NATIONALISATION OF THE LAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1720, 14 July 1883, Page 4

NATIONALISATION OF THE LAND.

It is not, we, <\f {feJHMlI 8 ) % i f* ' o6^lli upon as good |aTstu»M;<r*,uiicliMpflie pol^l «tljilo jtson^emienceii of fr/lftltaß&Wt l*/\ fork&.i»eM ?»fere bsss^W,iM soundness. To do so almost seems to I give it a standiug ground,? to vt\iM\ ;6rf its' own merits it lias no sort of title, and thus actually betters its' position:. ,W«. are disposed, however, to^ gi\'e this advantage to the advocates -of the Land' Nationalisation: adhuiuo, and .just jatk pticin to consider wl\at that policy would really com* to Mipposing . for a moment it could and would be' honestly brought into operation I.*1 .* The plan 1 is, a«, we understand it, that the State is to be the grimrt landlord of ajtjits,, subjects. ,It is, to levy ho taxes, but every citizen is to pay pent to .the Government according to the value of his holding, which is to be assessed at started intervals f and the public expenditure is to be defrayed out of the revenue thus acctir|ng. Now, how would this work ? , We cannot help seeing that it would expose us inevitably to two 1 evils, from both ,of which it is the (?reat merit of constitu-, tional Governments that they do so much to set us free. One in jobbery! and the other is irresponsibility. Only imagine tlie constituencies, such as wo know thun to bo now, and an army of Government valuers' let loose orer the whole of them, either just after one general election or just before another, how would it be possible for a valuation conducted under such eireumittncei to be free, as it ought to be, froth favouritism on the one side or official pressure on the other t Who would believe it if even it were possible ? And we may ask, Who, would. W satisfied if it were be» licved in ? Imagine the indignation of a Government' majority, which, after carrying in the Premier after a ■ bard contest, found itself actually set at A I rental just as high as the defeated minority. Attempt to release the com- ; plaints, the appeals, the impeachments, j with which the unlucky assessors would be Biire to be overwhelmed as soon as Parliament met. Or again, lft us place ourselves in the position of a Minister of Lands under the new system, pressed to give time to a Government supporter long in arrear. with his pa> mentd, and at the same time feeling it his painful duty to sell up a formidable opponent the first moment his rent was overdue. A pretty system this to substitute for the present " burden " of taxation. Nor is this all. According to the new system the public revenue is to be not only ascertained, it is to be absolutely and irrevocably granted over to the Government for a period of ten or twenty years to come. This once done, w e shall find that we have laid the axe at the root of all responsible government, The power of the House of Commons, it has been well said, is it* power over the purse. It gained its authority in the first instance by a succession of attacks on the permanence of the Royal revenue ; and it was not until it had succeeded in .making the whole of the taxation of the country practically dependent upon ah annual vote that the power it had gained was really secure. The House of Commons at Home now determines year by year how much money the Government shall be allowed to spend in the whole : how much upon each item, and from what sources the money shall bu drawn. It entrusts this money to that Government only in whose policy it has confidence ; and it always reserves to itself, as a means of enforcing obedience to its will, the power in the last resort of refusing the supplies. No better proof can be given of the reality of this power than the fact that it never needs to be exercised. Under the new system this is gone at once. The supplies are there. The whole money wanted by the Government is already in it* hands, and is secured fo it moreover for twenty yeats to come. What need to any Government of the confidence of Parliament, when it has in its hands all the money it wants, an<l can anticipate, if it pleases, its revenues for twenty years onward, without calling for a single vote from either House . We shall be told perhaps that this will be a breach of the Constitution. Very likely it will ; but under the nenr system who is to help it ? The German Reichstag, young us it is In the practice of constitutional principles, has known better than this. Prince Bismarck has long been trying to get it to vote a biennial budget. He wants two years only of security against their Interference to carry out whatever may seem good to him. But this, subservient as the body may seem to have been in other matters, they have always refused ; and they have thus preserved their liberties. The advocates of the new light must surely be blind indeed if they cannot take a lesson from whnt it actually passing before their eyes. In this colony the labouring man has long been reeognined as the best purchaser of land, and when.' i ever there is a chance of his wanting it, it is out up to suit his convenience, He, therefore, is fast becoming— if he is not already —the landowner of the futuro, It is for him, then, that, Mr Stout is pro. posing, in place of a well understood ! system of taxation and a responsible Government to substitute a capriciously I estimated rental and a despotic oligarchy. —Ohristohurch Press,

