The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3083, 14 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1881.

The Liberal party that acknowledges Sir ! George Grey as its leader is never weary of harping upon the desirability of " putting the people on the land." Sir George goes further, and advises bis followers to insist upon the bursting up of large estates, and " to follow in the wake of France with its admirable system of peasant proprietary." This advice he tenders in order to save New Zealand from tbe apparently inevitable destiny of having " thousands of famishing women and half-starved children." Sir George's mind soars above petty details. He does not tell his hearers why women must necessarily become famished and children half-starved ; he is contented with the bare assertion that both women and children mu9t suffer the pangt, of hunger if a radical change in the land laws is not made. As with the results he predicts, so with the remedy he proposes :— " You must insist upon the breaking up of estates, and the establishment of a peasant proprietary." He does not say how this change is to be brought about. He does not mind preaching revolutionary doctrines, but he would not do anything revolutionary himself. He would inflame the people to fire the bullets he himself had forged. That is the role he has chosen to adopt, and if the people are foolish enough to follow such a blind lead they must be prepared to take the consequences. Now, as it happens, there can be few people in this colony who are not more or less acquainted with the country experiences of the settlers, and though it pleases Sir George Grey to draw pictures of those whom he is pleased to call wealthy, occupying thousands of acres of land to the

detriment of the working classes, it is well enough known that there are very few indeed who are not in an extreme state of indebtedness. The owner of, say a sheep run, even in the best of times, Baves no money. All that his wool brings in either pays off old debts, or is spent in improving the land and the flock. It is only by the sale of hfs improved estate that the owner can hope to get value for his time and capital expended ; but as long as he holds it, though he may be credited with the possesion of wealth, he is, so far as actual money is concerned, a poor man. Only those who have occupied land can form an idea of the capital demanded to work it profitably, and it is through ignorance of the subject that landed proprietors have in depressed times found themselves on tbe verge of bankruptcy. The desire to possess a run is as much a weakness on the part of small capitalists as it is with the small tradesman to aspire to tbe position of merchant or direct importer. If men would enter upon the occupation of land without shutting their eyes to the principles that alone regulate business fewer people would be ruined by over trading. In spite of all Sir George Grey can say there is no more sentiment in farming than there is in keeping a Bhop. If, however, the larger capitalist has entered upon a career, which, demanding more capital than he reckoned upon, has landed him into a life-long struggle with debt and difficulty, how much more foolish is it in the comparatively poor man to engage in a similar undertaking that, without the most fortunate circumstances must of necessity plunge him into a condition of permanent poverty and life-long elavery. The honeyed words " the peasant proprietary of France" sound very nice, but let any one go and judge for himself as to the life these peasants lead. It is a life to which not many Englishmen would submit. It used to be not an uncommon sight to see women yoked to tbe plough in harness with some wretched four-footed animal, tbe man guiding the rude instrument. There is neither poetry nor happiness in such a life. The average of holdings in France is five acres, and we ask those who have cheered Sir George Grey's speeches what sort of a living they would be likely to make, if tied to the soil, though made a free gift of fifty acres each to-morrow. " Burst up the big estates " is the cry of the Liberals. Why should they be burst up ? There is abundance of land and to spare in New Zealand for all comers for the next hundred years. Let the men who want land go and get it as the big estate holders got theirs—travel on foot or horseback a hundred miles from settlement, select as much as they desire, make terms with the natives for occupation, hold their lives in their hand, live hard and work hard, and after many years, by the time settlement approaches, they will be regarded with envy as land monopolists. But the colonist of to-day is not the man to go through such roughing. He wants to enter into possession of cultivated fields; he wants a market at his door, and a good road to his farm ; and it is this sort of man who applauds the principle ot confiscation. But before a person can put bis blanket on his shoulders and search for unoccupied Jand he must have a certain amount of capital, witho' t which the country would be of no value to him. It is little short of wickedness to advise men of no experience and little money to go upon land, for it is nothing short of urging them to take a leap into poverty, anxiety, and toil.