THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1908. AN OBVIOUS DUTY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9039, 24 January 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1908. AN OBVIOUS DUTY.

For nearly a month past grass fires have caused loss and anxiety to the settlers in the Wairarapa valley, and for more than a fortnight they and their neighbours in the Bush districts have been engaged in battling with devastating flames spread over a huge tract of country. And I ho end is not yet. Under a canopy of smoke, in a stifling atmosphere, and often surrounded by walls of fire, many men and women who by patient plodding and heroic fortitude have [ slowly carved out homes for themselves, suffering in the process privations which are incomprehensible to those who dwell in cities, now view the devastation of their small areas and the annihilation of thenhopes. The condiion of the settlers to-day in this and other fire-ravished districts in the North Island will command the sympathy of the people of the dominion; 1 u; while that may be gratifying, so far as it goes, to the sufferers, it will in no way help to grass the lands, renew the fencing of holdings over half a province or re-erect demolished homesteads and outbuildinngs. Neither will it provide food for starving stock. What is required is that the administrators

of the State should give expression to the State's sympathy in concrete form. In other words, the Government should come forward with a practical proposal to assist the victims of the bush and grass fires to reinstate themselves. The principle of the Liberal legislation of many years past has been to encourage the settlement of the land as the basis of all progress —the prop and mainstay of our national industries. It is true that that principle has not been given effect to to the extent, or always in the direction, that circumstances demanded; but that is all the more reason why the State should come promptly to the rescue in the case of a calamity like that which the backblocks settlers have recently endured, and are still enduring. They are the men and women who, despite difficulties and drawbacks, which the State ought to have minimised at the outset, have transformed wild tracts of country into thriving settlements, and on this account they have a double claim upon the Government under their existing distressful conditions. The form which that assistance should take we leave to the fertile resources of Ministers who are never at a loss to devise ways and means in matters upon which their hearts are set. If only upon the ground of political economy it behoves the Government to come to the rescue of the victims of the fires, but there are other and higher motives to justify the action we have suggested. Leaving t.he question, however, to be dealt with upon the lower basis, it

is obvious that the State should not allow a body of industrious settlers to 3ink under a calamity which is none af their own making", and which it was impossible for them to avert. Homeless and houseless as many of them have been rendered by the fires, with holdings stripped of fencing, their grass crops consumed, their outbuildings in ashes, and their stock left fodderless, many of the struggling settlers are left in a hopeless condition, while others will have to start de novo under a handicap. It cannot be said that funds are not available for l'elief purposes, for we are promised this year a Financial Statement such as the dominion has never known, and could not have reckoned upon, notwithstanding continued record surpluses. Even if this were not the case, means of assistance should be found, and the people would cheerfully submit to reasonable sacrifices in a case of the kind we have been-discussing. We trust the Government will view the position from a humanitarian as well as a statesmanlike aspect; and it will be found that either, or both aspects combined, amply warrant the State in helping to place the ruined or embarrassed settlers once more upon the path of progress and prosperity.