THE LAND QUESTION ON GOLDFIELDS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 517, 15 June 1869, Page 2

THE LAND QUESTION ON GOLDFIELDS.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) See,—The narrow views of our public men in any other colony would naturally cause a sensation, and in this, where public opinion is seldom expressed, must cause much food for reflection to the friends of progress. The soul of the chief magistrate of the' Province is up in arms and eager for rule over us with an iron hand, irrespective of our wants. Of justice—of benefiting the Colony of which he i 3 a legislator—he can see nothing, nothing but the selfish interests of the few squatters and farmers who will soon, it is devoutly to be wished, form the whole over whom he can sway his sceptre. For he has forfeited all allegiance from us by denying us the rights of citizenship, without making an effort to give us the qualification. Such legislators have much to learn, and must learn it in their own way. The members of the Council are unacquainted with our requirements, and, through a flimsy veil of courtesy, have tried hard to make-believe to do us justice ; but we are so used to their Appropriation Bills that we would be consummate asses to expect to spend our own revenue in the district and at the same time have any connection with them. Nor could they do us justice were they ten times mora honorable, unless they better understood the wants of the people for whom they are called upon to legislate. Would we achieve true represeuation, our Council Chamber must be nearer homeand safe from inundation by members too selfish to see their own interest through the prosperity of others—who would compel us, had they the power, to continue to uphold that antediluvian form of government which may have been valuable to nurse the infant colony into very existence, but whose influence now is, to say the least, pernicious and stagnating; but, thanks not to the forms of government, nor to the ability of our public men, but to the industry and enterprise of our race, the infant has become a youth—alas, likely to he curbed and stunted by little minds of the Sleepy Hollow stamp, dressed in a little brief authority and determined to use it for base and selfish ends. It cannot he too often repeated that what will benefit the miner will benefit all, even the farmer and squatter in the most remote parts of the colony, and it behoves every one of us to agitate and exchange ideas until the echo of" the voice of the people" as "the voice of God" impresses upon our rulers that narrow minds must submit to that voice, albeit they have set their minds on obtaining gold by trampling on their fellow-men. Had we but a wise and good autocrat, what might lie not do for such a race of people with such country? He would never allow the fertile plains to be monopolized for so petty a purpose as growing wool for a foreign market, that the squatocracy may drain the money from the country —the land to lie idle and the people begging leave to toil—the diggings to be the only field for unemployed energy —the great school of irresistible temptation—the moral and physical curse of our young men aud maidens, nor would our merchants be confined to exporting gold and wool only, yet such is our position, enveloped in ignorance and surrounded by a selfishness which amounts to crime in the rich and a virtue in the poor —which degrades and puzzles us when radical changes ought to be the order of the day.

The land question is the key-note of progress that wants sounding and settling permanently for the benefit of the masses. But our legislators pei'sistently throw dust in our eyes by inventing fallacies to hide their thoughts. They say the land is pledged for the colouial debt. But what money lender would object to have his mortgage advanced in value ? How does the British Government keep up its credit almost without land ? Is it not by the wisdom of Parliament, by the wise and progressive spirit of such statesmen as Grindstone and Bright ? "What man having his estate encumbered would expect to free it by keeping it uncultivated and his retainersidle ? When men like Mr Curtis legislate for us we may not be surprised by what a small amount of wisdom the colony is governed. It is only a dread of physical force which prevents him trying to make slaves of us, but let him bear in mind that we are the true sons of liberty —that we will always endeavour to bring the colony to the use for which it was wisely created, the happy home of millions, in spite of narrow selfish prejudice. Citizen.