THE LAND QUESTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 352, 22 January 1869, Page 3

THE LAND QUESTION.

Sir,— Seeing by a late issue of your paper that the General Government offer premiums for the throe best essays on the subject of the “ Permanent Settlement.of the Goldfields,” I, as an old resident of Kromwell, and one who desires to see the fcuntry settled and prosperous, hope you odll give the following a corner in your columns, I say, Cromwellites wake up ! strive for a change! and throw away your stupid petty jealousies ! If you cannot make as much money as you desire to do, don’t blame your neighbor for it or try to drive him out of the market, but rather consider carefully your own position and circumstan *es, and a remedy forexistinggrieva.ices will suggest itself. Show mo where there is another place in the Southern Hemisphere where a person can afford to pay Is. for about two thimbles full of grog and 4Jd. per pound for bread ; Is. per pound for beefsteak, and 2s. 6d. for a meal. These, Sir, arc the current prices here, and 1 should like to know how things can prosper at such rates. But, happily, they cannot last: things must come down to their real value. If your neighbor re-

duces his prices, instead of viewing him as an opponent, look at him as a public benefactor : thank him for investing his capital,' and giving the working man the benefit of cheap living. The next thing is, we want the land. The land was given as an inheritance for man. It is his birthright, and, if we do not take care and secure to ourselves the benefit arising from it we deserve to be treated with contempt, for, like Esau, we shall have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. AA'erc Otago populated in proportion to Ireland wo should soon discover that our own land laws were far worse than those there. Ten years ago the foot of a white man ha I scarcely trod upon the soil of this part of the Province, and now we find the whole country round lease 1 to a handful of squatters, and no employment for the people. What is to be done when the majority of mining c airns are worked out ? Are the owners to be kept idle until the proceeds of their industry are all spent? or are they to he permitted to invest them ? Every facility must be given to men to take to them selves wives, build houses, rear young families, and cultivate the land. These are the colonists who can make Otago prosperous. Without easy access to the land I should like to know what is the use of the Goverment causing pamphlets to be written, bringing out immigrants and paying emigration agents. I again ask, what is the use of sending for immigrants when there is nothing for them to do, or at best a few weeks’ labor on a station during the shearing time ? A new chum soon gets disgusted with the country in its present state. The fare is miserable—damper and mutton, without vegetables, is very insipid food. A life on a sheep station is the reverse of romantic. A T ictoria made a great mistake by not throwing open the lands to the people in the early days of the gold discoveries ; but she is doing all she can to rectify her error. Having her example before us, let us profit by it ere it be too late. 1 am, ic,, OLD RESIDENT.