The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, June 26, 1915. ILL FARES THE LAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1416, 26 June 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, June 26, 1915. ILL FARES THE LAND.

It’s a long cry to the time when Goldsmith wrote the following lines : “111 fares the land lo hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.” But it rings true to-day. Goldsmith saw the avarious wealthy adding acre to acre and the trade of the village dwindle, the youth depart to the city, there to deteriorate and those who remained behind the serfs of the idle rich — the land monopolists. Thank heaven w.e are -more advanced in land legislation iu this country than in the Old Band, Yet we have only touched the fringe of the laud settlement problem. The area of land a man is entitled to hold iu this country is limited or is supposed to be, but as a matter of fact dummying and aggregation is still worked to a fine art. It is absurd to deny this fact. We believe, however, that the Government is honestly endeavours Ing to bring the country into closer cultivation and is after the scalp of the laud monopolist. No person should be allowed to hold more land thin he can profitably work, otherwise he is hindering the Dominion’s prosperity and is adding to his wealth at the expense of the State. At Palmerston last Tuesday, the Prime Minister, the Hon. Mr Massey, said our prosperity depended upon closer settlement and improving the productivity of the soil Everyone who has the welfare of the people of this Dominion at heart will endorse Mr Massey’s views and we look to him and his Government to set to work and prosecute land settlement in this district.