Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1908. SPECIAL LAND SETTLEMENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43350, 16 July 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1908. SPECIAL LAND SETTLEMENT.

This above all—to thine own self be true, 4 nd it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

One of tbe most striking features of tbe • Budget is the proposed measure for keeping pace with the demands of would-be settlers, for land. Under its provisions land might be acquired from private owners, by a party of would-be purchasers, Government undertaking in the most paternal way to step in and satisfy itself that the price asked was a fair one and the land a wise investment, and being satisfied, on both points, arranging to obtain a loan for the purchase of the property. That the Government, 'while not advancing the money itself, is to make itself responsible to the lender for the repayment of capital and interest, iplaces the settlers in the position of being able to obtain the money at “ the lowest possible rate of interest ”as the Budget says. Further, in arranging for a redemp tion fund by means of which the settlers would repay the whole amount, capital and interest, in 32| years, Sir Joseph Ward proposes to place the settlers in a hopefol and confident position with regard both to their, present obligations, and their ultimate prospects of complete independence. The proposal is one which commends itself, both on account of the terms it offers to would be settlers and also on account of its being an explicit restatement of the political conviction that the more completely we get the land settled the better it will be, for everyone. Ultimately it is the agricultural returns of a country which decide the standard of living for that country This is a fact which is apt to be overlooked by some of those who i fondly image that wages can be fixed by act of parliament. Where you have high agricultural returns the Government may step in and say to the farmer, “you are making a good thing here, therefore you must pay your friends in our manufacturing centres a good price for their goods, ” and in order to enforce the dictum Government may impose a duty to keep out the underpaid products of less favoured manufacturing centres. Bnt no amount of legislation can avail to keep up the prices in the towns, that is the prices for manufactured goods, if agriculture is languishing. Therefore while there is at present a good deal of somewhat damping talk about a worlb-wide depression, it is encouraging to remember that we in the Dominion at least have not reached the point where agriculture is dwarfed by manufacture, but on the other hand we are still at the point where agriculture is beginning to arrive.