The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1887. OWNERSHIP OF LAND.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2694, 7 September 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1887. OWNERSHIP OF LAND.

Th» Wellington Evening Press .of yesterday m a thoughtful artiole proYiß by th» IntonUstable svidence of tho official return! ofth« 'freeholders pf Nii? Zsaland that the ory of land aonopoly now railed for .electioneering.purpos&a ii sot warranted by the itubbom evidence,of facts. .Our contemporary shoTfi that in the ownerehip of land the rich have not been growing richer, and the poor have not been growing poorer, The subdivision of the larger Mtatei has- been prograailng ap&oe; while the number of to jtaallaj freeholds hae hssn Hteadily»nd rapldlyinorearfig. Inats&.'i oi mal, tasea being necessary io Wfflpol the dittribatlou of the land, the Only reawn why every one of the larger eitatea be not <ilready been broken up lato ,small ones, is bsoauso there hay® not been enough purchasers. forthcoming k take up. .the land at pricM whGh tronld return to the owneri tW?-; outlay upon it,, with iaterwt.: BonSoala ut luoh purchasers appear, the owners will cheerfully, asy, wijerly, ftMo.mmadate them with all they wftnt'i and, in the meantime, the Iwid ii occupied >nd worked mueh. jiiote profitably for'the country than it could possibly have been if it bad remained in the posgesaion of the Crown; Lind under : the retrograde policy of ihe present Ministry han-beeomi a drug in the. market. It ia, very much of it, absolutely unsaleable at any price. •In ' the Wairarapa' we gaze on the'raage* wliioli guard our. western .'frontier, and we hundreds of thousands of iwres on the hill sides, and we | know that there are also fertile'-valleys amongst the hills, whioh . are unpeopled and unsettled. These vast.; areas are capable of yielding a rich permanent' growth of grass, of carrying a large .'pastoral population and !yet they are silent solitudes, Should not our policy be to scatter tie people now concentrated in our werpopulated towns, amongst the lands 'capable 'of being profitably settled. Let the people have the freer hold of them on the best terms and the easiest possible condition rather than crowd more men, women and children into our overgrown centres of population and tax ourselves to promote local industries to find them in employi«9nt, ,

We tunicathat Borough Councillors are setting a litthi. .ljnhiiulhnnd with tliwtv work. When cniniitji.tt'es are cullt'd 11 pon to report it is novf ; ;vpry often found fchut they have not met,- o>: that' a;'quorum of nieiuhera inw not: Iwen sK'nri'il. mid in this way the liusiness of the Borough drifts into au unsatisfactory condition.