The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1907. THE PRESENT PROSPERITY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2086, 22 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1907. THE PRESENT PROSPERITY.

THE LAND BILL.

At present there is a wave of prosperity flowing through the colony. Many ancl diverse reasons will be given for this. For instance, the supporters of the present Government are fond of saying that it is all due to the beneficent measures passed, and benevolent ideas evolved, by the Liberal Administration. Then the high price of wool will be adduced as the reason, beyond all others, which has brought about the present boom. Undoubtedly the handsome returns received for most of the st'aple products of this country have brought a great quantity of ready cash into circulation, and for this the Liberal Government cannot take any credit to themselves, as the wool and produce markets of the world emphatically know not Joseph —one should say Sir Joseph—Ward. Again, if one looks into the question of wool, and sees how easy it is to forecast, for one season at least, something approximate to the amount that will come forward for use by the spinners and woollen mills it will become plain that wool is not a product that lends itself to sudden rises and falls in prices. The probability is that this product has only became subject to the same influences that are buoying up tile value of most of the staple products throughout the world at the present time. We continually hear, as a reason for strikes, and trades and labor troubles generally, that although wages have increased somewhat, the cost of the necessaries of life has also increased, and out of all proport ion to the wages. This tends to show that though money is generally more plentiful than it was three or four years ago, its value or buying powor is becoming less. A satisfactory reason for all these facts, which at first appear to have no connection, may perhaps be found in quite another direction. The gold production during the last ten years, or roughly since the mines in the Hand have been thoroughly worked, has been largely on the increase. This increase was • checked by the Transvaal war, but since peace was restored the output has grown until the total production, adding on that of other countries, has been sufficient to start going the wheels of industry and commerce, and to start active speculation with the profits and surplus accruing. It will be seen that such a rapid increase in the amount of current gold must also bring about some serious and startling changes in the accepted values of things which are to be bought with that gold; and if the output of gold is to be continually augmented a very serious problem will have to be faced, .as it has gradually become the standard of value throughout the civilised world, and it is therefore the only product whose accepted value does not visibly alter. The fact is, however, that the value of gold is altering—that is to say, is becoming lower on account of its increased plenty; and as gold is the standard, every article which is to bo bought with that gold is levelling up to a higher plane of values, and is being bought and sold ilia range of prices quite different to that of a few years asm.

That the Land Bill will even be placed before Parliament during next session seems each day to become more doubtful, because of the many rebuffs it is receiving throughout the colony. Mr. McNab went on tour through the Auckland district avowedly with the intention of carrying on a campaign in favor of the Land Bill, but it is notorious that during that tour he said as little"’as possible about the Land Bill—he evidently soon came to realise that the less said the better. The present Administration has assured the country that the Bill will bo gone on -with, but after Mr. Massey’s speech at Cheviot, even the Government should recognise that to proceed with it were the i height of indiscretion. Cheviot has always been held up by Government supporters as a complete proof that the leasehold is the only good tenure; but the fact that the Cheviot settlers have succeeded cannot be accepted by reasoning men as proof that the tenure under which they took up the laud was responsible for their success. It must always be remembered that the settlers who selected the land at Cheviot was of the very best stamp—men who would, if necessary, make a success of farming waste land. Another reason for the success of the settlement is that the land was of superior quality; and when good settlers get on good land something extraordinary must happen to retard the progress of the settlement. The fallacy of the presumption .that tlio tenure was responsible for tlic success is proved by the reception received by Mr. Massey at his meeting at Cheviot. Mr. Massey had the honor of addressing the largest meeting even held at the settlement, and a motion approving the optional system was carried, a motion expressing confidence in the Government’s land policy being lost by a large majority. The feeling of the people was made as unmistakably plain at Cheviot as it was at New Plymouth. Mr. Massey went into the district which was regarded by the Government as a proof of the success of the leasehold tenure, and which was thought to bo entirely in favor of leasehold, and the settlors were of his way of thinking ip connection with land tenure almost to a map. The meaning of such action is not hard to find. The Cheviot settlors have had all the ad-1

vantages of good land and good sen sons, but thoy are not satisfied, lhoy hnvo no causo to grumble at tlie soasons and they could not have gol hotter land than they have; and when in view of those facts, there IB still dissatisfaction, what honest limn blest with the minimum of “sweet reason and not under any obligation to bolster up other systems of land tenure ean deny that Nature sun os on the New Zealand settlor and only his land tenure is vile?