The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4047, 17 December 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1881.

By far the moit important question pro* pounded to various candidates before the recent general elections, was as to what thej intended to do with large runs in the South, when the leases under which they are held expire. The candidates, with scarcely one exception, replied that they would out up these ?ast tracts of land into small sections, and so throw them open for selection by the public. This answer is eminently satisfactory, and if the gentlemen returned to the House will only act up to their professions, there need be little fear of what Sir George Grey calls the establishment of a landed aristocracy, to the detriment of the working men's interests. It is, however, a matter of doubt whether a government mainly composed of large landed Southern proprietors, and Northern land .sharks, will allow such a procedure to take place

as the dissemination of these runs into small farms. There will probably be a struggle between the monopolisers of the land and the professed champions of poor men's rights, and the public may rest assured that the present lessees of the soil will fight to the death to obtain an extension of time. The gridironing system of Canterbury has caused this difficulty, aud for that miserable scheme we have to thauk the unprincipled representatives returued of yore. We cannot Bee why a large capitalist should not have a reasonable amount of land— but we most decidedly object to being swindled out of our birthright by men who enter Parliament with the most honourable purposes apparently, but who afterwards prove themselves to be "• wolves iv sheep's clothing." Earth hunger is one of the numerous evils we have to contend against—not a genuine desire on the part of land-seekers to cultivate the land, but the acquirement of large tracts of land for purely speculative purposes When we find there are men in the House of Representatives who are so dead to all feelings of honour or shame as to endeavour to bribe Ministers to withdraw proclamations from blocks of land, we may well have reason to apprehend danger ahead to the rising and prospective generations in Few Zealand. Let us hope that the representatives who have pledged themselves to endeavour to obtain the dissemination of the large southern runs, will not ..forget their promises, and speak and vote with united voice against the perpetuation of such an imposition. They will have no cause to regret their fight in the cause of justice, and future generations will regard them as the saviours of their adopted country.