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Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8000, 11 December 1905, Page 2

A coj,usiAL who has not persona] knowledge of the social conditions prevailing in the Old Country, and in other eountrk , is not able to find room for existing antipathies therein. You might /gtro" into West Ham in London, ahd, seeing no other part of London or of England, find no difficulty in concluding that twelve Sixth Standard schoolboys floin a New Zealand :i-hool could "wallop" a West Ham shun fifteen. You might then stroll through the quadiangles at Oxford or Cambridge, whole the human material would compare most favourably with the best Xew Zealand material. That is to say, the high-born weall.hv Oxonian would show in his physical self, and perhaps his mental qualities, an equality with the colonial carpenter, or colonial bl: cksinith, or the colonial fanner, who is lighting for supremacy in the footbr'l field, and who is gaining it. ***** | The colonial who meets the scion of a noble house in the football field isn't prostratr-d with veneration for the man's noble Ofitne. He is just a man in his estimation. The colonial has, by enviroi neut, come to look upon every man as his equal who is as good a man as he is in some field ot endeavour—politics, sport, commerce, learning. He strives to become that man's superior, hut not in the sense of lordship over him. The result is that he is free of body, five of mind, alert, self-dependent. He doesn't think that if he departs from cast-iron convention he will be laughed at; he simply doesn't raid. The student of social problems does not sneer at the masses of the Homeland for being poor or downtrodden, nor does he wonder that llri-tis-.li fc;jtb:i"eis ,-'-e drau.i from al.mt three classes of society the " upper," the " rural,' 1 and the comfortable con ■•iierri.il or mechanical class. We in Xew Zealand don't want to boast of a generally good physique or an ability to do this, that, or the o her. We want to be thankful every moment ■■' the day that the conditions that re rob-

Iting the majority of our kin at Home of individuality, and so of " nous " to guide their physicol powers cannot be lepeatel here. It is the lack of chance, of healthy space, of expansion that k«ep.s down "the submerged tenth," r i he n ikless Government of England has alienated all its lands. The lands which, in relaity, should be a national heritage are in the hands of a few who, not without heart, some times are noodles enough to pretend that the subscribing of funds to the unemployed is the way out of England's darkness. The great philanthropists of England chide governments for the reckless alienation of land not in England. During the last century nearly every scrap of land in the temperate zones has been held by Britain. It is is out of the hands of the British Government to State-colouise this land. The Mother State must first get permission of her daughters and foreign lessees. * * * *

No British Government has Ihc courage of the colonial in prohibiting the aggregation of huge estates and the resumption of the* land. And so, (■owed and beaten, a big proportion of the population of England are, through no fault of their own, sinking into hopelessness and dependenee. The individuality is sapped. The veneration they have for the people to whom they owe their serfdom is the most pathetie side of the whole sorry business. To be thankful to the foot that kicks you is so dog-like. By the accident of birtli one Briton is handicapped by a slum and a slum life. Another Briton starts with a castle and 2011,001) acres of heritage. It is neither the fault of the one nor the worth of the other that produces slieh hideous disparaties. You might reason thai the people —the whole people—should insist on getting redress, but tile people for whom Magna Charter was passed have no res I say in the matter —and the British are slow to arms in Britain. Parliamentary representatives are alwayswith slight exeeplipns—men of standing, i.e., they are men who have sympathy only with the ilowii-trodden —as long as it may not interfere with. Vested Interests. The Commons have the power of making laws. The " Lords " have the power of veto—and! the Lords own the lee simple of Britain. If the >'cw Zealand footballers have the ability to guide their well'nourished bodies to victory over Britons who are rather scared of doing things because it may offend "Ma tcr," or" the S(|uire," or "My Lord," or "the Hector," don't you think that the partial absente of the conditions we write about may have some effect on the free colonial, and may help him to success, not only in football, but in everything else that makes for nationhood.