The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1911. A "DANGEROUS READINESS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 137, 1 December 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1911. A "DANGEROUS READINESS."

Bishop Cro&slej' has during his Short residpnce ju Xew Zealand already .shown a keen, but withal calm, interest in rea\ problems. He does not, it is clear, allow emotion to run away with him, and he apparently bases no conclusions 01 hearty. The personal observations of a'church "leader or those-of any man with j,a. trained mind, occupying a responsible position, are, of'great ■ It is frequently the stranger within our gittes who is able to -put Ids fipger On weaknesses that are less obvious to .us. ■ Dr. Crossley lias returned to Auckland from the King Country, and in relating his impressions he said that he was. impressed with the "ardent optimism" of the settlers. But. the Bishop also said that '"this- ardent optimism' seemed to take the shape, of a dangerous readiness to,, advance the price of land." This species of "optimisiii" is a prevailing characteristic in every part of Xew Zealand, and represents an utterly false estimate of the duties and responsibilities of citizens. The feverish desire to use land not for whfit itwill produce but as a subject of barter will, if persisted in, spell Tuin to' the country. In mentioning the most unsatisfactory position of land tenure in some districts in the King Country, the Bishop said he regarded it as one of the first duties of 'statesmanship that a re- , adjustment should" be made regarding Maori leases and the control exercised by Maori Councils: He believes that the "predominantly Celtic nature of the Xew Zealand settler, his land hunger and the friction that is being produced between Maori and pakeha in respect to land may precipitate the two component parts of the nation into a regrettable hostile position one towards the other." Bishop Crossley's sane and "man-of-the-worhl" view of tilings is shown by his suggestion that the new [ towns which are jumping out of the King Country bush like mushrooms should sec to it that they possess town belts and breathing spaces. In respect of new towns in Xew Zealand there is 110 excuse for the repetition of conditions precluding citizens of older towns from possessing a public estate, and there is less excuse, 100, for jerrv-build-ing. insanitary conditions, overcrowding and ugliness. The Bishop instanced the foresight of earlier Adelaideans who had possessed themselves of a glorious heritage of open country round one of the picture cities of the world, and he might mention Wellington, which has many hundreds of acres of open hills all round which belong to the citizens and which must bo lungs for ever. Again Bishop Crossley showed his coninionsense and foresight when he gently hinted that Xew Zealand was too ambitious to get railway lines before roads. ,Com-

ing from Australia, the Bishop knows how vastly important (relatively much more important tlwn railways)! are roads and bridges. The accessibility of land for settlement depends first of all on roads and bridges, but many communities call for railways before roads because some other community has obtained a section. Infinitely the most important reference by Dr. Crossley, however, was about that "optimism" and high prices for land, which, being interpreted, is merely a distortion of the gift of optimism and simply the disease of "get-ricli-quick" at the expense of the other fellow. High priced land is not national prosperity; it is simply national poverty. To perpetually push up the price of land adds a weight to the millstone round the neck of the settler. We want the tiller and not the speculator, real wealth and not the bladder variety, which burets at the first prick of the pin of financial adversity. To acquire land is not to acquire wealth. To till it is to produce the only true wealth. The optimism gauged on the hope of buying at £'2o and selling at £3O is the optimism of the gambler. The optimism of desiring' two tons of turnips or two cows where one ton or one cow grew last year is honest progressive optimism which returns good dividends to New Zealand. It is, of course, absolutely inevitable that there must be a halt some day, beyond which the prince of land, new and old, cannot go, but as long as the community is misled by individuals whose lives are spent in the inflation of prices in their race for wealth, 60 long will the tiller

bear the brunt and the intending tiller become disheartened.