A POLICY FOR YOUNG NEW ZEALAND

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2395, 15 November 1887, Page 2

A POLICY FOR YOUNG NEW ZEALAND

TO THE EDITOR. •Sin,—Drastic retrenchment in our public and private expenditure, although admitted by all to be necessary, is not sufficient in itself to restore confidence and relieve depression in the colony. Neither will any effort we can make in New Zealand free us from the load of indebtedness which is weighing us down. The world is so reduced m relative space of time and distance as compared with a few decades of years since, and at the same time the depression is so equally felt throughout England and the continent of Europe, that only when a marked reaction lias taken place at Home can we expect to realise a brighter prospect for the colonies. Nevertheless it is urgently necessary that no possible policy for minimising the evil should be left unconsidered, and f would therefore suggest the following as a policy for Young New Zealand to adopt, subject to the amendments which wise criticism may bring forward. But, first—“ln tiie old country the cry is for bread —too many people; too little food.” In New Zealand it is the reverse—the cry is for consumers—too few people ; too much food to consume. At Home is wanted land for the people. In New Zealand is wanted people for the land. Again, in mid-ocean tlio castaway banker would gladly give the husbandman gold for food in equal weight, or even 10 per cent, in favour of food. In New Zealand lie only will offer loz. of gold for a ton weight of food, and there we have it. Gold is the hero of to-day, before whom high and low, rich and poor bow down and worship, and sacrifice to him themselves, their wives, families, honour, and their all. Tlio care-worn, anxious banker, whose responsibility to 10 per cent, seeking shareholders compels him to nerve himself to frown upon the broken-hearted settler who is appealing in vain for another renewal of Ids P.N., which, at tiie price his produce is bringing (after deducting interest and charges) in Hie market, cannot be paid, and the hungry out-of-work-man are all three alike tiie serfs of gold, and as they walk along the street together or anyhow, it’s “ Heigh diddle diddle, the biggest fool in the middle,” just as position, progress, or chance may happen to place them fur the time being. The Banking Act lias been too groat a boon to modern society to lightly condemn, but tiie wholesale manner in which the lands of the colony are falling involuntarily under the dominion of the Banks and Loan

Associations is alarming. 5 per cent, to depositors and 10 per cent, to borrowers must soon overwhelm the yeomen of New Zealand, and the prnpcity tax is adding to the industrious settler, already at his wits’ end or under the thumb of his banker, a millstone which will sink him beneath the waves of hopeless despair. The position of the colony is such that some patriotic effort should be made to empower the State to assume the equity of redemption on all lands held by Ranks and Roan Companies, and at any time by proclamation to enter and take possession of the freehold right by payment in Jubilee .State Ronds to the amount not exceeding the mortgage sum on the land existing. These Jubilee Ronds should bear four per cent, interest and one per cent, sinking fund fora cmrency of aO years, and bo convertahle only for lands of the Crown in the colony at their upset value. Such a policy would be a fitting compromise between land nationalizers and freeholders—the State would always have properties within their grasp at a valuation which (as their own valuers would be the appraisers) would keep them safe. At the same time the unfortunate freeholder who had imprudently anticipated his future profits or returns by mortgage or overdraft, could throw himself into the arms of the State, wlio on appeal could step forward, thrust aside the usurer and his 10 per cent, lend him Jubilee Ruuds at five per cent, nolens vuleus which the State would never be called upon to pay in money, but as a permanent investment for trust money or Foreign capital would be secured by the best security, and the lands so sold by the State could be resold for cash or deferred payment, or leased to the original qpcupierj or offered in Hugland and elsewhere V,n easy tcnr,s for bona fide .settlement; trustees to he empowered to invest in Jubilee Ronds, and at attainment of majority to apportion the bonds amongst the participators, and they could convert them for lands of the colony or hold them on at ii per cent., terminable at aO years, or 4 per cent, continuous as consols.

Unless sonic such a policy is adopted by Young New Zealand, the whole of our best lands will fajl helplessly into the hands of tho Ijankof or Loan Cq'mpany, who in their turn will become insolvent or forced in self-defence to plunge legitimate customers with such a high rate of interest that all hope of freedom, birthright, or honest living will have to be abandoned. Such a policy or its modification would, I believe, place 10,000,000 acres of the best lands in the country, towns and cities at once at the disposal of the Crown {for hundreds would seek protection for their homes by handing to the Htate their freeholds to be relieved of 10 per cent., and pay the State a Tow interest with the hope in better times to'redeem' the freehold or would be prepared to go back and leave to tho immigrant the improved homestead near the settlement, h’or it is the duty of Young New Zealanders tq go back and work in the wilderness, and leave to the new comer the partially or "fully improved homestead.

If the State could offer small areas of land near the settlements, in England or on the continent on easy terms, it would be sure to attract a thousand families of desirable quality. It would give the Government ready money; relieve alike the over-bur-dened settler, and the financial establishments, of the undue pressures which bad or unforseen circumstances" of Government have entailed upon the'm. It would restore immigration and end depression—looo new families would want 10001 bs more meat and bijtter, arid would be purchasers of prodijpo ant] ether fan|i or local industries. And (lid iMiglanri, ni'qr-pnrqencd yith ten millions of men, would send us her millions of surplus money, if, we, the working men of Young New Zealand will only have the manliness to encourage onr starving relatives at Home to come out and cultivate the soil. Win, is not a working man in Young New Zealand? Loafer turn and i)ee. More men, more than gold, is what we want tfi chase away depression from New Zealand,— lam, etc.,' Colonial.