NEW ZEALAND AND THE ENGLISH TENANT FARMERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5767, 23 September 1879, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND THE ENGLISH TENANT FARMERS.

The following letter is printed in the Daily News : | “ Sir, —A few days after my arrivafi in England, I attended a meeting of tenant farmers held in London to consider soma practical measures for their relief. Allow me, through your universal columns, to suggest a remedy which I venture to think will meet their case far better than anything they can hope for from any changes to be effected by legislation. Hannah Moore was once asked by a friend what he ought to think of himself if he allowed a person to deceive him in a matter of importance twice. 1 Think yourself a fool,’ was the prompt reply. So of the English tenant farmers and the Government. If, after the mockery they have received in the shape of ameliorative legislation, they allow themselves to be deceived again, there is but one possible verdict. No. Their remedy lies in the direction taken by their laborers—New Zealand. I have just returned from that splendid colony, and one of the deepest convictions which I have received from my visit is, that if the half of its advantages were realised by the hard-pressed English agriculturists, there would goon he an end to their difficulties. They would sell out, and like the Irish farmers on Mr. G. Vesey Stewart’s settlement of KatiKati, spend their labor and capital on their ewn land. The amount paid for rent in England purchases tho freehold in New Zealand. And what that means you must go and spend a week or two with the freeholders to know. Instead of wasting capital in enriching wealthy and luxurious landlords, they are at work enriching themselves. Instead of paying vast sums annually for the privilege of growing hares, pheasants, and partridges for ‘ my lord's ’ enjoyment, they are reaping the fruit of their toil and sharing with their own families the game which their own corn has fed. No more rent audits ;no more fear of fussy and impertinent stewards ; no more ignoble propitiations of tell-tale gamekeepers ; no more subserviency to dreaded landlords ; no more slavery to stringent lease clauses. In a word, no more bartering away of the birthright of freedom for a ‘mess of pottage.’ I dare not occupy your valuable space with particulars of New Zealand openings for English farmers. I must seek some other channel of discourse. My aim now is simply to give a hint to my friends—if they will allow me to call them such. lam deeply sensible, of the fact that the advance of wages which has resulted from the extensive emigration of laborers to New Zealand has re-acted disastrously upon a large portion of their employers. Bitterly as I regret this, after witnessing the consequent gain to the laborer, I cannot but rejoice in his social redemption. The best possible compensation those of us who have promoted the laborers’ movement can make to employers is to urge them to ‘ go and do likewise,’ and I am glad to see that the New Zealand Agent-General is offering special facilities for middle-class emigration to the ‘England of the Pacific.’ “ Arthur Clayden. “13, Clapham-common-gardens, S.W.”