The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevælebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1886. MR BALLANCE’S TOUR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1442, 28 December 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevælebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1886. MR BALLANCE’S TOUR

We observe that some of our contemporaries have been falling foul of members of the Government, who are characterised as gadabouts, and told that instead of running about the country they ought to stick to their offices and to the country’s business at Wellington. Now we are free to admit that it is possible to overdo the thing, and that it is not well to leave, as has been the case under previous Administrations, a single Minister to do duty for the whole at head-quarters while all the other Ministers were travelling on business or pleasure, but it is even worse that Ministers should have no personal acquaintance with the needs of large portions of the colony which they are called upon to govern. And if there be one department, more than another the proper administration of which requires a personal knowledge of the country on the part of the presiding Minister, certainly that department is the department of Lands. Mr Ballance has therefore done no more than his duty in paying a visit to the South, and the only pity is that he was not able to devote to this island as many weeks as he was able to afford days. Even the flying visit which he paid this part of the colony a fortnight or so ago will, however, we feel sure, have taught him its necessities better than he would have learnt them from reams of correspondence and will yet, there is reason to hope and believe, bear good fruit. Writing upon the subject our Oamaru evening contemporary has the following sensible remarks, with every word of which we entirely concur : —“ Mr Ballance’s visit is likely to be productive of very great benefit to this district and the colony. He has. propounded his ideas on the land question, which we may accept as the ideas of the Government. We may now feel assured that the question of closer land settlement will come into prominence during next session of Parliament and that, in connection with it proposals will be made for resumption of large private estates and their disposal in smaller areas. That will be the result, we are convinced of the necessities

of the present lime .... If the Legislature should be able to conceive means whereby some ot the big estates may be broken up on terms that would not violate righteous principles and that would be acceptable to the present proprietors, and to the people of the colony, we shall all have much for which to be thankful. There are difficulties in the way of the achievement of this object. The question of the method of assessing the prices to be paid to proprietors will not be more easily settled than that of taking the land at all without the concurrence O the owners. The right of the State 10 resume lands in cases where such a course has been deemed necessary in the public interest, is now universally rccepted; but there is always an >pening for a difference of opinion as to whether the circumstances are sufficiently pressing to jnstify such an , interference with vested rights or not,

We are not, however, faint-hearted I about the result of a discussion on this question. It is the very reverse of reassuring that, in a young colony like New Zealand, where Nature has been so bounteous an'd the people are so industrious, stout-hearted, and enterprising, the cry of unemployed should be heard at all seasons of the year, and parents should be driven to their wits’ end to know what to do with their girls and boys. These are signs of national weakness which we cannot afford to pass over lightly, if we would avoid the occurrence in this new little world of ours of those saddening and disastrous social disruptions which periodically rend society and destroy national happiness and prosperity in Old-World countries. We hope that our present comparatively light troubles may be abolished and heavier disasters avoided, by the adoption of a land policy that will be viewed by all concerned as a wise and satisfactory solution of a very grave problem.”