MORE POPULATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2059, 14 June 1890, Page 3

MORE POPULATION.

The following letter appeared in the Lyttelton Times 1 on May 30th : I Sir,—l have to thank you for your I courtesy in publishing the two letters I I have already addressed to you. I would with your permission add a little to them now. I have already pointed out that, before we can hope to induce immigrants to come to this Colony, we must make our own people prosperous. We can have no advertisement better than the name of being prosperous. In order to secure this I suggested that owners of large estates should be : compelled to cut up and lease them, for twenty-one years at a rental of 5 per cent on the Property-tax., value of them. Since then Mr Hayhurst, of Temuka, has told me that he has had as many as twenty and thirty applicants for the lease of any of his farms which happened to be in the mu'ket, and thet he has been offered Buch high rents that he felt bound to refuse them as he knew they could not he honestly paid. Mr Hayhurst's experience therefore proves that my suggestion in re larga estates is quit* practicable.

As long ago as 1883 I suggested that the Government should buy from farmers in the .settled districts land on which to settle agricultural labourers. My proposal was to settle on allotments of from tive to ten acres, in the ratio of one allotment to say every 250 acres of agricultural land, a farm labourer ; the tenure to b» a perpetual Jeas<j, and the rent 5 per cent on the capital va'ae of the land. By doing this the agricultural labourers would be scattered broadcast over thefuce of the settled country ; they would get employment from the adjoining farmers • they would be always within easy reach of their work, and always at home at night, while their children would be trained up in the way of country life. At present most farm laboarers live in towns, where their families are growing up worse than utifit for country life. They themselves, have to leave home and take their swags on their backs to get employment, and thus out of their poor wages have, so to spsak, to support Uo homes : one for themselves at the oamp where they work, and the ether for their wives and families in town. The village settlements are ao improvement on towns, but too many poor people are congregated together in one spot ; they cannot all get work in the immediate vicinity, and conseqtjont'y most of them have to shou'der their swags, and be absent from home for weeks and months together. This proposal was adopted by Sir Julius Vogel in 1884, and a clause for carrying it out was inserted into, I believe, the Counties Act. It was, of course, thrown out by the Atkinßonian party. Since then an almost similar measure, known as the "Allotment Act, 1887," passed the British Parliament, proving that the Conservative Government of England is more Liberal than ours. Id 1888 the Canterbury members, instigated by Major, Steward, made a laudable; effort to get £IO,OOO placed on the Estimates to begin this system with, but lost it by one vote. Now if that system had been adopted six years ago, would our working men have fled from tbe Colony ! They would not, for they would haye been rooted to the soil in little homes of their own. It is no use to try to tide that large numbers of the population are leaving us daily. This week a family of nine and three young men left Temuka for San Francisco. Some twelve or eighteen months ago a few persons from here went to San Francisco, and owing to the accounts they sent Home, several of their friends haye followed them, If I were the richest man in the Colony I would make a great sacrifice to stop this ; and if wealthy men took my idvice they would take time by the forelock, and make an effort to make this Colony habitable for those who are in it, for undoubtedly it is the beet way to lessen taxation and increase the value of property. Instead of that however, wealthy men are doing their best in the contrary direction. They are keeping the land locked up with only married couples without encumbrance, a few shepherds, and myriads of sheep on them. " Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." To me the policy of the wealthy appears a species of midness, and 1 am fortified in this opinion by the fact that its past madness nearly wrought the destruction of an institution which bas always been credited with having exercised an evil influence on the Government of ihwColony. Conservatism in a country like this is rank madness. It is different altogether in old countries, with long-established lime-honoured institution?. L beraliam in old countries sometimes means destruction ; here it must mean construction, for we have everything to build up. I would ask the wealthy man of this Colony to look around them aud to take note of the realities by which they are surrounded. Let them look at the squatters of Australia who if they shear their sheep with non-Union shearers, will find no one to put the wool oa board ship for them, or if they do, -vill not be able to get it unloaded in London. Just let them think of this for a moment, and consider whether they would not do better by relaxing their grasp and dealing more liberally with the people. Let them reflect for a moment, and usk themselves—ls it likely that people will put up with their beautifulcountry being ruined in this way V I do hot care to put this stronger lest I may be accused ef pointing out the way. If the wealthy classes will not yield, lest worse may coma of them, I would suggest to them that for the sake of immediate gain they ought to do so. Neither they nor anyone else is making money in this Colony as fast as they ought, and this is altogether due to bad management. The rich are not growing much richer, and the poor are getting poorer, in a country abounding in overything necessary for th» comfort and convenience of man. This is not due to laziness, it is not due to the soil, it is due to bad legislation. I would therefore suggest:—

(2) That the iutroduotiou of capitalist immigrants ba resumed. (2) That Mr Ballance'a special settlement system, or a modification thereof be resumed. ' (3) That the exemptioD under the Property tax on all implements, machinery, &c, employed in industrial development, including farming, be raised to £3OOO. (4) That all necessary protection be given to local industries. (5) That owners of large estates be compelled to lease their lands in suitably-sized farms, and under Government supervision, for a term of twenty-one years, and at a rental of 5 per cent, on the Property tax value of the land. (6) That homes for agricultural laborers be provided as described above,

In Ihia programme there is nothing, radioal ; Ibere is no one to be hurt,'»■ d anyone who complains of it deserves worse treatment. 1 hold that it is at ones the mildest proposal with regard to large estates, and at the same time the easiest to work,. and ; the ; most : tffeetire, that has hitherto been made. If this programme were, adopted we should soon have a prosperous and a populous country. Our revenue from various sources would increase enormously, aud we should make New Zealand what Nuture has already made her—the most delightful couotry in the Southern Hemisphere.—l am, &c, J. M. TWOMEY.