The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3179, 29 April 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1873.

The activity shewn by oar tives in addressing their constituents is significant of the approaching Session of the Provincial Council and General Assembly. Very naturally it is expected that in their addresses some indication will be given of the course that events are likely to take \ but on this point there is singular silence. Plenty is said about the past. Those who hold seats in both Legislatures have opportunity of reviewing the struggles between the “ins” to retain power, and the “ outs ” to gain power last session : they can find fault about errors that were committed by the Administration and about imaginary shortcomings, and they can draw tfie inference that, had they or their party been in po\ver, such things could not have happened, But. these faults, if they exist, are all faults ; of administration, not of policy. All parties seem to agree that the present course of industrial development of the Colony is the true one: that having been begun, it cannot be reversed : and that if there be any difference of opinion it is not as to what shall be done, but as to who shall do it. This absence of one absorbing question seems to be the reason why, in the addresses of members of both the Provincial Council and General Assembly, there is no perceptible gr-e'illd for united ojwQffltiun. There seems positively to be nothing for the country to take any decided stand upon, either one way or the other. Not but that much remains to be done. Even in regard to those very questions that seem set at rest, changes are looming that sooner or later must come. Each step gained in social organisation, which is but another name for legislation, renders corresponding changes imperative in other arrangements. Jt is this constant demand for re-adjust-ment of social relations that renders frequent meetings of legislatures necessary. Even the land question, which, for the last ten years, has formed so fertile a topic of complaint and agitation for politicians, must not be considered finally settled. Those who were supposed to he immediately interested, the farmers and the squatters, have had their duel: they have fought their own battles with the assistance of those whom they could enlist on each side, and they have arrived at a compromise which, for the present, promises peace between them. But they are not the only classes interested in an equitable settlement of the matter. When the working of the scheme develops itself, it will be found that it is far from perfect ] that it is still as far as ever from fostering the settlement of people upon the land, and that like every question determined by those whose interests are bound up in its resolution, and who have the adjustment in their own hands, the view each party has taken has been bounded by the bearing of the subject upon its own peculiar industry. So long as those forms of employment did not interfere with other men's rights, the evil was unfelfc. Had there been no goldfields, such questions as water rights, miners’ rights, and the advisability of provision being made for enabling miners to employ their time profitably in agriculture, when flood, or shortness of water, rendered following their immediate vocation impossible, or adding to their comfort by keeping a cow or two, would never have cropped up. Flocks would have been reared and shorn, and the surplus boiled down, and a few acres broken up for the growth of cereals. Abels and Cains fitted for their generation would have vegetated on the soil, and beyond sending Home a few cargoes of wool annually, this Britain of the South would have waited the growth of ages before its importance became Felt. But not only has goldmining been added to the list of industrial pursuits, but other interests are following. In all, more or less remotely, either as a food question, or as an instrument for the production of raw material, the land question becomes important. Even where it has no im- , mediate bearing upon a special form of industry, the point is raised “ What interest has man, as one of the human

family, in the soil 1” The muttering.* of the storm were first hoard hey one* dm Study of the philosopher when tin Anti-Corn Law League were so stoufch opposed by the landed aristocracy ol Great Britain, and the fear of the dis cussion of the subject tended in no small degree to reconcile the Order to the admission of food duty free. The object of the League was gained, but the matter was not set at rest. The question has been raised again, and seems to have gained power through its sleep; for at Horae it is taking the usual course of reform : it has become a question openly discussed, and received with favor by the mass of the people. With them it will remain until its true bearing is known and appreciated, when that change will take place which ought to have formed the starting point of the Colonies, had their true interests been known. Henceforth the land question will pass into other hands than those whohave hitherto dealt with the old—most probably to unite both parties in opposition. It will assume an aspect of principle rather than expediency, and any future change will have reference to the relation of man to the earth on which he lives, and to equitable compensation for the rights which he relinquishes when he secures to another the profitable industrial occupation of the land. Years may pass before that is settled, but it is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that the warfare has begun.