THE PROTECTION FALLACY AND LAND SETTLEMENT.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 12, 16 July 1892, Page 2

THE PROTECTION FALLACY AND LAND SETTLEMENT.

to the editor of the STAR. Sir, — From pressure upon space and a desire to do justice to all, you had to omit the concluding part of my last letter, which part was of the greatest importance to the class most desired in this colony at present, namely, the small farmer holding an area of land from 40 up to 200 acres according to quality and nearness to market. My letter touched upon the benefit derived from the frozen mutton trade. Now, there is always an idea of large runs connected with sheep farming in the minds of the small farmers and the working man. Sheep breeding as a rule requires a larger area of land than cattle rearing or grain production ; but, with a fair market value for dairy produce, etc., there is more profit in a small farm, although a greater amount of labor proportionately is required. In looking back to that wave of depression which spread over all quarters of the globe some years back, it must be remembered by the observant that wool, and afterwards frozen mutton, were the only products that returned to the farmer a fair percentage of profit during that period. It is true that those who had small farms of their own could live, but those encumbered by mortgages, or the lease holder, had a hard struggle to make ends meet. The Liberals must be perfectly well aware that this condition of things existed, but in an article I happened to read in the Wanganui Herald, and from other sources, the Liberals accuse the Conservatives of locking up the land, but this is false, as neither party could ; create a market and thereby a demand I for labour that did not exist, the produce market and the demand and supply of labor being world wide, and therefore in a very trifling degree controlled locally. The frozen meat trade started at a very opportune time when wool, kauri gum, and other minor products, were barely sufficient to keep this colony in a sound financial condition. This was 'a time, in fact, for extending settlement and utilizing capital on rough ot bush land, therefore the above trade proved to be a blessing to this cohjpy a.t a very critical period of its history, and leaves no plea to impose unjust taxation upon farmers owning large areas of land, but now that there is a prospect for the small farmer in the butter and cheese market, and other products, a fair share of the Crown Lands now being taken up should fall into the hands of the small farmers. From the foregoing it becomes apparent that the greater part of the credit and thanks for increasing settlement on the land, and the . surplus in revenue, are due to England's Freetrade policy, but instead of thanks the Liberals seem determined to cripple or kill that trade by a narrow minded policy of Protection. The acquirement of rough or bush land had been made easy by the deferred payment system, and before tne Liberals came last into power, but with the exception of.. land taken up under that objectionable form of perpetual lease which would tend to transform men into mere creatures or slaves of the State and favour a return to a despotic form of Government in the future. I do not see that the Land laws have been made easier under the Government. I am, etc., A Colonist. P.S. — I see by a correspondent in the N.Z. Times the large runs down South which were cut up and sold to small farmers, is proving a failure, those farmers selling out to neighbouring farmers, and going into bush country to take up a larger area of land so " small running " on a large scale seems as yet premature.