Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER ADVERTISER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1873. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 302, 8 November 1873, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER ADVERTISER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1873. " MEASURES, NOT MEN. "

I** January next, the Otago Provincial Government intend to lease the various goldfielda commonages for sheep pasture, in 5000 acre allotments. As a rule, every effect has a cause. We presume that this invasion of the rights of the cattle owners on the goldfields is dictated by those small squatters who have received the distinctive title of sheepists. It is more than probable that some leading sheepists have poured a sorrowful tale into the ears of the Government, and of course, one side of a story is good until another is told. It is evident that the colony as a whole, suffers more or less from the privileges enjoyed by the larger squatters, but of the larger sheep men it must be said that they acted as pioneers of the country, and it must also be admitted that wool cultivated on a large scale, but with due regard to the claims of other producing interests, is an industry which looks well in the eyes of the European public creditor, whose good opinion must favourably influence New Zealand securities. We do not at all undervalue the smaller sheepists, but we would not dream of extending to them the privileges acoorded either to cattle owners or to large wool growers.. We will go far* ther and say that if the question was : " Which should exist — the sheepist or the cow grazier?" we would certainly vote for the extinction — commercially — of the former class, for ie is evident, as an industry in relation to commerce, the cattle industry, morally as well £*s industrially, is that which should secure the fastest hold of the public The tendency of the pastoral interest in relation to sheep, is a tendency distinctly opposed to the increase and consolidation of population. Of course, we get imported manufactures, both uecessary and luxurious, in exchange for our wool } but, without population, these manufactures would no too me, for it is evident that a fewsheep managers do not stand in need of thousands of pounds worth of all these articles which sustain free trade, and which make up thai; complex fabric which wo entitle civilization. Commerce forms the basis of all civilization, and civilization is, at once, both the oause and consequence of both native and imported manufactures. It logically follows, therefore, with all the force of a geometrical axiom, that the mere growth of wool, being as we have shewn opposed to the settlement of population, is opposed to all that supports population. Wool culture creates capital and creates sheep, but the capital it creates falls like seed on stoney groxind, if it is not enclosed by other industries of the population-attracting class. We, colonists, have outlived that era of our colonization career when the colony was one large sheep . walk, from which absentee lorda of the soil drew the means for luxuriously cultivating civilization in European centres of population. We want homes for the people in New Zealand, and in order to secure such homes for the colonists, a Government of statesmen would advance and consolidate every industry which contains within its nature the population-attracting element. We, of Tuapeka, know that the cow is the proper associate of the nugget. The former constitutes ballast to the latter. We are welL aware that the cow -which is to the miner what the reindeer is to the .Laplander — will not associate Larmoniously with the sheepy- and vice versa. Knowing this, the Government propose to cnt up the cattle commonage into runs for men whose business is diametrically opposed to the basis of all commerce and civilization. Now, we would like to know the reason of the proposed action of the Government. Have they received numerous petitions, numerous public meeting resolutions, numerous newspaper articles', numerous deputations, from the general publio on the goldfields in favor of this cutting up of the cattle commonage into sheep runs? Have the Government seriously considered the mriter at all ? Are they not acting in the matter- quite as precipitately as tKey aofcecl -vrKezx tKey aUenaied to IVT^ W. J. T. Clarke, an absentee Victorian land speculator, 50,000 aores for £35,000? In short, is not this proposed cutting up of the commonage a bid for squattocratic support, and an effective aapping of the vsry roots of settlement^ without which the colony is merely a pathway to English civilisation, not an abode of civilisation itself, which every good statesman should righteously endeavor to make the colony ? We have entered on a noble policy — truly colonial— of railways, and immigration, and manufactures* and we unhesitatingly pronounce the proposed action ol the local Government in this oommonage question to be thoroughly, though it is to be hoped nnconseipusly, opposed to the genuine Vogerian scheme of settlement. We have written this article in no light mood, and we commend, th.c- arguments adduced on the question of population to the consideration of the* provincial press, as well as to the serious consideration of the Provincial Executive*

TEMtfEfeANCE is the order of the <?iay, at present, jn Lawrence. The publicans take the matter- very quietly. Brother Mackune, Who is referred, to in another column, s'fc&ted> in the conrae of bis lecture, ;ithf*t ono ptibllcan collected a sum of money in aid of his cause. The rules of thfc Good Templars provide that a merchant who sells alcohol-, or malt, raw, refined, or miked, violates the ralea of Good TempWism, and cannot he enrolled in its catalogue of membership. But an assistant in a mercantile house — say, an ~ assistant grocer, wlio sells bottled alcohol, or malt, ok other intoxicants, will be accepted^ We perceive thai, the Rev* Mr*

Stanford literally abhors temperance pledges, but likes temperance in practise. Caste is the greatest enemy to social reforms of any kind. Caste prevents the literate from associating With theilliterate. Caste induces the iri&n of cultivated intellect to take brandy and water with Lia 'equal, rather than take the water without the brandy with his inferior, not fkat he loves the water less, but because he prefers intellectual equality and its concomitant intellectual sympathy. Social reform for social bad habits must be first preceded by an intellectual levelling up, which will not destroy caste, but which will w^den its limits. Brother Mackune evidently likes the democratic tendencies of the total abstinence movement, the leading distinction of which is distinction of appetites, not distinction of nationalities or caste. In one town, he said "Scandalous Jack," an ex-reprbbate, stood on the same "reform" platform with a provincial councillor. Is this levelling down, or levelling up? Some people think it no honor to be very intimate with provincial councillors, viewed in their mere politicaJ capacity. We think that the Good Templars make a great mistake in not being a financial benefit society. Accumulation |of mony for good purposes is. quite consistent with the accumulation of general good habits and total abstinence principles for good purpose's, If a drunkard has been in the habit of spending, say, £1 per week in drink, we would have him hand over { that sum to the society's bank, there to be reserved at interest for the ex-dru,nk-ard's own special futuje benefit, In the liands of persons apparently rereformed, such savings would be too great a temptation. So far as concerns the unfortunate Deist, he, in reference to total abstinence from intoxicants may wallow in his sin of inebrity, The Good Templars will not admit the Deist into their order. The Deist believes in only one god. Ghinaiuen, frequently, believe in more than one god. Do the Good Templars likewise refuse Chinese idolaters ? No one must misunderstand us. We are not Deists, nor are we pluraliats in creed, but we do believe that sect, whether broad or narrow, should not be associated with a pledge, which is far more a pledge of habit than of principle. Individually, we object to the ceremonies of friendly societies. They lay far too much stress on regalia and on long alphabetical titles which appeal to the faculties which keenly recognise the ridiculous. By what right, we would like to know, do the Good Templars ask a candidate to assume any particular attitude when taking the initial pledge? Their sole object should be to make a member abstain from intoxicants, but quite superfluosly they wed therewith a host of miserably petty mummeries.