward, and their representatives in Parliament, in bringing about a salutary reform in the administration of our Land Laws.

Home Rule

Apropos of some remarks we made yesterday on the subject of Home Rule, we may repeat the noble words used by Lord Clare, a bitter foe to Irish agitators, but an enlightened and far-seeing patriot, when moving the Act of Union : —When I look at the squalid misery and profound ignorance and barbarous manners and brutal ferocity of the mass of the Irish people, I am sickened with the rant of Irish dignity and independence. Is the dignity and independence of Ireland to consist in the continued depression and unredeemed barbarism of the great majority of the people, and the factious contentions of a puny and rapacious oligarchy, who consider the Irish nation as their political inheritance, and are ready to sacrifice the public peace and happiness to their insatiate love of patronage and power ? I hope I feel as becomes a true Irishman for the dignity and independence of my country, and therefore I would elevate her to her proper station in the rank of civilised nations. 1 wish to advance her from the degraded post of a mercenaiy province to the proud station of an integral and governing member of the greatest Empire in the world. I wish to withdraw the higher orders of my countrymen from the narrow and corrupted sphere of Irish politics, and to direct their attention to objects of national importance, to teach them to improve their natural energies, and extend the resources ol their country, to encourage manufacturing skill and ingenuity, to open useful channels for commercial enterprise, and above all, seriously to exert their best endeavors to tame and civilise the lower orders of the people, to inculcate in them habits of religion and morality and industry and due subordination, and to relieve their wants and correct their excesses.” Never were Ireland’s true interests better expressed.