South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1882.
Mr Montgomery’s views on the land question are generally sound, and his recent utterances in the House on the question ot settling the people on the land have not detracted from his reputation. He approaches the subject not as a theorist, but as a man of business. As he concisely put it, the main “object of laws dealing with the waste lands of the Crown should be to hold out inducements to industrious men to take up farms,” without imposing prohibitive taxation upon them. This being agreed upon, we are brought face to face with the tenure on which the industrious man of small means should be permitted to hold landed property from the Crown. Mr Rolleaton’s Land Bill provides for leaseholds* in contradistinction to freehold. Can it be doubted which tenure will in the long run prove the more conducive to the general welfare ? As Mr Montgomery put it, the freeholder is of necessity a patriot. A man will take pride in the possession, in his own inalienable right, o£ landed property. As a leaseholder he certainly will not. Moreover, the prospect of leasehold will never attract the desirable man, the men of small means, frugality, and industry, whom we wish to see settled on the land. It is urged that a man may have a lease in perpetuity—and what real difference is there between that and a freehold ? There is this difference. The freeholder may exactly count the cost to himself of the acquirement of his land, the leaseholder must pay such rent as may be placed on the land, in perpetuity. What the country wants is a low price on the land, so low as to induce desirable men to endeavor to acquire freeholds. Thus a population would grow on onr soil, and the number of consumers, and contribntors to the revenue, would be indefinitely multiplied. The augmented Customs duties which would come to the State would enrich the country far more truly than the high«r price paid for land by a few. The State ought not eternally to seek for profit on its lands. It is through its duties that the best of its revenue is derived. And it should be the aim of a government professing to have the interests of the people at heart.—it will soon be forced upon the legislature—to break up the monopolies and open to the people the countless thousands of acres of land now locked up in the hands of a few large capitalists. Land is sold for reasonable purposes—a man has no right to keep an enormous block of arable laadl in. grass or tussock for ever, feeding sheep and supporting no population. Such blocks should be so taxed as to compel the holders to part with them, or to cultivate thera themaelves. No provisions like these are made i n Mr Rolleston’s Land Act; and t/oerefore, although we credit the hnu. gentleman with theoretical liberality, we cannot (as we should have liked) give it support. It is evident he does not view the freehold question aright, or properly estimate popular Reeling in favor of it. Mr BoHeston is an honest man, but though he thinks himself so, be is not a liberal one-
The opening in Timaru of a Lodge of Droids is a notable event in the history of the fraternity. For it appears, by the authoritative statements made last night at the banquet, that no Druid Lodge was ever opened south of the Line, with so large a number of members. Indeed the District President, who occupied the chair, went so far as to say that rarely, if ever, did any lodge in 'Great Britain begin its career with so large a muster-roll so far of the Order. Bat that does not so much concern our present purpose. If we mistake not, it is not from any particular enthusiasm in Druidism in the abstract,that the majority at any rate have joined. It is because prudence, and provident habits are growing, among men formerly devoid of them, that so many persons come forward to join the Friendly Societies. The Foresters and Oddfellows muster strongly, and yet close on one hundred : men came forward to join the Druids’ Order. The influence of the Friendly Societies upon the mass has been referred to in the House, as a thing never to be left out of calculation. As Friendly Societies grow, we fell sure the need for charitable aid will disappear. And this leaves untouched their influence on political education and that is not to be ignored. The principles of law and order are by many persons first understood and valued in the lodge room. On all these grounds, the Druids are to be congratulated on the success which has attended tbeir opening.
The condition of affairs on the other side of the world is just now critical in the extreme, and it will bo seen on reference to the cable news, that the position of the Mother Country is more peculiar than it has been for centuries. To give her even a bare chance of either averting or weathering the storm, will require the exercise of the highest statesmanship, the most devoted patriotism, and the utmost
military skill and courage. The mantle of his , great predecessor in office appears to have so far fallen upon Mr Gladstone as to nerve him to meet the situation with steadiness and courage; and the patriotic devotion of the Tory party has tremendously strengthened the hands of the Government. The army and navy we know. Whoever is in office, we need have no fear of them when the time of need comes. Their reputation has been too hardly won in too many bloody engagements to be easily sacrificed. But we must prepare for a fiery ordeal, which not all the diplomatic talent of the Empire may be able to keep us out of. We have to do first with Turkey, a power on whose word no dependence whatever can be placed. A Turkish army corps in Egypt will he but an additional source of anxiety. Bussia, in tho distance, watches like Mepbistophiles the course of events, and holds herself in readiness for strife which she has probably done her utmost to kindle. There seems no assurance that any power will co-operate heartily with England. In effect it amounts to this: England’s Indian Empire, and her moral influence as well as physical ascendancy over the Moslem population of that Empire, are at stake, and certainly these are her affairs, and hers alone. No European power has the slightest interest in assisting her to maintain those. On the contrary, there are powers which have a very decided interest in annihilating these. She must face the trouble single-handed ; and it may come in terrible earnest. With this new difficulty cropping up, there is the old and standing Irish grievance, just now aggravated by the strike of the Constabulary. This body (in the absence of the military, who would probably be called out in immense numbers, should the worst come) form the sheet anchor of English authority in Ireland. We trust, however, there will be at least a lull in Irish affairs for the time being. And we hope this in no selfish spirit, but purely in the interests of the Irish people themselves : for we firmly believe that a revival of former atrocities in Ireland would be followed by such an enormous popular uprising against the malcontents, that the authority of the Crown would be powerless to prevent a civil ! war of au exterminatory character. However there remains the reassuring fact that the great heart of the empire is sound and loyal. There are discontented and rebellious sections, bat even these become loyal in presence of a foreign enemy. “ Come the whole world in arms, nought shall make us me, if England to herself do rest bat true.”
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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2924, 9 August 1882, Page 2
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1,319South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1882. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2924, 9 August 1882, Page 2
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