Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1895. STATE DEBTORS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5175, 6 November 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1895. STATE DEBTORS.

Spkakixoi on tho " Government Adviutcos (o Seniors' Hill," Mr Thomas Mackenzie, tho member for Olutha, who is one of the ablest men in Parliament, said, " 1 disapprove of this system of State debtors on principle, as it does not work well. Wo found in tho early days, when passages were granted toimmigrants, that the moneys advanced were never repaid. So under the deferred-pay-ment system for the purchase of lands. The rents were reduced, and considerable concessions made in other ways in regard to values. We know also that in this district money was advanced to enable settlers to settle in the district, but those moneys have lioyer been restored. Jcrningham Wakefield so advanced £30,000 to settlers thirty or forty years ago, and it lias never been restored to the coffers of the colony! That money was advanced to Wellington settlers, and was never paid back, or only a very small proportion has been restored. The electors put men into t!io Provincial Council pledged to cancel the obligations, and the debts were cancelled. Men will bo sent to this llouso simply because they, promise, in tho first place, to reduco the interest on the money lent to settlers, or becauso they have promised to get reductions in the rentals for Crown tenants, or for other purposes. Ido not believe in creating a great band of State debtors; consequently I strongly approved Mr Warburton's scheme, which would Imve secured money at a low interest to tho farmer and freed the colony from political inlluenco through demands for reduction."

We, who remember something of the early history and settlement of the Colony from contact with its early settlers, can fully endorse all that Mr T. Mackenzie said about the Jerningham Wakefield advances. There was repudiation from well-to-do and thriving settlors, and it was based 011.the idea that their efforts in developing the resources of the country had recouped it for certain advances made to them. There was something to bo said on their side of 'the caso to extenuato ut policy of repudiation. A policy of this kiud, howover vicious it may be, is often popular. It was extremely popular in those early days and it may bo so again at some later ones, when some of the chickens hatched by the present Government come home to roost, At some future day electors may return members to the House to vary or caucol the obligations entered into under the Advauces to Settlers Act, Who can say that such a contingency will not occur, and that if it does happen it will not. tie fraught with disaster to the fhere is muoh beuefifc to

settlers in the " Advances to Settlers | Act" wliioh wo should bo sorry for one moment to disparage, but unless it is entirely dissociated from the political field, tbe Colony may some day have to pay dearly for its advantages.