The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2165, 25 May 1886, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whosoever state or persuasion, religious or .' ' political. ,-Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, . "Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1886. ♦

There cannot be too much importt alfce attached to the agrarian move-. lament initiated by Mr Firth. We ■■'have : already expressed an opinion *', concerning it so far as Mr Firth /himself- .is concerned.- -From a v^riiafcter of fact point of view his ' action is. remarkably shrewd and busiqess-like. He is one of scores of. great property-owners whos,e estates have become an incubus to them. Various causes have of late years been operating against them, commercial depres- •. sign, depreciation in the value of '"• » land, taxation, bad markets, and * "political drawbacks against the genuine settlement of the country , districts, these, with many others, I • > nbt the least among which is 'obi* wretched railway system, are •' evils which have weighed down the holders of huge blocks of land. ?.Then came the question, hpw to .^lighten.' the .burden.- .Many- socalled liberal inducements were •j 'offered to attract settlers to make ' up sections of - land, meeting with almost universal failure. The G?oWernment have made- numerous „ .attempts to settle people qn Crown , lands without success. This is* a •'•fact which the late census very * clearly establishes. The principalcentres, cities like Auckland, hareswelled into huge -proportions quite phonominal, whilst, on the contrary, the country districts have absolutely, remained stationary. The cry arose "We must settle people on the land." The agitation begun in Ireland, and taken up in the kingdoms of England and Scotland, together ! • with the principality of Wales, has vibrated to this distant colony. We begun to perceive that we were on the high road towards perpetuating the old ills we have fled from on the soil of our young adopted country. " How are we to. prevent this V " Where is the remedy to be found V are questions which have occupied many minds. The problem bids fair towards reaching solution at the hands of Mr Firth • with his policy of " Land for the People." His first essay at reducing his theory to practice has been Attended with unqualified success, so far as it goes to prove beyond doubt that there are hundreds of people in the colony at the present moment' who would gladly avail themselves of truly liberal encouragements to' build up homes in the rural districts. It is clear that crowds flock to the cities, not from choice, but from force of circumstance?. Now, what will be the ulterior influence of the Matamata experiment?

Will it open the eyes of thcw> other land-owners iiiul laud eoinpaiiies who just now su Her from a j)letlior.i of broad acres? We know they are •ill auvious. to dispose of farms, \iirvin;- in size, if they could only Inui buyers or occupiers. Let them tike their oue from Mr Firth. What a difference for the better it will make to the Waikato generally if the immense area of agricultural lands at present held by a few individuals and companies were thrown in the market after the same manner as Mr Firth lias placed his estate of MatamaU ! There is no doubt the Government will introduce very liberal measures, more liberal perhaps even than Mr Firth's, in order to stimulate permanent settlement of the Crown lands. Should the associations and other pmate owners hesitate to do so they will probably find the competition from the Government will very much reduce their chances of disposing of their own properties, besides having the effect of lowering the value of land. Mv Firth has probably given birth to a revolution, the end of which- we shall not see for many a long year.

Side by side" with the Matamata experimen^ijd-its probable effect, we must "consider • the Question of railway refoiua. ' Indeed, it is argued by. some., and with' much j cogency, tnai it is useless for men like Mr' Firth. to< dream of , establishing prosperous settlements so long as the' present absurd tariff system exists. Without denying ,oi> affirming this proposition, it must be quite manifest that the rural industries of New Zealand cannot prosper so long as one of 'the elements of success is denied to it. We mean cheap transit. The country interests must stagnate so long fis the freight rates operate in the .direction of prohibition. The commonest, and as it seemed to us the most potent objection to Mr Vaile's scheme was this : That its effect, if adopted, would be to bestow upon certain portions of, the colony, namely, those tapped by the rfcil; way system, exceptional advantages, for which the rest' of the "country would have to ,pay. Now, if it ,were proposed to reduce the fares and rates in such a manner ,as to reduco the revenue, and so make the! lines more unprofitable in a commercial sense than they are at present, this contention would be a just and reasonable one ; but if, on the other hand it could be shown that the reduction, according to the plan proposed, would rather tend to increase than to diminish the revenue, the objection could not be admitted. ' To pppose the adoption of a system under which the existing railways might confer greatly enlarged" benefits upon those in contiguity to them, merely on the plea that the objectors were not so! situated, would be to take up the position of the dog in the manger. Assuming, therefore, that it can be shown that no loss would accrue, 1 all opposition to the establishment of the system ought to disappear, into thin" air. We admit that at) the first blush Mr Vaile's contention' 'upon this point is hard of belief. It uaturafly takes a considerable amount of argument to t convince one that if 2s 6cl be , charged where the fare was formerly 175.6 d no loss shall be sustained. But the fact is that the longdistance passengers are in a minority. ' When we] are told that the present average fare is Is ll|d' we can' see this at once. The bulk of the passengers travel •over short distances, and this is the class -that, will be largely affected by Mr' Vaile's seiieme. ""At the lowest possible .estimate, assuming that there were no long distance fares at all;' thaF no lone travelled? .beyond one stage, and that no increase took place,: -ftheVJavfcrage fare^ would be fou^rpenqe, but, pf, course, as^uiany, would -'travel ' first-class, ancPmore would travel beyond one stage, as they do at present, the average would be greatly in excess of this. We are quite prepared to believe the average would be quite up to the figure quoted by Mr Vaile. That being so, the question to be ! considered is : Will two travel where 'only one travels now 1 The meeting the other night was almost unanimous in giving an affirmative, and thisfiiot hastily and without though V for a large proportion of those present are men of intelligence and sound judgment; who are not usually carried off their feet. The general belief is that the increase woulcf be infinitely greater.' We" are v glad to see that they who hold these views are not gping ,to restytiantent in. the contemplation ;.of the beauties of their creed 1 . They i have ' once more entered xipon an, ' aggressive crusade. ' The errors of ; the past, which were chiefly errors o£ , omission, are likely to be avoided, i and we shall be greatly surprised if thpy do'hot secure that which,- com- ' pared with what they ultimately intend^ to fight for, is a very modest .boon, the appointment of a Royal . Commission.

Yesterday was the sixty-seventh anniversary of the birth of Her Majeaty the Queen, and the day was observed as a genei.il holiday throughout her vast empire. In Waikato the banks and business places were closed, and the inhabitant enjoyed themselves in various ways. At <Te Awanmtu there were horse races, under tthe auspices of the Waipa Racing Clubt at Cambridge, there were athletic sports, while at other places there were tennis parties, football matches, &c. A report of the banquet given to jMrßryceat Wellington, on Saturday, is ;hcld over. Owing to yesterday being a close holiday m the Postal and Telegraph Department, we am witlwit our usual telegraphic news, a rep.ut of the Cambridge sports, &c. Mr H. E. Whitak*r. who was so intimately associated with the \roha goldtiold in its oils' day«, and who took so 'prominent a part in all movements for the advancement of the district, was entertained at «t banquet by a number of the old .'residents there, on Wednesday last, on the 'occasion of a \ isit to tlio springs. ' The election for the return of Ithree members for tho Hamilton Road .District took place yesterday. There were Jfour candidates nominated, viz., Messrs T. iMannder, John Atkinson, Thomas Kotltwoll, aud Johu Ridler. The result of the

poll placed Mr Maunder .it the head, Mr Atkinson seci'tirl, and Air Thoma* Rothwell thin), Mr Kidler bonier one Ic-hs than Mr Rothweli.