The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1887. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1596, 18 June 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1887. LAND SETTLEMENT.

The truculent hand of monopoly still wields the editorial pen of the Tinaaru Herald. Proprietors may come, and proprietors may go, but the policy of monopoly goes on for ever in the H< raid. We have S'’en it change ownership four times, but the change has never been for the best. Its policy stems to be as fixed and inflexible as doom, and that policy may be summed up in one word—“monopoly.” In its issue of Thursday a letter written by “ A Working Man,” in defence of the action of the Minister of Lands in settling the unemployed on the lands of the colony appeared in its columns. In previous issues the Herald had attacked the Minister of Land with a truculence characteristic of its ignorant bigotry, but it did not think that sufficient, It determined upon neutralising the effort of ..the working man to represent the views of his class, by giving a very ill-conditioned view of the Minister’s action. The worst charge the undisguised malice of the wretched scribe c< uld bring against the Minister of Lands, however, is that he spent more money on the settlement of the people on the land than he was authorised by Parlianvnt to do. Have I 'nr iam - n'ary voles n v. j r been exceeded before ? Has there, ever sat an administration that did not exceed sometimes the amount, of monev alb.wed by Parliament o c»rry on the, business of the country ? Pre vious to the present Government taking office Muj ir Atkinson was aulhorissd by Parliament to spend borrowed money on public works at the rate cf £1,000,000 a yea' - , bijt bjs spcpcssors discovered that he had been spending n at the rate of £1,800,000. We never heard much about that. Not at all ; it went to enhance tb ’ ur-iperties of the rich ; but when a few" pounds ey'ra is spent on settling people op the land there is a howl of indignation raised from end to end of the colony. The Herald is not satisfied with abuse, but it must publish an unblushing falsehood to bolster up the pause of its patrons. It says that Mr Rollestop settled more people on the

land than Mr Balance has doin', Wh o , Mr Rolleston addressed bis constituents j in 1884 be was asked how many he bad settled on (be land. He replied 159. Mr Rolleston bad then been five years in office, Mr Ballance has only I eld office for three years, and it is only two years since the Land Act was passed, and about a year and vhaf since the regulations under which be is working were gazetted. Mr Ballance, strictly speaking, commenced to settle people on the land ocly about 12 months ago, and now the record he can show is 1000 families settled on the land. While the Herald deals in imbecile generalities, ns it usually does, it m&y do so with impunity, for no one can contradict general statements, but when it comes to a question of bard facts it had better see that its facts are correct first of all, It will be remembered, too, that when Mr Rolleston came to us here in 1884 he complained of being one of the best abused men in the country, and one of the reasons for the abuse was his land settlement policy. The Herald vioentlf abused him then. Everybody who attempts to settle the people on the land has to put up with abuse from monopoly and the parasites <bat live on it. Mr Rolleston ought to have remembered how be himself has been abused, and instead of raising his voice against Mr Ballance his sympathy should have gone Viith him, and he should have supported him. During the first two sessions Mr Rolleston supported Mr Ballance in his land policy, but up to that time be had done nothing id the way of settlement. Ever since the time that Mr Ballance commenced to settle people on the land he has had no foe more bitter or more unrelenting than Mr Rolleston. Those who remember bow he used to praise Mr Ballance to his constituents in the beginning and listened to bis recent address in the'Yolunteer Hall, Temuka, will have no difficulty in noticing ibat Mr Rollesioti has changed his opinions. And now, who introduced the village settlement scheme first into the House? The Government of which Mr BtlUoce was a member. The Bill was introduced by Mr Thompson, of Balclmha, who was Minister of Lands in Sir George Grey’s Ministry f»r a few months, but the Grey Ministry wire turned out of office, and the Bill was picked up by Mr Rolleston, who succeeded Mr Thompson. The Hera'd never supported a candid»te that did not lose the election ; it is the journalistic (Jassamlra of New Zea'and ; no one believes its stupid generalities, and Mr Rolleston could not have a worse enemy than the Herald as a friend. This is evident from the fact that notwithstanding i's violent efforts to prove Mr Ballance corrupt, the working men wilt not, believe it, as proved by the letter .in its own columns. And now it it would like another fact, let it look into its own pages and it will find there placed on record that in 1879 Parliament voted £79,000 to be spent in giving employment to the unemployed ; that instead of carrying ont the wishes of Parliament M»jor Atkinson kept this money in the Treasury and that in consequence of the money not having been spent soup kitchens bad to be established in Christchurch and elsewhere to keep the people from starving. Why did not Major Atkinson carry out the behests of Parliament then. Of coarse be had a surplus at the end of the year, and the working men did not know but that everything was right, and with a hip-hooray I they replaced him in power. The position of the colony is this: We can grow twice as much of anything as any of the other Australian colonies, and yet almost every one of the other colonies export twice as much as wa do per bead of population, Are we more lazy than the people of the other colonies? No, but we are not making use of our natural advantages, and the best way we cao increase our exports and production is by settling people on the land,