OUR LAND LAWS: WHAT SHOULD BE THEIR BASIS?

Evening Star, Issue 4033, 29 January 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

OUR LAND LAWS: WHAT SHOULD BE THEIR BASIS?

By C. W. Purnell.

{Continued.)

The day is rapidly approaching when, throughout the civilised world, Wealth will be summoned by public opinion to show cause why it should exist at all, if unaccompanied by merit. It would long since have been brought to that trial in European countries, but for the interposition of a class which, possess* ing riches, is likewise endowed with higher attributes. In New Zealand that class has no place, while the poorer ranks of society in the Colony are permeated with an intellectual leaven which will make them far more impatient of injustice, and far readier to resentitthan the corresponding classes of society in Europe have been. Hence it is to the immediate interest of the rich to guard against the creation in the Colony of a large, body of landless poor, and of huge cities inhabited by ; festering masses of discontented people. To them such a, state of things means critical dagger. It is‘ extreme folly to ignore the existence of

new ideas on these matters. Theynre waves of inflection, ooming. no one knows Whence, batpassing through the minds of millions. People are Unking themselves—wby should a man who is in every respect detestable, whose sole virtue is the demi-animal instinct of acquiring money, be permitted to dwelj in luxury, while, the honorable man» whose bdents, werebe given a field in which to 'use>thehn might be of great the State; is conderanpd'fcq perpetual poverty, ‘ simply because but own sense of wliat is right and becoming. will not permit him to employ those I 'contemptible means of accumulating riches at which the base spirit, of his rival has never blinked ? < The old answer, diligently propagated by those interested, that it is one of tbe inevitable evils of civilisation, has losV its force. People will not believe it; It is, indeed, a monstrous lie. Modem civilisation, whether in tbefom which it assumes' in Great Britain, ot in the worse shape in. which it presents, itself in New Zealand, is an artificial product, and the Same hands which built it up can pullet down again If it has defects they can be amended; if good features, . they can be preserved. It must be granted that the enactment of an agrarian law, so as to accomplish, the object in view' and at the!.same time avoid doing injustice toindmduais, would be a difficult work. It would require statesmanship, but not a.tfyho part so much now as twenty when probably almost every available acre o£ land will be alienated from tht 1 Crown. ; • f

I It is absolutely certain that! ifAuu* tralia had husbanded her waste lands, three-fourths, perhaps the whole, of the revenue requited for the machinery of Government cotild hayb been raised from the State domain. These things’ were done in the, olden time by the Romans, and they oould be done nbw. Australia is already .tp/suffer the chastisement of retributive justice. Like New Zealand, she has scandalously squandered her estate, and is commencing to reap the fruits of ber folly. The waste of their public lands will be a black mark upon the history -' of, these Colonies, The free bestowal of. the absolute title to alltj|e soil within their borders wasrla munificent gift on the part of England to her Australian Colonies— ne*t to the right of self-government,’ttre noblest gift a parent State ever madeto its dependencies. The gift, however, implied the corresponding obligation of. a proper use of It. In the hancfebf results might have been l - achieved ty means of the waste lands of Australia and New Zealand I What rocial problems could have been solved; what relief given to ‘the, oppressed millions bf ' what happy reputations would have rested upon ‘the authors of! these successes! Yet, with their oourge unimpeded, hot a single effectual step > has been taken in Australia or New Zealand either to permanency nHlifa the public estate for revenue purposes, or to guard against the recurrence of those social evils which are the burse and dread of England, and which ate already making their appearance !in tlie large cities of Australia. ; . Ihe only real barrier against these * spcial evils is a law fbr* ' bidding the holding, by an individual,,, or family, of more than . a certain*, acreage of land, under pain of forfeiture. Such an enactment is the basis ' upon which all our land laws should be ; founded. It would rest, itself, upon natural justice, and, could be put into ■ force without any unfairness private persons. If, as I origindiy’.. suggested, an individiiil were testrictsd to 640 acres, and a family to 1,000 acres of freehold (the principle bf re-; striction is the point, however, hot the' precise area, which is a matter of de-V ; tail), it would, of course, become necessary for the State to resume a considerable quantity of land now jh pri.vate possession, paying the money. value of it; in the usual manner. ■ It > would do so on precisely : the same ground as that on which it takes land for railway purposes—-because iti is wanted for the benefit of the entire l community. It would be merely a difference in degree. There is' no; wrong done to the individual ; the V State takes back what it has lent, and gives the person affected a sum of money as compensation for the loss he would otherwise sustain.. If a, railway line becomes necessary, ; whoever heard the rights tof the landed • proprietors through whose .estates it must pass pleaded as a reason for the non-construction of the line, even though the line is a commercial speculation % The rights and privileges of individuals are hot permitted to stahd in the way in cases when a considerable section only of the community is to be beuefitted j how then can their be suffered to obstruct the path white the interests of the whole of the people are in question?

{To he continued.)