THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1894. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2605, 9 January 1894, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1894. LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zkalaho cannot expect to increase her population or bo prosperous until her lands aro properly settlod. Most of our lands are taken up, but not settled. We know, for instance, a farm or station of about 00,000 acres which does not employ a dozen hands all tho year round, and these, too, aro single men, for children are an abomination to the land-owners. The stereotyped advertisement is : " Wanted a married couple, without oncuinbrancc." Thoy miißt not have children, or they wont be eligible. Now Ijow laauy would, be liyiog ou, a similar

area in New Zealand 1 We get an answer from the following : " The largest farm in England (says Bell's Weekly Messenger) is Withdall Farm, near Louth, in Lincolnshire. We learn that the farm consists of the whole parish of Withdall and seventy acres in Welton-de-Wold, and contains: Arable, 2066 acres; pasture, 430 acres ; plantations (about), 60 acres; total, 2556 acres. There are thirtysix cottages with gardens on the farm, all occupied by the farm laborers, and all supplied with water from the works on the estate. Fifty five men are constantly employed on the farm, and about twenty boys. There are also two blacksmiths and a carpenter, who are provided with excellent workshops and every convenience for their work. There are six sets of farm buildings, with steam machinery at three. The live Btock consists of about 3000 sheep, 320 beasts, 82 horses, and 200 pigs, and to feed these about 300 tons of oil and cotton cake are consumed yearly. The soil is loam and chalk subsoil: and the chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and turnips. There is a railway running through the parish, with a station situated nearly in the centre of the farm."

Now with us this would be only a small farm. Mr James Guild's farm of Trevenna is nearly as large as the one referred to, and yet we never think of denouncing him as a land monopolist. If there are 36 cottages for workmen on the 255 G acres, there ought to be over 800 on 60,000 acres to have the land equally well settled, and giving homes to an equal number of people, but instead of that there are only a few shepherds' huts on it. If on the same area 65 men are employed, over 1290 men and 460 boys ought to be on 60,000 acres, but instead of that it gives employment to probably not a dozen people altogether all the year rognd. This is the weakness of our New Zealand system, and this is what must prevent the population of the country from increasing as it ought to. There is uo employment to be got on the land as there ia in the Old Country; the landowners make no attempt to root their employees to the soil; no workmen's cottages are provide.!, and hence that execrable institution "the swag." Every farmer who has over 200 acres of good laud ought to provide a house for a workman, and lease a few acres of land to him on reasonable terms. If farmers did this it would be bread cast on the waters which would return to them veiy quickly. At present the youth of the colony are being brought up in towns, unfit for country life, and the result must be inferior workers. We often hear complaint's of the inferior workers, but farmers who neglect their duty are manufacturing them. Some system must be devised which will settle the land properly, and if farmers took our advice they would provide liomes for their workmen and thus givo them an interest in their work.

THE MAYOR OF ONEHUNGA. The eccentricities of occupants of Mayoral Chairs have made many a place famous. Who has not heard of the famous Mayor of Limerick, or of Captain Jackson Barry when Mayor of Cromwell, or Mr George, Mayor of Christohurch, or of the Mayor of Gore, who fought for precedence on the judicial bench 1 The vagaries of all other mayors, however, sink into insignificance beside the halo of interest which surrounds Her Worship, the Mayor of Onehunga. Her picture appears in the New Zealand Graphic, and a fine matronly woman she looks. She shows none of the features of the shrieking sisterhood, and only for the position she has attained one wouid, by looking at her picture, regard her as a quiet, sensible, unassuming motherly lady. That she must be extraordinarily vaiu, ambitious, and conceited, is made manifest by her utterances at her installation. She t ild those present plainly that she would not have taken up the position ouly that there was no man to be found fit to carry out the reforms which she deemed necessary. This was pretty severe, especially as her own husband had been mayor for several years. It was this perhaps frightened the town clerk and two of the councillors, who resigned, and got her into her first difficulty. The resignations led to a curious complication. The two councillors who had handed in their resignations appeared at the following meeting of the council, but Her Worship ruled that they could not vote. They argued that they could, because the Act provided that councillors hold office until their successors are elected. This is a nice point of law, but we need not debate it. It is sufficient to say that Her Worship stood firm and refused to permit them to take any part in the proceedings, and so the meeting had to be adjourned. This mixed matters up still worse. The business of the meeting was to appoint a town clerk, but owing to the complication which arose, no town clerk was appointed, Now the town clerk of Onehunga has always been the returning officer for the election of councillors, and as he had resigned and his suocessor had not been appointed, there was no returning officer. The date of the election of two councillors to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations referred to, had been fixed, but there was no returning officer. Mrs Yates (the Mayor), rose equal to the occasion. She made a fresh contract with the town clerk who had resigned to carry on his duties for a few days longer, and act as returning officer, and the diiiiculty was got over in this way. It is, however, alleged that the town clerk, having resigned, was incompetent to act as returning officer, and it is said that a law case will ensue. There is evidently lively times in store for Her WorsHp, the Mayor of Onehunga.