FACTS FROM GWEEDORE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 99, 7 October 1852, Page 3

FACTS FROM GWEEDORE.

(From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.) Tis reasonable to suppose that the use of such flesh will raise some infectiousdisease among the people, and may very reasonably ho supposed (lint (lie people will die more

numerous tlian the cailleand sheep, if some Immediate relief are nol sent to alleviate their hunger. ' Now, mv lord, it inav perhaps seem inconsistent with tnitli that all that I have said could possibly bo true; hut if any unprejudiced gentleman should he sent here to investigate mv report, L will, if called on, go with him from house to house, where hiscyes will fully satisfy anil convince him, and, where I can show him about one hundred and forlv children bare-naked, and was bo during winter, and some hundreds only covered wiih lillliy rags, most disgustful to look at. Also man and beast housed together ; that is, the families in one end of the house, anil the cattle in the other. Some houses having within their walls from one tr i! irlv hunrcdweighls of dung, others havii.i, from ten to fifteen lons ( weight of dung, and only cleaned out once in a year! ' I have also to add, that the national school has grealely decreased in number of scholars, through hunger and extreme povertv; and the teacherof said school, with a family of nine persons, depending on a salary SI. a-vear, without any benefit from anv other source. If I may hyperbolieally speak, it is an honour for the Hoard of Education!' It would be scarcely possible to imagine a state of more deplorable than is here repicscnic!; mid it will appear surprising how such abject destitution should have occurred at all. This involves an interesting point in political economy; affording a slri! ingpiclure of the abyss into which a people may sink by following a wrong social and industrial system. It may he Said that affairs could not have sunk into so lamentable a condition had the landowners resided on their properties; but at the same lime it would be 100 much to impute blame exclusively to akenteeship. The landlords drew comparatively little money from their properties. The rails were small, and ill paid. Arrears freipieuily accumulated for years; bailiffs were afraid to execute writs within the districts; and often no rents were paid at all. Practically, the land was held in permanence by the tenants. There was no getting ihem out of it. They appropriated and used, divided and subdivided, mortgaged and bebuealhed their farms just as if they had been their own property. In the course of lime, accordingly, the whole district was cut up into palchesjand had got intoa numerous : variety of hands, altogether different from those acknowledged by the lawful owner. As an instance of this species of subdivision and transfer, one field of about half an acre was held by twenty-six persons. 'The farms were also frequently, at the death of parents reduced lo atoms at once; being then divided among all the children: in such cases, when the farm was small, it left to each a mere shred, and by this simple process Ihc next generation were beggars.' The whole district, therefore, was as nearly as possible an arbitrary appropriation by its inhabitants; anil yet those people, in doing what they liked, were plunged into a state of poverty the most appealing the imagination can concicve. Those who entertain the theory that capitalistsarenionslersof rapacity, and that the world might be transformed into an earthly paradise by giving every man bis acre, will do well to ponder on this instructive fact. The Iruih is, neither the landlords nor tenants were specially to blame. The error lay in a system which had been growing up for ages, and of which both parties were ultimately the victims. The practice of dividing and* re-dividing the lands, to accommodate a poor and increasing population, was the proximate source of deterioration. We are told that in many instances farraershad patches of laud in thirty to forty different places, without fences to seperate them from other patches, or to keep out cattle; and it was a rule that such patches should be of different qualities—good, middling, and bad—in order that all mightsharc alike. Disputes, lights-, trespasses, and confusion were the natural consequences of this Rmuloh system, as it was called ; and sometimes a poor man would abandon his inheritance of thirty shreds ofground, in utter despair of ever being able lo make them out. Worse than all 'on a certain day all the cattle of the lownland were brought front the mountains, and allowed to run indiscriminately over the arable land, and any that had not the potatoes dug, or the crops off the ground, were much injured; neither could any one man venture to grow turnips, clover, or other green crops, for nothing' short of seven-feet wall would keep out the. mountain sheep.' In addition, there prevailed a practice of holding pieces of land in partnership, and the very PTiimals were somelimes matter of division. 'ln an adjacent sland, Ihret men were concornod in ,one

horse; bul ihe poor brulo was rendered Useless,.as the unfortunate fool of the superiiiimcrary leg remained unshod, none of a them being willing to acknowledge its dependency, and accordingly it became quite lame. There were many intestine rows on the subject; at length one of the " company" came to the maintain), add called on a magistrate for advice, slating that the animal was entirely useless now; that he had not only kept up, decently, his proper hool'nt his own expence, but had shod this fourth foot twice to hoot! yet the other two proprietors resolutely refused to shoe more than their \ iron fool!' Here we may close the evidence as to the condition of fiwecdorc previous to 4838, in which year, and subsequently, the properties now composing the estate were purchased by Lord George Hill. We shall now see how his lordship set to work to remedy this state of affairs. The acquisition and transference or land in Ireland is usually a mailer of serious diflicully; any attempt to reorganise the tenantries being frequently visited by the assassination of the principal or his agentsPerhaps too little pains is taken on such occasions to explain matters to the people, or to commence in the right way. It does not appear that f.ord George Hill was exposed to any thing like indignity or outrage on taking possession of his properly or remodelling the tenantries. Fearless of danger, he went Willi his agent to reside on the spot, central lo Ihe operations which he intended to pursue. His object was to become personally acquainted with his tenantry, and so oblaiii an insighl into their condition and character. For this purpose, on establishing himself at Gwccdoro, he visited every house in Ihe district, and entered into conversation with its inmates in their own tongue, which he fortunately was able to speak. The intercourse so established was pleasing and attractive lo the people, who hail never before heard the language of sympathy from a superior; and they asserted that their new landlord 'could not be a lord at all, particularly as he spoke Irish.' To be continued.