PAST AND PRESENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 22, 24 June 1871, Page 11

PAST AND PRESENT.

“ There is no use in crying over spilt milk,” but there is some use in inquiring into the cause of the accident, to prevent, if possible, anything of the same kind occurring again. The blame of the existing state of things cannot exclusively be laid upon this or that person, or party, or system ; and while we would, with the Superintendent, avoid lamentation, still a knowledge of the cause of the evil will assist us in the discovery and in the application of the remedy. The chief cause of our present public and private financial embarrassments has been “ an ignorant impatience” of direct taxation, which prevails almost as much at the present time as it did when Dr Fsatherston opened the first session of the Provincial Council. He at that time recommended, though in a less effective form, the very remedies which his successor, after a lapse of eighteen years, has found it necessary to adopt. Had the policy now being inaugurated been then sanctioned by the Provincial Council the Province would have been in the possession of a large landed estate, bringing into the Treasury a considerable revenue; many of our runholders, instead of being hopelessly in debt, would have been substantial yeomen, the real and not nominal owners of large freeholds; there would have been double the number of small and prosperous farmers ; instead of only some 24,000 the Province would have contained at least 50,000 flourishing settlers ; the rising generation would have been well educated instead of remaining in comparative ignorance; while free-

hold property could not have been obtained at 50 per cent advance on the price at which it has lately been going a-begging But the policy now recommended would not then have been adopted, for the simple reason that the electors and their representatives had not then received those severe and necessary lessons in a school in which it is said that even fools may learn wisdom. That it would not then have been adopted is sufficiently proved by the circumstance that even now there is a difficulty in getting it sanctioned not only by the members of the Provincial Council but likewise by their constituents. The setting aside blocks of land for special settlement will be the best means of attracting immigrants to the province under some systematic arrangements ; and, what is far more important, of making good and permanent settlers of them after their arrival. We had a strong objection to selling the public lands on vvhat is called a system of deferred payments, because we had seen that system in operation in Canada thirty-seven years ago, and, much more recently, in another form, and under another name, in the province of Wellington, and in both cases, in the majority of instances, it had resulted in the injury or ruin of those who availed themselves of the facilities it afforded of acquiring land, and who had not the means of paying for or profitably occupying it ; but we have no objection to the system, under the limitations, conditions, and circumstances now proposed; for we quite agree with the Provincial Treasurer’s observations, that had such a measure been in operation before it would not only have made settlers of a valuable lot of men who had been working at Manawatu, but of a much larger number who have now left the province. ITe who expects to be able, from the produce of land, unopened, uncleared, unfenced, and half stocked, to secure not only a living for himself and family, but to realise a sufficient sum from it to pay even the interest on its cost, will be doomed to severe, and, to what he will consider, unmerited disappointment ; but it is a wholly different matter when the same person can secure employment on the public works going on in his vicinity, as by that means he will be able to pay for his land, and, what is of more importance, he will become a permanent and prosperous settler. Advantageous, however, as the policy of the Government will prove, whether as regards immigration, public works, credit land, or special settlements, we consider that these, though undoubtedly the most interesting and attractive features in their policy, are not to be compared in value and importance to their educational and fiscal proposals. If they had been adopted when the cheap land regulations came into force many electors now unable to read and write would have secured the advantages of a good education, aud the temptations to vest money in land instead of productive industry, or to borrow money to sink in land instead of, keeping alike out of debt and out of danger, would not have proved so irresistible. The low price of land, being unaccompanied by such a moderate land tax, for opening the country, bridging dangerous rivers, and effecting local improvements, as 'would have been unfelt by the beneficial occupier, rendered still more insecure the tenure of the runholder, and compelled him against his better judgment, and in self-defence, to go into debt for the purpose of purchasing land, which he would have delayed l acquiring if he had not felt that should he do so he would never again have the opportunity. Such a tax, instead of proving, as he imagined, injurious to him, would, by restraining land speculation, have made his tenure more secure, and have rendered it unnecessary for him to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. Thus the rates upon land now recommended would, had they been imposed in the first session of the Provincial Council, have secured many indirect and collateral advantages, besides realizing a fund for prosecuting surveys, opening up the country, reducing the cost of carriage, and supporting a scheme of education, in the benefits of which every settler in the province would more or less have participated. Had, however, Dr Featherston’s Government proposed what the present Government have had the .wisdom, courage, and public spirit to insist upon, they would have been

hooted from office, if they escaped the fate of the last of the Roman Tribunes, for daring to impose a tax which they felt to be just, and necessary, and which they knew would not be popular. What Dr Featherston could not have accomplished, had he made the attempt, his successor has been fortunately able to achieve. The fact is indicative of the foresight and pluck of the members of the new Government, and of a more enlightened feeling on the part of the Provincial Council. It was the nonrecognition, by the landed and privileged classes in France, of the great principle which had been the basis of the feudal system, “ that the tenure of property should be the fulfilment of duty,” that caused the financial embarrassments which precipitated the great revolution, It has been owing precisely to the non recognition of the same princijile by our landed and ruling classes that the present financial embarrassments of the province of Wellington are to be ascribed. By now recognising the one we shall relieve ourselves of the other.