THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1746, 8 June 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

■“ A man may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.

The Opposition would do well in their own interest to give over ill-ojnened prophecies about the Government and its doings, and try to formulate some policy likely to be more acceptable to the. country than that of Seddon and Co. Hitherto at any rate the Jeremiahs of Stout, Bussell and Hutchison have been signally falsified, and in no instance more signally than in the case of Mr Ward’s visit to England. The Ministry are to be commended for their discretion in refusing to be prematurely drawn as do the object of that visit, and the Colonial Treasurer, in particular, for his. tact and firmness in dealing with the million and a half loan, the Bank of England, and though last not least, the New Plymouth and Oamaru bondholders. Old. faulter and politidian as he i 3, Sir John Ludbock, the Chairman of the Council of Foreign Bondholders, made a woeful mistake in trying io bounce our Treasurer. The latter told hfm straight he was not to be bounced and that the New Plymouth creditors] had no claim on Government/ nor indeed much reason to growl at the Taranakians as, nil arrears of interest'had been, or wbuld by next instalment, .be paid off and distinctly declined arbitration suggested in the style of “ Woiild yod walk into my parlour? Said the spider to the flyi He also told the Oaniaru bondholder*) that they had made a great mistake in putting in a receiver 1 as they,had thereby aliefiated the sympathies 8f their debtors who were doing their best to pay in full. He gave the quietus ozice for all to the proposal that Government should take over the Harbour Board loans, throughout the colony. Mr Ward’s diplomacy was successful with the Bank of England also, whose directors had persistently refused to rediice their charge for the management of otlr debt, but promptly conceded a reduction of some £3600 a. year to Mr Wara. . . *

This success must bo a sore-.disappoint-; menfc to the Jeremiahs-of the Herald, who persistently belittled-Mr Ward’s visit to-' home; “So Hard-up. is tHat. bigoted Opposition organ for matter of complaint'against the Ministry, that the broken window, in. the Pukekohe Court-house Was raked'into the service: We never heard of a man breaking a pane of glass to 1 get, shelter arid food ifi prison till the present Ministry were in office. Such is Mercutio’s comment. If it were not for the genuine Scotch flavour of our eminent contemporary this would look, as written sarcastic, as a- sly - dig at fee rabid-tone of a big paper in its dealings with the Ministry; • - f ■ ifi

i notifio • late Mercuito has tired of small grammatical points and refused to be drawn into the controversy about'lnspector Petrie’s, and' headmasters’ English. Mr Stewart, of the Onehunga school, once was injudidiOna endugh to state publicly that the Hd aid was of great use to him in supplying, him with specimens of incorredt English ftir his Senior classes: Of course he was Stating a well-known fact, blit equally, of course, he was promptly sat upon. It still codtinues, however, to keep, up tile sflpply in a'most generdud spirit. It talks Of thd Sydney man convicted of wife-poisoning as the ‘celebrated Dean’ Mr Stewart-.will, doubtless, point out to his. scholarship classes that this is Herald English for ‘ the notorious Dean.’ Again the English language is hardly so bald as to rlecessitate a phrase ia, I think, the same issue * the'cost Will be very costly.* * • . * ■ # *

Wi Pete's is a--hard ’ case," with ,£60,000 worth of land he cannot raise, a..comparatively trifling mortgage, nor complete his purchase of the Wairakau. estate, but has!. been adjudged bankrupt. This is owing to the recent Native Land Legislation. No politican, however, is fi-dq ttJ blame the Ministry for this, overmuch as all have wofully failed in, dealing with Maori land. It seems likely, though, that through simple inertia on the part of the Maoris they will ere long compel justice; Hone Heke, their real ldader at- present; is a young lfian with Ideas aiid better able than the average M.H.B; to express them in an attractive and attentidn-conlpelling manner. The pre-emptive right of Government is hot onlya failure but k good fraud on the Natives, the.indiscrinimative purchase by private individuals was a Curse to th m, and the only Way out of the dilemma is either Heke’l leasing plan or Mr Massey’s purchase by private persons through the Ladd .Boards Under restrictions as to average. The Maori can hardly be expected to give Goferfiment his land for five ,of six shillings, When, a Settlor will give him £2 of £3 kn acre. The great objection urged against the leasing system is that it would establish a Maori landlord class; At pres< fit we have a mortgagee landlord class, and of the two . give me the Maori;. The worst of legislation, contrary tb Native ideas,-is that it postpones indefinitely the individualism of Native titles! People talk of the laziness of the Maori, but the present ■ communistic system is directly antagonistic to industry Wherever Maoris have individual rights they are industrious enough, and even under all their disadvantages before the war the Waikato was a great wheat growing, milling, and exporting couiitry; - ; is. : . it- *

Biisaiais the civilized couiitry where the old commiinistic ownership still survives. In historical, times it prevailed in Ireland and the lands of Thomond, for .instance, belonged not to ‘ The O’Brien ’ but to the O’Brien, sept or clan. In the Highland of Scotland the same system prevailed as late as 1746. English had changed all this, but: its. late - survivals explains the bitfetheSS with which evictions in Ireland and clearing of tenants to make room,for sheep or Jeer in Scotland are regarded iii those countries, The wretchedly low condition of the Russian peasant and his still constant liability to famine are mainly attributable' to hjs communistic position; The village is collectively liable for taxation, afid eVen a villager who iniigrates to St. Petersburg or Odessa and tries to better himsejf as a lawyer, a doctor, or a merchant is still jointly and severally hahle for the. of. his native village, Worse still, Suck lknd as is held individiially is redistributed every few years, so that idleness is at a premium and indiistry at a discount;

* lapyx.