The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 11. THE LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 57, 11 March 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 11. THE LAND.

"tut the people on the land! What laud? Aew Zealand. Everybody ■-ays it is tile proper thing to do. Ministers rave about it, editors write about it, it is the watchword of progiesS, tlie batt.e-cry of Lin- country. ■Uig estates are "bought" and cut up, the Government spends enormous sums of money in this buying, and cueting up, and the people—.Some people nia\ go on the land. It does not matter whether you, whose one desire in lile is lo become a .sett.or, travel the colony 1 loin east to west, from uort.i to south. Vou take your chance. I here are reliable stateineius made by men who lm\e spent months going up and down the country in se.irch 0 ol kind that there is a hundred to one chance of getting any. tlie (.'merit"lent require declarations as to settlement and so 011. There are ways ol making declarations not unknown to the land-jobbur. In numerous I cases at, lai>d-bal!ots in New Zealand 1 file ballotters have been almost entirely | lie dummies for sharks. I Sharks hold many of the choice spots ! (11 the country, and the genu.ne settler who is honest and rea ly desires j land olten goes land-hungry.

Tiie Government welcomes with de.iglit ' ue prospect of inducing eight hundred 1 Kngbsh families to come to the country and take up fruit-farming areas in the North. Wdl the Gove.nmcnt inveigle all those families to New Zealand and allow them to ballot for fruillarm areas'; Will the Coivrnment give the people it induces to come to tae country one chance in a hundred of gett ng an area 7 if the Government (s willing to treat strangers coming to the country with Lberality, wh\ °wdt not the Government give tile iand-hun-gry folk now oil the spul as good a chance? New Zealand wants settlers mid settlement more than it wants anything 011 earth. The Jlinister 01 Lauds is gadding about the country 011 a Quixotic cruise endeavouring to obtain the sympathy of people who have laird aud people who have not and who have their own aud "liuckIcv's chance of getting any except by a chance at the balloi,. The settlement of the land is more important than any question to be discussed at the Premiers' Conference. it excels 111 importance the evergreen topic of trade-unionism and the servant-gir. question. Ministers make loud statements about the Yellow l'eril and breaches of the Arbitration Act, not apparently taking the trouble to understand that the solution of most colon in I difficulties lies in the settlement of the soil by ten times the people who now occupy it. The settlement of the land is not accomplished by, spending two thousand pounds to put three or tour settlers 011 one thousand pounds worth of country, but by inducing by every possible means a thousand settlers to lice where one fat landlord or a few sharks hold possession.

What marvellous inducements are ottered to the young men of the country to take up land! They are given an outside chance of a far back piece ol country, cut oil' from civilisation. We don t want n race of "hatter" settlers. Single settlers are not going to build up the country, and help keep this lug bogey of bellow i'eril out. It is the married settler we want. Nee uiducemeins for the young married settlers settle 111 the remote regions of Taranaki, are lhe\ not'; The .Minister of Lands ha.-, been touring the "roadless north"' and he has sain that the roadless north i»n't nearlv -o roadless as Taranaki. What young settler with any love Jor hi- wife e.ires lo take her into the roadless back where she w.il not. only be euL oil' I'i'oin tueicty but lrom medical attendance so necessary if we are lo have enough men-children lo keep out this yellow bogie': What is the do ing about it. Weil, it is building great buildings in llie cities. It is losing the people's money in the .Suite Coal .Mines. It has greatly increased Hit l -leieiiee expenses of Xew Zealand without increasing it, ellectivencss. It ha- a Tourist Department which scorns a settler and deilies a nuinoclc.l somebody from Europe. It Ins tw. sections to ballot for and lucre alt over eight hundred applications. Tlib is not" pulling the people 011 the land.' Land is sinfully dear because of tin shark monopolist and the notorioutaet that the Government valuators who 111 some cases have no expert know ledge at all, base their calculations 01

llie prices the said shirks liopu they may get. Hie (Jovcrnment has tinkered with tile laud long' enough. it:-, most superb bit ol tinkering was the Commission which *et out to liud at largo wages what everybody previouslv knew. There are immense area-, ui laud in this country lying "waste, or nearly so. There are more laud.espeople than people with land. The .machinery of tlie Luid Courts works at top pressure to put the smallest possible proportion of these landless men on to the land. \l has 110 eon- ! eeni with the people who have no land. H does not carry out a proper policy ol roading. it bcmU good conduct prisoners to plant trees. The settlers who have the luck tu draw bush sections begin their farm lii'e by culling trees down. \\ hy does not ihu Uovermnent turn 011 convict road gangs? The Uovernmeyt induces settlement by people from the Old World by telling some of llie irulh and leaving Die woist part unsaid. it hats 110 right lo induce foreign settlement until it can lind some siliflfaciory soiu- , 1.011 of the tjuestion of giving more than one per cent 01' the local landupplicauts what they arc asking i'or.

New Zealand needs settlers from outside .New Zealand, but Xew Zealanders should be tiie lirst consideration of the UovemineiiL. The (.Jovermnent has trot to give up linnieking with llie question and go "baldheaded" Cor reforms that will give the majority of reasonable applicants the land they need, i'lie position is that any able-bodied man is worth more to Xew Zealand than a thousand aere> of land. Every able-bodied man, even Mr Bachelor Mc.Nab will admit, is not the best kind of a settler unless he is married. If facilities are given for the easy acquisition of land by young settlers or middle-aged settler* ur any good able-bodied settlers, Lite waste arca> will soon be peopled, and the peopling uf the waste areas, even if the land . were given !ree. i,-> ol the greatest .importance. The iinmen-c areas of waste lands, private lands, Maori lands ami Government lands art.- breeding b.d> for vegetable pest>. '['he mail who geU liis crop of noxious weeds per the wind from, any of the waste land-? js brought to book. The (lovcrnnieiiL can iiud large areas of land tW a free sanctuary for devastating dee]-, but it can only give two out of over flight hundred human applicants the land they ask for and have to pay lor. The (iovernment advance-; to a I -ict tier already settled on the iand sums of money to improve it. The I (Jovcrnnionfc does not help in any way I in; unsu<ve>sful applicant who has been travelling the country in se.ii'eli i»f laud. Such a one must take his chance. The (lovernment, per its Arbitration Court, give-; preference of employment to unionists. Ii give?* no preference to the potential settler, lie musi; take his chance. The working of the land is of no more importance than gold-mining, coal-mining dver-shooani*', tourists, or trout.

Being expert, practical tailors, a I "■'The Kash,'' Devon street. New Plymouth, they can oiler you better vame in men's ami boy's clothing than at any other store in Tara.naki. The mere fact of being practical men causes them to be very keen critics when buying, so customers gel the very best value possible.—Advt.

Sn drawing the attention of our readers to the Mortum Insect Powder advertisement; we beg to inform the public that the Mortum i« far superior to any other powder on the nniikei", and is not an old powder under an other name, as some shopkeepers have b"en trying to make out. jGive Mortum Insect Destroyer one trial and you will not wish for any more e/Tec tive to kill flies, fleas, and every other ! vermin. All chemists or stores yell I \t.—Atfvt,