New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 37, 7 October 1871, Page 10

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1871. THE WEEK.

In a recent leader we referred, with approbation, to the Factory and Workshops Acts now in operation in England. Under the former, children employed in factories, under thirteen years of age, are obliged to go to school half days ; and, under the latter, all children employed in labor from eleven to thirteen, whether under their parents or an employer, are obliged to go to school for half days. No less than eighty million of people in Europe are now under the law of compulsory educacation. We trust, consequently, that those provisions in the Education Bill relating to the subject will be retained by the Committee, not as substitutes for, but in addition to those imposing a capitation tax. It may subserve the interests of bon. members to represent that an equal house rate would be acceptable, while the compulsory provisions could not be enforced ; but from our knowledge we believe that the exact contrary would prove the case —that an equal house rate will not be submitted to, and that the compulsory clauses, if fees are not demanded, will prove very effective. We put the question to the members of the Committee and also to the members of the Legislative Council, how they can justly impose educational rates on householders, and others, who have no children to educate, or who educate them themselves, without they, at the same time, make education compulsory ? Unless this be done, those persons will be compelled to contribute to the cost of the education of children who would be educated without such a contribution, while the object for imposing the rate will be defeated. In England there are two millions of children who do not go to school; not owing to the absence of schools, but to the absence of the compulsory law. We speak of elementary schools, for there are plenty of other schools, which do not go by that name, where a large proportion of those children get an education, and that of the worst description. We may state, while on the subject, that out of 1000 Prussian recruits there were only eight who could not read and write, while in England one-fourth of them could do neither. Dr Renwick recently introduced into the Legislative Councii a bill having for its professed object the promotion of the settlement of the waste lands in the province of Nelson. It appears that in that province pastoral lands are leased for a period of fourteen years at the rate of five per cent upon their assessed value. By the above bill it is proposed to give the same power of leasing over agricultural land, for a period of fourteen years, at the rate of ten per cent upon the value, to be assessed by the waste lands board, and that at the end of the lease, the lessee to be entitled to a free grant of the land without any further payment. No person to have a lease for more than two hundred acres. If such liberal provisions had been from the first adopted, thousands of persons who have left that province would have remained in it, while thousands of others would have been attracted to it. They come, like those adopted for this province, “ a day behind the fair.” In supporting the measure, Dr Renwick said, he had had some experience in farming, had observed what his neighbors were doing, and had come to the conclusion that anything like farming on a large scale would not pay ; not, at all events, in the province of Nelson. The price of labor bore too high a ratio to the value of the produce. He believed that farming only paid where the farmer had the greater portion of the labor required within his own family. But surely it did not require an experience of thirty years to arrive at this conclusion The fact was well known twenty years ago, and yet from that time to this no measures to promote the settlement of the agricultural lands of the colony, except in Otago, have been adopted. And how does Dr Renwick’s statement bear on the opinion of Colonel Russell that large landed estates in New Zealand are a public benefit.”

There is scarcely a measure of more importance at the present time than the one proposed to be introduced by the Government for facilitating the acquisition of land required for railway purposes ; we most earnestly trust it will be provided in the bill that land in the vicinity of railway stations can be acquired by the Government on similar terms and condi-

tions to those imposed relative to the acquisition of the land through which the railway runs. Nobody desires to see the owners of landed property placed at a disadvantage on account of portions of their land being required for railways ; but in the interest of the colony, and in the interest of posterity, the public have a right to insist that the legislature make some provision to secure for the public treasury some of the advantages which will accrue from the expenditure of public money, and not allow these to be monopolised altogether by private parties, who have had the good luck to be in possession of land in the vicinity of a proposed railway station ; which, without any expenditure or exertion on their part, but solely through the action of the Government has been enhanced in value from £3 to probably £3OO per acre. If, by the action of the Government, their land has been depreciated, instead of appreciated to anything like that extent in value, they would be entitled to compensation from the Government. In the interest of the public, therefore, we invite the early and earnest attention of the Government and legislature to this important branch of the question. A bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives, by Mr Creighton, to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors. It embodies, we believe, what is known as the “ permissive principle,” in support of which petitions from all parts of the colony, in some instances very numerously signed, have been presented to the House during the present session. We have not as yet seen a copy of the bill, but we understand that it is proposed to give to the inhabitants of town and districts a veto on the granting of publicans’ licenses ; in other words it is proposed to vest the power of granting or refusing applications for publicans’ licenses in the people themselves instead of a Bench of Magistrates. If two-thirds of the adult inhabitants of any specifie 1 locality object to the granting of certain licenses, or of any licenses, within their district, and make known their wish, in a legal form, to the licensing bench, the bench are precluded from granting any such license or licenses in that particular district; butif no petitions, fulfilling the prescribed conditions, are presented, licenses can be granted at the discretion of the bench, under certain conditions and restrictions as at present. Though we should have preferred a Bill which would have insisted upon publicans paying heavy fees and fulfilling certain stringent conditions, as to accommodation for travellers and guests, in return for the monopoly granted to them, besides providing for the inspectorship, and emboyding the penal clauses provided in Mr Bruce’s Bill, we think that Mr Creighton deserves great credit for bringing the subject before the House, and we sincerly trust that it will be the means of effecting a radical alteration in the existing licensing Bystem.