THE PASSING OF THE FREEHOLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 39, 19 July 1907, Page 3

THE PASSING OF THE FREEHOLD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —T am sorry to have misunderstood " W.T.M." so badly. Obviously, the reason that no personal sacrifice would be required from the farmer is, that, in accepting " W.T.M's." invitation to "Bury the spectres of the cruel and barbarous past," he would also bury the Freehold Tenure of land, which " W.T.M." evidently classes in the same category as the Spanish Inquisition and the practice of cannibalism, and he would have no chance of ever becoming a " robber owner." Does the State landlord create the money with which it makes concessions and advances to the farmers? Or does it, as our Government apparently does, borrow the money from the vultures that batten on the pestilential freehold, and act as their agent and interest collector. Herbert Spencer may have been a philosopher, but it is certain that he had no experience of farming for a living; at any rate not under the harsh and arbitrary conditions which I have known to be enforced by Land Boards in New Zealand. And the fact of the Commission, which is assisting the tenant farmers in Ireland, to become small freeholders, not having taken his advice, seems to indicate that his theories are not in much repute at home. It is gratifying to note that your correspondent gives cur farmers credit for being able to think, but he has seemingly failed to notice that the signs of the times all indicate that their thinking has led them to form quite different opinions to himself. As, witness the attitude of the New Zealand Farmers' Union on the subject; also, the report of the late Land Commission; and the records of the forms of tenure chosen by applicants for land, at recent land ballots, when they were allowed to choose. The alluring picture drawn by " W.T.M." of the bliss attainable by leaseholders, reminds one of the little verse about the spider and the fly, though I hardly think that our farmers will be foolish enough to walk into the parlour provided by Land Nationalises and Single-taxers, andifurnished, according to "W.T.M.," with periodic revaluations. They will rather prefer to be counselled by an older and better known philosopher, viz., Solomon, who warns them not to despise the guidance and advice of their parents, who have always had a marked partiality for the freehold tenure. —I am, etc., A.M.T.