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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2649, 16 July 1887, Page 2

■ We have received from a wollknown and respected settler, Mr James Coutts Crawford, a pamphlet entitled " Retrogression," which treats several of the largo public questions whioh are now occupying public attention with a broad comprehensiveness which indicates . that the author is something better' than a -mere theorist. Mr Crawford very justly points out that tho present radical party in tho colony is anything but progressive, and as a capital, illustration of his argument declares that the brand new nationalisation of land fad is on a level with tho old Maori tenure, and that instead of being a-stop forward, it is a relapse' backward into barbarism.- Mr-Craw-ford also draws a li voly picture of the ills that have' followod the sub-division of land in France, Germany, and Switzerland. What Radicals may in time accomplish by thoir retrogressive policies 'may be seen.in the lonian Island, where several individuals own a single olive tree. Mr Crawford is somewhat severe on the existing howl for Protection, and with considerable force-maintains that the true policy of New Zealand is an Australian Customs Union. He shrewdly points out that the future serfs, of New Zealand . will be the workmen of the Kaiapoi,. Mosgiel, Ashburton, Wellington, and • other factories of the colony. We would like to see more colonists m New Zealand express opinions like Mr Crawford, opinions ; which bear the stamp of honest intelligence and'experience.