The Daily News THURSDAY, JUNE 14. ALIENATING NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8134, 14 June 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JUNE 14. ALIENATING NEW ZEALANDERS.

Thebe is m doubt that the land-ballot-gamble system in New Zealand is ridding us of ft'class of native-bom people we can ill afford to lose. Although we boast, with some show of reason, of the advanced laws of this enlightened country, it seems tint

these advantages are not sufficient to j make New Zealanders love their country well enough to stay here. Austialia evidently considers the letter of a New Zealand resident to the Victorian Minister of L inds of suflicient importance to cable. Tlio letter sets out that, owing to the speculative habits of all classes of people in New Zealand, the b ma fide settler has little chance of acquiring land. As a matter of fact, he has not a hundred to oneo chance, because everyone, from merchant to mechanic, whether he intends to become a farmer or not, is entitled to have a flutter at the frequent gambles, called by courtesy ballots, in various parts of the colony.

# * * # At a ballot held in the South the other day there were sixty five gamblers for eleven prizes. Presuming, without the least reason for the presumption, that all the gamblers were bona fide desirous of becoming settlers, and of working the land when they got it, can anyone believe that it is right and proper to attract settlers from Home, when a misorable percentage only of land-hungry nativeborn are able to obtain what they desire ? That land won at these ballots is very often hold speculatively is apparent from the story of a lucky winner, told in the press. He said he had only £25 capital when he drew the section. He held it a while, merely complying with the residential and fencing improvement requirements, and then made £3OOO on his bargain. What we would like to know is this: Why hud not the man who gave the largely increased price the same opportunity as the original drawer of obtaining land with the same amount of outlay ? The original drawer may have been a more speculator, and so prevented a man who was just a farmer from using the land to the best alvantagi in the way of production. * * * *

T i pay big prices for big estates, to cut tliem up and make it possible for only the few to acquire, is not I tnd settlement. It is only playing at the business. Also, it has the effect of lriving New Zealanders to the Argentine, but mostly to Queensland, where the chances of acquiring land are better, and where, of course, Queensland not having so advanced a view of things as wo have, living is thirty per cent, cheaper. Queensland is not a better country than Mew Zealand. The Argentine does not compare in advantages, if the bulk of the people of New Zea land were able to use their advantages. We have no hesitation in saying that if the land ballot system is allowed to continue in this colony, every person who is allowed to go to the ballot should be sworn on oath that he intends not only to make the statutory improvements during the period laid down, but that he intends to work the land and derive his living from it

The hordes of people in the colony on the look-out for a " soft snap " are no use to tbe country. The crowds oF intending'settlers who aro prevented from getting land because the ballot is open to sharks and fanners alike are the people who want to be, and would be, a permanent asset of the country, The manifest absurdity of cutting np a big estate, with the ostensible purposeof getting it intensely cultivated, is shown by the fact tint only the smallest proportion of sub-divisions are intensely cultivated by the original drawers. The average Briton who reads the glowing tilings that aro circulated in the Home country is under an impression that he can have land for the asking if he comes to New Zealand. It does not matter if ho is a farmer, or a draper, or bootmaker.

* * # # TnE New Zealander's letter mentioned above, and cabled to the colony, sets out that lie wants to settle in Australia, because " even if I get a permanent billet in New Zealand, living is so high that it would be difficult to make both ends meet.' Allowing for exaggeration, there are thousands of people in this colony who work mostly for the landlord. The reason of this is that the fever of speculation has enormously increased the alleged value of land. The ballot aids and abets the speculator. The valuators cripple the small holders. Big crops are no use to a man if lie has to give the proceeds to other people. Oftentimes one sees a business apparently fl mrishing one week, and ir.s principals binkrupt the next. The bona file settler—the man who goes on to the land to make it yield the fruits of the eirth - can't afford to lie idle and let the land rem iin uncultivated, whiting for i " rise!" It is only the speculator who does this sort of thing. Therefore, make it impossible for the speculator to acquire land at the bdlot, by forcing eveiy applicant to swear that he will not only live on the land he has won, but live by the fruits of j his labour on the land. I

I The habit a large number of pet,pie ■,'efc into of remaining idle, waiting 'or time, and the product of o'lier people's labour to make their land valuable, should lie severely discountenanced. As we so often sr-y, there is no room in this colony for drones. New Zealand is not sufficie"t'y a hive of industry as it is, and the speculator continues to make it'eisso, Ivecp the land ballot out of New Zealand, is still better advice. If yoi give a mail land by a meie charict, it is a matter of speculation if he wor's it. If you tie up your arm in a sling long enough it will wither. If you lock up the land long enough and don't use it a nation becomes atrophied. New Zealand is 100 young to have a wasting disease. It is too young to hive booileis and settlers who don't settle. It is too young for the Government to give the money of the whole people in exchange for huge estates to bo parcelled out to people who are hungry for money and frightened to work.

T'iik bona fide worker of Ihe land is too busy doing the work the Creator intended him to do to be steeped in guile. That is the chief reason why we want more bona li !e workers of the land. That is why tho Government should insist on the fullest enquiries when it permits a man to become a Crown tenant. When tho (lo\eminent and tho jxoplo| generally become clothed and in their right, mind after a bad time of speculative insanity, when the Government recognises that every man is a freeholder at heart, but who should be prevented from acquiring large areas, and when it recognises that as the land is the root of all things temporal and that it is a sin to permit it I l:o be made the basis of gambling and tho means of wealth to but a few; then New Zealanders will cease from going to Queensland and the Argentine, and be c intent to abide in the 'and th.it would be the best on earth if allowed I to bai