Liberal Association.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3928, 2 August 1881, Page 2

Liberal Association.

The reading of Mr Sealy's pamphlet was continued last night at the Hauraki Hali, when rather an animated discussion took place between Dr J£ilgour and Mr Hurley upon the land question. The small attendance, however, of the public as shewjng their supineness on this, the great question of the d;iy, is extraordinary. Righteous land laws haye now become a

positive necessity for the Thames, if not for | the whole colony. Captain Small was in the chair. The following is the secretary's introduction to the reading of Mr Sealy's pamphlet, " Shall we stay in New Zealand " :— Mr Chairman and fellow citizens of the Thames. —As I am about to read, so far as I have seen, the best pamphlet upon the present deplorable condition of New Zealand that was ever written, and more particularly upon that much vexed, and by that mass of people little understood question; the land questiou, some will perhaps ask me why I trouble myself about sv.^l questions, seeing that I sincerely h.'.pe and firmly believe that the present 7sosmos, or order of things as regards ue,political, the social, and the ec lesiastical world is about to undergo an entire change, and that a theocracy, or Government from heaven and from God, will very shortly take the place of I all the present ocraciesand mocracies that [ have been the curse of humanity for ! thousands of years. The Hebrews had such a Theocratical government once, this government was the best that mankind ever knew or lived under, but the Hebrews lost it because they refused to keep the laws the Lord God gave them, and they lost their land and their possessions also, axjd were driven out to live among the Gentiles to be a bye-word and a,proverb amongst them as they are to this day, but not without hope of returning when they come to their senses, and acknowledge the tiue Lord God of the earth and his laws. The reason why

I trouble myself about it is this: lam bound as an advanced Christian to witness agaiust the pre"s*ewt condition of things as radically bad—bad in the extreme, so bad and so rotten, .that to attempt to patch them up would : be a work of supererogation. So rotten are all governments, political and ecclesiastical, that they must of themselves soon all fall to pieces together without remedy, and their Call will be with a crash such as mankind has never before witnessed. No matter what the existing form of government be, or what the ecclesiastical organisation, they are all rotten to the core, and now, very nearly useless for the purpose of any great measures beinsj inaugurated by them for the improvement of the condition of the masses of the people. But why is this so ? Is there not a reason ? There is, and a very potent reason too, it is to be" found in the intense selfishness, the grasping covetousness and the gross ambition of the upper few. It matters not whether you observe these few in their political capacity, their social capacity, or in their ecclesiastical capacity, you will find them just the same the (earth over. Those of us who know the religion which Christ taught and practised might expect to find in his professors something ot his spirit and self denial. But is it so ? Look where you will, the same intense selfishness prevails with them, the same grasping covetousuess exists and the same gross ambition is manifest as among others who make no profession. Of course there are exceptions, but they are precious few now. It would be easy to detail proofs by ihe yard if necessary, but it is not, they are well known facts, detailed plentifully by the public journals' and periodical serials continually. Covetousness is eating out of humanity like a cancer every Godlike principle of justice and righteousness. How this infernal spirit of covetousness is in nothing so manifest as in the matter of land ; land simply for speculation among the few, and not for cultivation, that land which if properly distributed among; the masses for occupation and cultivation would have made Nev Zealand one of the most prosperous communities of the earth instead of as it is now the most heavily taxed of all communities, and cursed with a Government which has no mercy for the poor in any of its laws. In no colony of the British Empire is the covetous grasping propensity of the ruling few, their friends and hangers on so manifest as in the land of our adoption. It .-hould be, and might be our " Happy home, our own New Zealand home," was there a just and righteous G vernment, but unfortunately the selfishness and covetousness of the few is ruining the colony making the masses discontented because of the hardness of their lot and driving thousands of willing workers out of the colony. God gave the land for the people at large, not for a few to make fortunes out of it, and it is nothing less than heartless robbery to deprive them of their just inheritance. He gave it them to till and to get out of it the necessaries of life. The land is our mother, which feeds and clothes us all. Whj, then, 'should it be withholden from those who are ready and willing to till it, iv order that a few may luxuriate and grow fat by enhancing its value to sell, so enormously ? The pre cious fruits of the land feed us all, and in proportion as the lands of a new colony are cultivated, so iv proportion are its people prosperous and happy, and so iv proportion also will the people of iho towns bo prosperous in their various trades and professions, Everything we eat and drink, and with which we clothe ourselves comes from the laud. The material of every utonsil and article of furniture we use comes from the land, and that family is the happiest of families which has its homestead and one or two hundred acres of land to bring into cultivation. Every child that can toddle is useful in s>>me one or othpr of the crn ployments of agriculture, and would be employed if on the land, instead of growing up, as now, to become town larrikins and pests to the community. But what poor family can pay 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 pounds per acre for land ?

To be continued at the end of the reading of

pamphlet on Monday evening next,