Salt fob the Land. — Mr Thompson, M.R.C.V.8., in a pnppr read before the Scottish. Metropolitan Veterinary Medical AAsocintioii in i'dinbnrjrh on" The application of nalt to land an a preventive of blood and parasitic diseases," detailed tbo results of his extended profe«Monal experience in the urn of twit applied t« pasturage in the following di«ea*es ;— Red water, «plenic apoplexy,diarrho3a in calve*, rheumatism in cattle, and block -leg or rot, or " liver fluke " in sheep. Mr Thompnon'« mode of applying the salt in to dre«s the pasture with it At the rate of 6 cwt to the acre, and to repeat this every alternate year. In the oa6© of liver fluke, Mr Thompnon cited in.^tanoen in his practice of land— on limefl'one formation — on which tdieep could not be kept in consequence of loßsea from fluke: but which land, from the, application of orunhed rook salt as above described, is now currying High* clans Lincoln, sheep, and fluke is entirely unknown. His experience w,as Mtnilur in respect to the other dinenne* named. Mr Thompson maintain that salt administered to pheep in troughs 'is not so effective as when applied ;to the , pasture, because when spread on the land it destroys the ova or host-bearer of the future fluke, as well as the various fungi whioh are found to be favorable to forms, of animal diseases.

• Bias and Mice. ~lf yon wish to,de« stroy them get a packet ofHiLL'sM.AGtaVRRMt N Kili.kr in packets, 6d, 9d, and I*J to be obtained of all storekeepers, or from T. B. Hill by.enclosing an extra stamp. -Buy the best sewing machines, packed in bo*c.v .carriage paid. Home Shuttle, £9 ; White,- £3 10s;. Wertheim. £i 10s ; Frister and Rossman's, £i 10s : in walnut corer, £5. Knitj ninffz-msichihes, £7; ►.Sintrerfu, Howes, Davis' 1 , Jones', Standard, and all the better classes of machines in stocki "Cash, or deferred. '£). S. Chambers' Wholesale ' and ' Retail Machine Depot, 70, Queen-street opposite the Bank of New Zealand. ... .

" ' UITK IN THE BnSlt-^TkKN AfcD NOW. — It it generally supposed that in the bush we hare to put up with many discomforts and privations » in,tbo skane 61 foo# 'Formerly J*' was v ip, 'but now, thanks, Ho T. R. Hill, who has himself dwelt in the Bush, if food.does consist chiefly-, of tinned mfei'tS htt'CoLONtXL SAfje^ffives'to Uhem a most dejoctablivflavbur^makihilt them as well of the plainest food.mostenjoyablc, and insteid as'.hamibiscuits and> indigestible damper his Im« llM^cpßNiASLjftMyI IM^cpBNiASLjftMy itffifc* vmi&fki, Very b'eit l 'bVe«d, i icpnes;.' cikes^a\)d 2 pastrjr • fair , superior and mote -.wholesome ■ than yeast or leaven. Sold <by all, stofekee per*. 1 who ..can'ob* , •tain it from al>* WreKifnt in /AVri kinnd. , < .; v , youSvill do v^ellftiyfurai^h, ybur'Kouse froWnGariicic •Sndidfnn^ll'i. STlifc^liVv* now , th^Of mosticqjnijletipVFur^iHhjnr'l^areh'ouiV^in- . Auckland, furnitutejtpiiujtyill classes,, tr'opd'