LAND NATIONALISATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1538, 19 November 1883, Page 2

LAND NATIONALISATION.

|To the Editor,] Bib—l notice that a meeting of Parliament woe held in' your city, on the 15th instant, and that very large constitutional questions came before it for discussion and .were-.quickly disposed of. Your premier (Mr Hawkins) I notice, made a vigorous speech against nationalisation of the land. I, with thousands of other colonists, take the other side of this question, and are one with Mr Eolleston, tho Minister for Lands, . There are too many landlords in New Zealand already, and beforo another thirty, years all these estates must be purchased by the Government for Nationalisation purposes, as well as retaining most of the present crown lands. Very little is gained by selling. the public estate (iW the proceeds are squandered) while uur National debt is fast increasing, but if the State had possession of the lands and rented them i

out,;tbeMhe intermit b'n our borrowed millions eonld easily be met Most, men would look better after their btniiieea as farmers if they had a email rent to pay, but if freehold their onterprize ia not used, for they have nothing to pay, and • care very littlo about pushing the country ahead, What we want is crownlenantii paying a email rent and living' independent, for the State ia the" beat landlord a person can have. Depend, upon, it that before long the land will; require' to best r three times the las it now doo'i, for our revenue is fast decreasing through local manufacturing of a'great,.poitlon .of our requirements, and where then -is the Interest to come from but from the land either in the shapo of rent or taxes] For our friends in London must be paid. Mr Eawkins charges the V newspapers of Wellington of burking tho' existence of the Wairarapa Settlers' Association. Nothing of the kind,and he must be a very narrow-minded fellow who would think bo. The proposition to resist being taxed directly for the use of. a railway between Masterton and Makatoka has some sense about it, Better tell the Government <■ not to make it as you will refuse to pay J the tax. At best the Association should * remember that no M.H.R, or any-other man has any power with the present Government, who is taliog the country with an iron hand. The Parliament has no power with such a Government at its head, for thoy delight to snub any deputation no matter large or snaall, and there it no hope for improvement except by turning them out. Yours, &c. W, MoKebvsr.

STATION EMPLOYERS. TothbEdiior. Sir,—l notioed with pleasure a few months ago an able article in oneyour issues advocating for better ac'-fignoda-tion for station employees, and it amjeot, that ought to be of great'intere*. to station hands We have to own that the Wairarapa district is far. behind other districts in this respeot, and with your permission I will give one- instance of the sleeping accommodation in oho, ofthe principal stations in the distrioti. : The men are crowded into a small old and decayed boiling down establishment, and the unfortunate rouseaboutsare crammed into one small room to which they. pet access by the use of a ladder) and then enter this den in a stooping attitude, and disappear for the night like some wild animal, and it ia a well-known fact that men have emerged in tho morning from this apartment in bad health, having'no inclination for their meals or daily duties, and it is not surprising considering the quantity of foul air they absorb In such close quarters, where there is neither regard for oleanllness or ventilation. The accommodation on nearly all the other stations arc something similar, One runholler could not see why his shepherd wanted a window in his whare, as, he. told him that he had no business to be there in day light 1 Surely this is a class of men that deserves better treatment at the hands of their employers, and surely the time has arrived when runholders can afford to build decent accommodation for their emplo3'ees l They can find means jo add to their possessions whenever thero is obance, but the working classes must see that their reqnirements are entirely neglected, and that tho day is not far distant when they shall havo to send less Bquatters and employers of labor to Parliament to represent them. At the timo of a general election our friendly squatters go among the working classes with smiling countenances, and will shake hands with men that they don't know from a crow at any other time. Tho result is the working classes send them to Parliament in large numbers from all the provinces of New Zealand; they go principally to forward their own interests and vote for free immigration. I think it will be admitted that we don't get a very desirable class of colonists through free immigration, Wo want Legislators who will pass liberal land Acts, and offer every inducement to a respectable class of agriculturalists and amall capitalists to settle on the waste lands of Naw Zealand. I am, (k, Stationhahd.