BUSH SETTLERS.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 357, 17 April 1908, Page 2

BUSH SETTLERS.

(to THE EDITOR.) Siu, —Seeing that yoor readers are mostly bush settlors, it seem* qhl-losh for me to dwell upon tbo hardships they continually undergo in earning the value Mr E.A.L, is pleased to nay is exploited from tho Government. The bash settler of New Zealand mnst perforce be endowed with a robust constifntion and be physically strong. It is one of those positions upon the door of which hangs th ■ motto “No wpikliuge need apply,” yot with till his strength of will aud muscle, you will find him often a wreck at middl* age, through the incessant toil in wet ba’b. He is expected to work early nod t. il late, and after dark you will often H id him upon the tracks with his packhorses. Sunday, when nil the world’s at rest, ho must track tha wild bush

boar to his lair, for his week's supply of meat. It is a condition of things entailed upon him. No reat for the settler. He more than likely was induc’d t<» taka bis wife into that roadless forost, under the aholtericg promises made by the Ministers or Pre ruior, of roads, and after while be will, with the help of bis neighbours, have to carry her out. It is a nerve-rack-ing, lonely life fo r a womau, knowing her husband is among falling timber all day, and with the grind and fight againwt poverty ; with the continual thought of no education for ber ohiL doen, is it any wonder they completely break down and are carried out, «om°timea nover to return, either dying or placed in tbe borne for the mentally wonk. The man who trys to make a borne, aud through unfulfilled promises of the responsible Minister loeca bi« loved one and aces bis children reared without education or culture, that man is entitled to no unearned increment. His pain, his toil, bis wife and child ren’s labour and their trials and disco nforts are all borne to mike a borne in the fori at. They thought it was their own, but no, Mr A E L. says that is exploitation. The?e hardships of the settler’s life are never taken into consideration by A. E. L and his class who know nothing of it end can hardly bo expected to understand. But it is a real factor in determining the antarued increment. If it is pl»c.d on tbe debt side or tbe ledger yon will find tbe credit was overdrawn long before the sale of lhe farm.—Yours, etc., PETER ROSS. [This letter was too lengthy for one issue, consequently tbe balance will appear next week.—Ed. 8.)