W.B. AND THE FREEHOLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 11, 4 January 1907, Page 3

W.B. AND THE FREEHOLD.

" A' roared, a' roared, a' roared like any nightingale." TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—When you blow the froth off W.B's. letter in your last issue there's a bare teaspoonful left in the bottom of the glass. As a deponent of "tikanga Maori "W.B. has few equals, but, "Ne sutor ultra crepidam ! " Any New Zealander who loves his country, and who sees, even if only indistinctly, how grave are the issues involved in the land question, cannot help voting for Mr McNab's bill. The misery, poverty, vice and crime which festers in the slums of the cities of Great Britain, and whieh for centuries has disfigured our national life, is due to two or three root causes, and none will deny that one of them is the aggregation of freehold estates, and the consequent dangerous tilting of the social scale. Desperately Great Britain staggers along under the awful lead of private monopoly and vested interests, but at last she shows signs of failing, and in an alliance with an alien race we have a manifestation of conscious weakness. But for the greed and arrogance of land and other monopolists we should have heen spared the humiliation of allying ourselves with a race of coppercoloured, cruel, truculent Asiatics. Now, although New Zealand shows a healthy disposition to break away from old, old methods, yet their influence is still strong, and the hardships of the pioneer settlers whom W.B. nearly weeps over are to a great extent due to the absorbing of national wealth by rich companies and individuals. The bush cocky doesn't want anyone to cry over him. What he wants are : metalled roads, good schools and agricultural colleges, railways, a liberal land tenure with nothing to pay but the rent, and security for his time and outlay. And, if the purity of New Zealand legislation had not been defiled by the lust of " puffed and reckless " political adventurers, he would have had all these things and more. Had New Zealand never parted with the fee simple of an-acre of its lands, town or country, this would have been, by this time, easily the finest country on the face of the earth. There would be no rates or taxes of any sort except the rent on the land; the Government would be drawing an income of anything from five to ten million annually ; the sin, sweat and sorrow associated with the real pioneer work, and the hardships and disabilities of back-block settlement, would be unknown, for metalled roads, coach services, and quick and sure communication would accompany settlement, and advance with it hand in hand. Our country would be prosperous and free, labour would be well paid in every grade, from Cabinet Minister to stoker, and all the world would envy us. And, since this is surely a '' consumation to be devoutly wished for," let us, in this sweet King Country, at any rate, vote for McNab and the leasehold ; that in the distant future our grandchildren and great grandchildren may be free and independent yeomen, instead of the bonden slaves of a profligate, corrupt and grasping plutocracy.— l am, etc., W.T.M. Whangamoana, 16/12/06.