The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1887. THE REVOLT AGAINST LANDLORDISM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1536, 19 April 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1887. THE REVOLT AGAINST LANDLORDISM.

The troubles of landlords m Ireland ■ have been chronic for so long a period I that people had come to regard the matter as one specially appertaining to that particular country, and as having no great interest to other countries. But within the past two or three years the landlords of Scotland, and Wales, and even England itself, have begun to experience troubles of the same kind, though perhaps not always accompanied by similar concurrent circumstances. Hence a much wider interest has been j evoked m the subject of land tenure th?n wculd have been the case had Ireland alone been the theatre of discontent, and it begins now to be admitted that these common troubles have a common origin, and to be perceived that an economic revolution has silently taken place, which has rendered ancient systems of land tenure incompatible with the conditions of modern times. The position is very intelligently apprehended by our Oamaru contemporary, the " Notth Otago Times." which writes on the subject as follows m a recent issue : — " We know that by many students of Irish affairs the fight between the tenants and the landlords is looked upon as a mere adjunct of the general battle for political freedom. To us, let us confess, it appears to be of much wider significance, and to be merely an acute phase of a revolution with regard to the land which has already begun to heave m Scotland and Wales, and is rapidly ripening for a general manifestation m England itself. Its meaning is, that that relict of barbarism; or of the long defunct feudal form of civilisation, the territorial magnate, is a doomed man. It is pretty nearly a case of Humpty Dumpty. That phenomenon, as typified by the large landowner, is perhaps still half-on and half-off the wall ; but he is obviously falling, m Great Britain and Ireland at any rate -, and when he does topple down nothing m the-wide world will set him up again. The days are past when the land can support the laborer— as he feels he should be supported, as the conscience of humanity says he must be supported — the farmer, and its ornamental socalled owner, who transmutes so much of its substance into profitless local excrescences, or dissipates if m the follies and flummeries of life m far away capitals. These are not days when any of the produce of the land can be devoted to such purposes, for it is all needed by those who cultivate it, | and by. those who personally and intelligently direct its cultivation. There is none of it to spare for absorption m the shape of rent.

That, it seems to us, is what is | chiefly taught by the land struggle m Ireland and m other parts of the Three Kingdoms. And the end aimed at is abundantly jusitified by the new moral and economic order of things now coming into clear view amongst mankind — an order of things which is seen to be indispensable to tbe progress of civilisation. Of course the territorial magnates will flourish m the faces of the fighters for the new order the laws and theories which have grown out of the dispensation of which they themselves are hapless survivals; and by that means they may hold their ground yet a while. But their hour lis not far distant, and ere long they will have to give way to their invincible adversaries even as the old I gods had to give way to the youthful Titans. All this has a valuable lesson for us here m the colonies. Are we learning, or are we likely to learn it ? Let the extent and the number of our big estates answer. In a word, those who m these young lands are indulging m the big estate mania are truly building up a fine inheritance for their successors ; for these there assuredly awaits m the distant" future the ordeal through which the territorial princelings of Ireland are passing, and m which they are evidently to perish utterly or to come out only the merest shadows j of their former selves." This we regard as a very correct diagnosis of the position, and it is appropriately closed ! with the apposite quotation — "He that hath ears ta hear let him hear."