The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2454, 3 April 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1888.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

———♦ Tiirc chief aim of Colonial Government is to increase their fixed populations, such being the main source from which the revenue of the country is derived. The Australian colonies, notably Victoria and New South Wales, have increased their population during the last thirty and forty years in a conspicuous manner, notwithstanding the wide expanse of ocean which lias to be crossed by people from the old Avorld before they reach Australia. In this respect it will be found by comparison, that cither of the two-named colonics has distanced California u ho started earlier in the race of colonisation and possesses more direct advantages, such as the trans-conl inental railway system, to facilitate the route to her borders. The rapid increase of population still goes on in Australia without check; in fact, ■with improved means of communication the rate is also being accelerated. During the glamour of our

false prosperity, and by means of n forcing process of immigration, New Zealand made great .strides in '• in the numerical strength of hei population. But, with the re action " from our unnatural system of stimu lation, we have lost our reputatior for attracting people from tlit crowded lands of Great Britain and '• Europe to settle permanently in tin col ony. Our population has beeomi •. stationery, if not retrogressive, ; People there are who come tr our shores still, but few remain , whilst numbers of those who, by * long residence, really belong to us, are flying to the sister '> colonies across the water. New Zealand is looked upon as the land ; overladen with debt, borne dowi: ■ by excessive taxation, extravagant public expenditure, political intri : gues, and unfavourable oppor ; tunities for settlement. There u no doubt we shall outlive the bad • odour we are under : but it would 1 materially accelerate a return (i , confidence, without and within, if we ; proceeded without loss of time to 1 seriously consider the question of the . permanent settlement of the counJ try, and arrest the denuclition of our population by liold- - ing out attractive inducements j to the people to remain amongst us. There are many " of our administrative institutions that operate on the fixity of population besides land laws and special settlement Act?; for instance, the public railways are a powerful vehicle for good or evil in the settle- ! rnent and progress of the country, > and wo have repeatedly shown that public opinion in regard to them is that they have hitherto been proI duetive of little good and much evil. ! The first duty of a capable Government in a new country is to leave no stone unturned bv which to encourage settlement of the land by a steady influx of people who can enter into the strange circumstances and conditionsof colonial life prepared to be content and happy. There is nothing of this sort of policy on a truly national scale ; the process of settlement may be said to be at a complete standstill, population being drawn more and more to the large towns, or leaving the colony altogether. This last condition of things we have been accustomed to reproach old countries with, but from existing signs, one of the principles of modern statesmanship in England is to reverse the order and facilitate in every way the occupation of the land by the people. The Allotments Act passed last year by the British Legislature illustrates the wisdom and patriotism of its statesmen on behalf of the commonwealth. When Mr Gladstone was last in power, Mr Jessie Collings, a member of his ministry, advocated the introduction of a Bill which would enable labourers to obtain agricultural holdings of three acres, " with a cow." The present Conservative Government, howevet, have passed the Allotments Act and Allotments Compensation Act, now in operation. From references made to them in late English journals we gather that the former confers the right upon the labouring classes to obtain from Boards of Guard ans, or other local corporations, allotments of land in the vicinity of towns, or on large estates held by landowners, not exceeding one acre in town districts or three three acres in rural districts. The benefit is not confined to the agricultural class, but the term "labouring population" comprehends blacksmiths, carpenters, artisans, and other village and town workers of every description, who may demand allotments by right. 80 great were the number of applications made as soon as the Act came into force that the local authorities were at a loss how to meet the demand. But, notwithstanding the compulsory character of the Act, landowners and large estate managers are highly favourable to its provisions, and readily supply the land required, and thus make the success of the measure doubly assured. It is a fact that tho Act confers upon the labouring population a legal right, backed by compulsory clauses, which they formerly obtained as a privilcgo from tho land-owners. Land for tho people has been the aim of landowners and Parliaments since the days of the Tudors ; four hundred years ago tho consolidation of large ostatos Avas prohibited, and it was ordered that there should be a house to every twenty acres, and at a later period it was provided that 110 cottage in fanning districts should be without four acres of land attached to it. In 179' i, with the object of bettering the condition of the poor, an Act of George 111 provided allotments of land for the labouring population, and from that time allotments in large numbers have existed in England. From published returns in 1887 it was shown that there were, in England and Wales, 35 1,-177 allotments under one acre, and 35,030 between one and four acres, besides 256,805 cottage gardens of less than one-eighth of an acre. There are, of course, a large proportion of the labouring classes who are non-agriculturists who would be better provided for if they could procure the benefits derived from possessing allotments suitable to their means, Tt was to meet their ease the Act of 1887 was p issed, and it merely extends under compulsory legislation what was extensively obtained previously \olunlary and philanthropic ellbrts. The Allotmenls Act will confer an immense boon 011 the English working classes, and will be the means of largely augmenting, the number of contented homes and endearing the soil to the people. Legislation, based 011 similar lines would, in the absence of private philanthropy, render immense assistance to the cause of permanent settlement in this colony. The :

colonial Parliament must give its attention very shortly to a popular system of fixing people on the land, in rural as well as in town districts; tho present method of acquiring land in a country like this, so far removed from the centres of over population and great marts of the world, is simply prohibitive and repellent to would-be settlers abroad as well as vexatious to the majority of the people already in the colony.