"WITHOUT INCUMBRANCE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 355, 5 April 1910, Page 4

"WITHOUT INCUMBRANCE."

Sir George H, Reid, the High Coramis»ioner for the Commonwealth, is on new ground in London, and therefore has new ideas. The vivid orator and eminent barrister lit* added his quota to the ''without encumbrance" controversy raging in London in respect to Australian employment. In Xew Zealand we have been treated within the last week to "without encumbrance" advertisements; and fathers and mothers will be pleased to learn that children in such advertisements are always referred to by the epithet "encumbrance." It may be remembered by persons who continually refer to children as an unnecessary adjunct to life that they must neceslarily have been children thenwelres and therefore "encumbrances." Sir George Reid mentions that Australia wants children. So she does. So does Xew Zealand; so does France. In regard to

(lie facts that owners of iiiinvy. -e areas of land ill Australia habitually advertise for servants "without encumbrances," the only possible objection such owners can have is that children must b'e fed and housed. The owner of a million sheep would probably feel the blow of fowling two or three children severely. The Spectator's contribution to the* "'■without encumbrance 1 ' discussion is very like the Spectator. It believes that excessive taxation of land is at the bottom of half the economic trouble, and therefore, of course, at the bottom of the "without encumbrance" sin. Squatters and companies in Australia sometimes own more land than the whole of the area of Nvw Zealand. It is very wrong that these lands should be taxed, is it not? It would r>e very wrong, too, for a million encumbrances to be fed from the land which is "worked" perhaps by a dozen men "without encumbrances." Xew Zealand, while not protesting against the "without encumbrance" sin, is certainly none the worse for its policy of peopling vast spaces. Everywhere the Government has been doing its best to cut up large areas for closer settlement, with admirable results. To the straggler on the land children are the finest boon—atid the land is the natural and healthful place for the children. Magnificent work is being done in this country, too, for the children, for we are beginning to recognise that horses and cattle and ' dogs are /not the only animals that should claim expert attention in the matter of care and breeding. Every child saved to the State and brought up to be a healthy physical specimen is worth much more than a whole (lock of prize rams or the best herd of dairy cows in Taranaki. The employer, the company, or the corporation that deliberately tries to restrict natural increase by the "without encumbrance" plan is an enemy to the country. A time will probably come when both Australia. and New Zealand will be glad of all the encumbrances they can muster to prevent encroachment by outside peoples. And in those days the Spectator's ideas about the ruination of taxation will occupy but. a small place ! in comparison with the question of keeping the people above ground.