The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 29, 27 January 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1877.

Mr. Ballance m his recent address to his constituents complained, not without reason, that while men like Colonel Feilding and Mr Broomhall, with whom settlement was a commercial speculation, received every encouragement from Government, cold water was thrown upon associations formed within the Colony and by colonists for the purpose of settling themselves upon the land on the deferred-payment system. He remarked that Major Atkinson had publicly endorsed the doctrine that the public lands ought not to be dealt with as mere merchandise, and that settlement, not revenue, ought to be the main object of our land policy. But between the Premier's utterances on this subject, and the attitude assumed by his Go vernment towards the Small Farm Associations, Mr Ballance finds a strange discrepancy, of which, it strikes us, it is very important to ascertain the cause. We may say at once that we do not believe that cause is to be found m any characteristic disingenuousness on the part of Major Atkinson. On the contrary we hold that his incorrigibly outspoken honesty unfits him for the leadership of a Government or of a party ; for m either of these positions it is decidedly a misfortune to be too honest, a little elasticity of conscience being an indispensable qualification. A well known incident m the history of the present Government illustrates what we say. When Mr Whitaker took office m it he stipulated that he should take precedence of the Premier at Government House, and the latter conceded the point, displaying therein, as some thought, great weakness, but, as we think, a want of the requisite elasticity of conscience, and nothing more. The good Major doubtless reasoned somewhat thus. " Here is the public business m danger of going to the dogs, and I am asked to prevent this by making a

certain concession iv order to secure a colleague. The thing to be conceded is really of no consequence; for what, m tlie name of common sense, does it matter to me who goes m first at His Excellency's levees or the Marchioness' balls ? " — So reasoned the conscientious man of business who understood no other tactics than those embodied m the precept " Take heed unto the thing that is right." Not that we mean to insinuate anything against Mr Whitaker' s orthodoxy. Far be it from us to do so, especially as the ancient Philoso-pher-King who laid down the maxim just quoted has enunciated another which says "Be not righteous overmuch," and which, we are quite willing to believe, determined Mr Whitaker's course of action on the occasion m question. Mr Whitaker knows as well as Solomon did how v■■-■>.'.u ■■-■>.'. ■■r.-.'A'y self-assertion is to a public ma.i, ii success m that capacity be .iit> object rather than the public good. He knows that, though the gem may be the gem after all, yet if from any accident — such as diffidence or ultra-conscientiousness — it fails to glitter as brilliantly as the glass bauble, the public, too much occupied with their own private affairs to investigate the merits of the gem, will reject it m favour of the bauble. We do not mean that Mr Whitaker is a bauble, seeing that he had Scripture on his side — a fact which is to us an "end of controversy" as to thecourse adopted by him, for we claim to be as orthodox as he. It is not of him but of Major Atkinson we wish to speak. How comes it that a thoroughly straightforward man of business, like the Premier, acts inconsistently with his professions m this matter of the deferred payment system ? Why does he, to some extent, discourage it m practice while approving of it m words? For. that he does approve of it seems — to us at least — a necessary corollary from the fact of his laying down the principle that settlement, not revenue, ought to be the basis of our laud policy. We fchink the explanation is to be found m those very qualities for which we have given him credit. He does not care for precedence at Government House, but he does care very much for his reputation as a man of business — as an administrator; and he sees clearly that that reputation will be endangered by the extension of the deferred-payment system. The effect of such extension will he to overwhelm the Administration with an amount of work which no Government could possibly get through. The desire for land is so wide-spread that, if deferred payment became the general rule, the Government would soon find itself m the position of a landlord having to collect rents and look after tenants all over the Colony. This is what the Premier shrinks from, and what every future Premier will shrink from ; because the prospect which it holds out is that of loss of reputation. When the work becomes impracticable the public will nevertheless grumble at its being left undone or mismanaged, and the Government will be accused of incapacity or negligence, when the truth is that it is only overworked. Tet we must have the deferred-payment system carried out far more extensively than at pre. sent, and the question therefore arises, how are we to obviate that difficulty m tbe working of it which has just been pointed out ? We do not pretend to elaborate a system but only to offer a simple suggestion for which what we have been saying thus far is intended as a preparation, and whichis as follows : — Mr Ballance remarks that Government are eager enough to deal with such bodies as the Emigrant and Colonists Aid Corporation, of Feilding. Now the reason of this we believe to be that dealing with such bodies lessens the trouble and responsibility of carrying out the de-ferred-payment system. With the Feilding Corporation the Government deals as with an individual, and is spared the labour of working out the details of the deferred-payment system, which labour devolves upon the Corporation. Therefore we' say, let the Small Farm Associations transform themselves into bodies corporate having legal existence as such, and let them have their affairs managed as those of such bodies are — by Directors chosen from among the shareholders. Let the Corporation alone be responsible to Government ; let the Crown Grant be issued m favour of the Corporation ; and let the division of the block and the collection of the rents, &c, be undertaken by the Corporation. This would render the " co-operation" of which Mr Ballance speaks a real cooperation, whereas at present it is only nominal, the Small Farm Associations being merely the " fortuitous concourse of atoms" between which there is no other connection or interdependence than that of companion-

ship. We merely throw out this suggestion m the hope that it may he discussed, and therefore we shall not go into details, for the consideration of which there will be plenty of time before Parliament meets or a Land Bill is brought forward.