Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1893. WHY MEN ARE LANDLESS

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4482, 28 July 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1893. WHY MEN ARE LANDLESS

Somk years ago, before Mr Ballanoe was dreamt of aB a Premier, and before all the new ideaa bf the present day bad been grafted on to our political system, we asked, why are men ' landless, and we answered the quea- 1 tion in the following terms: " We , have in New Zealand millions of acres of land worth from five to fity | shillings an aore open for purchase or i lease, and while this is the case no 1 man need be landless. Very many men are landless, and will remain so | contentedly to the end of the chapter, i Some have not the pluck to go Gpon i land, they are used to little town i comforts and conveniences, and have > not the courage to " rough it" in the 1 bush. Others never have a pound in 1 their pocket from one year's end to 1 another, and have not the me'anß even to lease land. Such men are a marvel, they do not beg, they do not steal, they do no regular work, and yet in some way they live on year after year, ] and their families get along somehow, I The children may occasionally want ' bread, but the parent manages to en- ' joy himself fairly well. Such men j are landless, and alwayß will be landless. Again, other men havo been | once bit with M and are twice shy. ] They have in the past been land- i holders, end have had such a sicken - ' ing experience of the. delights of ! ownership that they prefer being landless. Many men, too, can earn ( far larger incomes in other pur- ( suits than in cultivating land, and t others realjze the fact that tbey are < physically unfit for outdoor labor. ' The English or Colonial yeoman, tho ' man who can handle an axoora ' shovel, is not to be made rapidly out j of any material. : There are thousands i of people in Jew Zealand whose r fathers and forefathors have not been I brought , up orinnuredofiabnr, and 1 who o no more fit to be put to bard 1 work than a'racehorse is to be put 1 to a plough. 'lt might, in some . instances, 'take three. generations to £ breed the bone and muscle essential ] to a good type of colonist. Thousands 1 of men are, therefore, from physical, ? causes, landless, and can only be | gradually 1 absorbed in country pur-1 suits. People are landless for Reasons' P snph as we have quoted, and als6 because £t the . presejat time it is not altogether .easy jto niajie' lantlipay.'-' ii A few years M it \wa| possible 'tq 2i t?ri{o .epeapojn Stand ones/ h ; tion, and pgrjiapj some day wb® q Liberal c eyes of (hit pujbfy may be ji poflsible to. take a sober view of: tieV' question. Since we wrote on the dc« 1; casion we have referred to, thousands y of people have become nominally lftntlownera by leahing aectiona undev J j the au'spwes of Sjjeoial Settlement |

Associations, and yet they are, landless men, They have not the means to go upon their land, they Lave not the means to live upon it, and we qneation in some instances whether j they hove tbe inclination to settle , on it. Thpy are simply traders in a i small slice of some distant mountain ' range, and hope some day to be able to transfer their small interest in it-1 with a profit to themselves, A eon- 1 siderable percentage of the popula- ' tioii of New Zealand congratulate themselves upon the : faot 1 tint they are landless men. They have in day held land, they have ■ lost money on land, thoy have thrown 1 up their land and now they thank j ibeir stars that they are landless. A landless man if he possesses a good profession, trade, or ornft is to be ' envied, Why should eot the truth be ( told about land ? A nian who pos- j sesses ono or two thousand pounds of i capital, unless he be a practical farmer or grazier, will not touch land; i He is not such a fool us to risk bis 1 money in such a risky venture t'sland, bat the man who has no capital will take up land anywhere. The landless man i.s the safe man, the good m»rk,the prosperous mnn in ionumer- 1 able instances,