The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4146, 10 June 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1876.

There are signs of a coming storm on _ The Land The indica* tions are not only of the striking character of that afforded by the Canterterbury elections, where the great Constitutional (question which was shaking all the rest of the country was practically disregarded in favor of the miserably selfish one as to whether or not the present leases of the Canteibury pastoral tenants should be renewed, and if so, upon what terms; but there are numerous little portents, trivial in appearance, but none the less significant and ominous of a determination in certain quarters lb make the public weal, if possible, subservient to private interests. Our contemporary the 1 Otago Daily Times/ for example, has latterly been disclosing its true colors on this question. Until recently it claimed to bo heartily desirous of promoting settlement, and while, in its own graceful and honest fashion, never neglecting an opportunity to insinuate something which might damage the cause it pretended to have at heart, still avowedly professed to desire the occupation of the land by men instead of sheep. But now the time for action is approaching, and our friend, suddenly impelled by that mysterious influence which prompts it on these occasions, emerges from its covert, and ranks itself with the party which, it need hardly be said, is not that of patriotism. A few nights ago a lecture on “ The Land Question ” was deliat the Athenaeum. A squatter was in the chair, a land and estate agent was the lecturer, and 4 the audience comprised some twenty or thirty persons, all of whom seemed to entirely disagree with the opinions expressed by the lecturer. Such a performance might well have been left to its own native obscurity, but our contemporary, who diligently suppresses, as far as it can, all views on the land question adverse to the particular interests which it advocates, however fairly or ably they may be urged, must needs reprint this precious lecture at full toagth, and expatiate oaita merit* with

fervid eloquence. Had it not done the first its laudation might possibly have been deemed, justifiable, but the words of the lecturer are amply sufficient to belie the praise. The whole edifice raised by him stands upon two conspicuous fallacies; the first being that the price of wool will continue permanently so high that a market can always be found for as much wool as the people of Otago like to grow j and the second, that the sole alternative from the growth of wool is the growth of grain. Such arguments are really too absurd. It is only a few years since the price of wool had sunk to so low an ebb that three-fourths of the runholders of Canterbury and Otago were practically in a state of insolvency. Many of them had to make arrangements with their creditors, while numerous others held their runs merely as tenants of banks and financial companies. In the Christchurch • market sheep could be bought at eighteenpence a head, while on distant stations they were killed by wholesale becauseit would not pay to keep them. Similar eras of depression had occurred in the Colonies before. For the last eighteen months wool has been declining in value, and is still falling j while an early recovery of price is extremely improbable. There has been a general over-produc-tion of wool in the countries where it is grown, and it would be just as foolish, in a commercial point of view, for the people of Otago to pin their faith to wool as it would be for them to pin their faith to wheat. Doubtless there has been an over - production of wheat and oats in this Province, and if the farmers persist in growing excessive quantities of these cereals, they will sooner or later bum their fingers; in fact, some of them have done so already. It was not, however, left for the ‘Otago Daily Times ’ and its protege to make this discovery. Farmers grow wheat for the same reason as runholders rear sheep, namely, because it pays them to do so , and notwithstanding all the warnings of “theorists,” each party is pretty certain to continue producing wheat or wool until a market can no longer be found for such commodities, and then it will direct its energies towards some more saleable product. A community, so far as its land is concerned, is unwise to trust solely to, any particular commodity; it should have a number of strings to its bow. That “classification” of the waste lands, for which the ‘ (Mgo Daily Times ’ longs so ardently, is hardly so near as it thinks. The disinterested band of brothers, whose interests it advocates whenever it sees a chance, have been over-impatient on the present occasion. They have explained too clearly what “ classification ” means. The .'squatters’ Paradise depicted by them is I, not alluring to the bulk of the community. The settlers of Otago did not come here to degenerate into a race of herdsmen and sheep-tenders, abjectly serving a few Shepherd Kings. It may be very wrong for John Styles, who—degraded being!—is not the possessor of “ capital,” to wish for a farm of his own, and extremely pernicious, in a mercantile sense, for him to enter upon an avocation to which he has never been trained. Doubtless every applicant for a 200-acre section on deferred payments ought to be subjected te a severe examination touching his fitness to be a farmer; but if we are to have competitive examinations ( of this kind, they must go all round, and when an enterprising capitalist lodges an application to buy 66,000 acres of waste land at one fell swoop, it is surely of infinite public importance that he should be strictly questioned whether or not he is capable of applying so vast an area to purposes that will be useful to the State; or whether he merely wants to buy it for speculative purposes. Our journalistic friend will perceive that he is opening up large and dangerous questions.