SOCIALISTIC HUMBUG.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3000, 6 October 1891, Page 2

SOCIALISTIC HUMBUG.

TO THB EDITOR. Sin, —I wish tn write to you about all this humbug I read in the papers about Henry George's progress and poverty and land nationalisation, and I will give my experiences of 27 years' residence in the Waikato. Twenty-seven years ago I, along with about three thousand others, arrived in the Waikato, and after being paid for oar service we were given some 50, some 60, and Bome SO acres of land, also 12 months rations and a town acre, and one thousand feet of timber to build a house with. Do the land nationalises wish for anything better than this ? Well, what was the result ? A.s soon as the rations were eaten, how many were left on the land ? Is it not a fact that nearly 90 per cent, returned to the slums of Melbourne and Sydney and aro now, perhaps, joining in the cry for

"The land for the people." I myself sold my laud and my acre for a song and drank the money, but am I the more iustified on that account for trying to get land for nothing from those who have purchased and improved it 1 You will, perhaps, ask why I did not clear out. I will tell you it was because I was able to work for wages for men liko Mr Leslie, who, with others, came to the rescue of those who were left. I want to know if the land was given to those who are getting up this cry, how long it would remain in their hands ? My experience, the experience of history, and the teachings of the Bible all go to show me that it is all humbug and worse th.in thieving.—l am, (Sec, Wir.r.iAM Pkacock, Late !th Waikato Militia and H.M. 40th and 37th.-