THE FAILURE OF THE WHEAT CROP IN THE GOULBURN DISTRICT.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 126, 5 March 1879, Page 2

THE FAILURE OF THE WHEAT CROP IN THE GOULBURN DISTRICT.

In an article on the failure of the wheat crop in the Goulburn district the ' Argus ' says:—"One of the selectors put the case to the meeting as simply as possible. Unless he can make satisfactory arrangements with the State and with the money lenders, he proposes to sell out, and to re-select in New South Wales. In that case as he lemarked, the land would revert to the squatter, or, as it would be more correct to say, it would doubtless become part of a large grazing estate. The Goulburn Valley selectors have always been spoken of as model representative men. There is no reason to doubt their bona fides. The bulk of them, we cannot fail to believe, selected in order to establish homes and create properties for themselves ; but when a piiicrTcomes, and they can save themselves, in whole or in part, by selling for its natural value the land the State has given them at halfprice, they -naturally think of this means of relief. " We must sell in Victoria ans be off to select in New South was the Eehuca cry. A more signal instance could not be adduced of the aptness of class or one-sided legislation to defeat itself. The land which, injustice to future generations, ought to have been classified and sold at its natural value, has been sacrificed in order to " drive the squatter over the Murray." And the tendency of the system is to drive the agriculturist there. The crisis in the Qonbnrn Valley ought certainly to have an <-ffjct mi land legisla-

iion iii* the future. Ministers, as we know from their Bill, which the Council

happily amended last session, desire to create a tenure of twenty years, coring winch period the selector is to have no title and no borrowing powers. But they must see for themselves that the only chance selectors have in a stmif, like those in the Gonlbnrn Valley, is from aid from capital to tide them over the trouble. Without aid they must abandon their ho'dings, or starve on them. Such a system might be instituted, but is it reasonable to suppose that it could be te aintained 1 And then the Ministerial utterances with regard to a selector's loan have taken root. A Government bank was freely spoken of by the selectors as a ready and effectual means of relief, and yet, if the Lands Department cannot obtain its rent, how is it to be sure of its interest? At present the . State suffers a disappointment when a selector breaks down and makes way for the grazier, but under the loan proposal it would risk its borrowed money also. We are bound to treat the present selectors with every consideration. It is our interest to do so, and the Goulburn Valley sufferers may fairly claim all legitimate aid to enable them to retain their holdings. .But it is also to our interest in the future to observe the natural laws of supply and demand, and not to attempt to form alienation by an offer of anything over and above the fair agricultural profits. To do so is to unsettle settlement.