The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1907. THE EMIGRANT SETTLER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 34, 4 November 1907, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1907. THE EMIGRANT SETTLER.

Uktil the mail brings fuller particulars, we shall feel-a little doub.tful concerning the significance of the cabled intelligence that three New Zealand settlers, " representing others in the Taranaki district," have arrived in Brisbane seeking land. The inference which is .obviously intended to he drawn from this message is that a tide of agricultural immigrants has set in from New Zealand to Australia. In default of definite figures it is impossible to say whether the three Taranaki settlers are three isolated cases of the wander-spirit that leads men .to try. their fortunes in another country,, or whether their departure from New Zealand requires serious consideration as a commentary upon the conditions of laud settlement in this country. ' The statistical returns show that the New South Wales population received an increment of SUI New. Zealanders during the September quarter, and this, when the steady influx of. New Zealanders into that State during the past five years is taken into account, gives colour to the suggestion that New Zealand- is losing settlers to her neighbours. Such a condition of affairs lends itself to one of at least two conflicting interpretations. The land nationaliser will cite the Taranaki- emigrants as living testimony to his constantly reiterated charge that the lands of New Zealand are in the grip of the laud monopolist. The champions of the freehold option for Crown tenants can with infinitely more reason contend that the Government's policy of land settlement is vitiated by the withholding of one o£ the first inducements to the occupation of the soil. ' AVith the land-nationaliser it is probably useless to argue. The truth of all this cry about " land aggregation" and the "land-monopolist," is that the Government has seized upon the prosperous land-holder as the easiest victim with which to satisfy the land-hunger which was really caused by the failure of the present and preceding' Governments to bring into profitable occupation the vast areas of idle and neglected Native lands. It is by a vigorous Ntive hind policy, nnd the offer of attractive conditions of tenure on Crown lands, that any present or impending exodus of our settlers must be stayed. The ■settlers who can be driven away by a bad land policy are, unfortunately, the very people whom we most desire to retain 'in New Zealand. They are the sons of settlers —young men who have been born in the country and who are, therefore, better fitted than any immigrant to occupy the soil. The laud nationaliser expounds his views from a wholly academic standpoint, and neglects to take into account one of the most important factors to be considered by practical statesmanship, lie cannot understand the desire of a settler to make his holding his own. That desire, nevertheless, exists, and the prospect of its satisfaction is a determining factor to most men who have the instincts of the true agriculturist. It does not in the least surprise us to hear that the Taxman Sea is no barrier at all to the prospective settler who desires the freehold of his selection, but cannot obtain it in New Zealand. This session's land legislation amounts to so much more discouragement of the farmers' sons. Nor does the Native Land Bill promise any adequate set-off to the ungenerous and unattractive proposals which are so obviously inferior, in (lie young settler's eyes, to what awaits him in Australia. AVo urged, in dealing with that Bill the other day, that wisdom should have directed the avoidance of any bar to a ready

occupation of tlio available areas, and such evidence us we have been given of the loss of settlers should induce the Government to re-consider its proposal to earmark half the available land for leasehold occupation. Native land, offered on attractive terms, will do far more to promote settlement than all the confiscatory propositions'of the Socialists who are pulling the Ministerial strings.