OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 250, 22 January 1889, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

(fSOM OUB OWN COBBESPONDENT.)

PROTECTION AND LAND NATIONALISATION. Sydney, Jan. 9. TH® schoolmen were wont to dispute as to how many angels could dance on the point of a needle, together with other points of equal difficulty and complexity, but about as little practical reference to the actual needs of the race. The tendency remains, though the form in which Jit manifests itself has been altered. The latest exemplification is to be found in the;debate recently held here as to whether Land Nationalisation or Protection is the panacea for the ills from which the community suffers. Not that both subjects are not pre-eminently worthy of candid consideration. The fallacy lies in opposing the one to the other. It is as though a company of tailors and a company of haberdashers were to debate whether men ought to wear trousers only or shirts only, the one side maintaining that a man would be a traitor to his best interests if he protected his back and breast and the other condemning with equal severity any attempt to clothe the legs. The only possible result would be that the disputants would make themselves ridiculous and furnish powerful weapons for the use of those who oppose them.

A DEVICS OF THE ENEMY. On their own showing the advocates of land nationalisation aim at the destruction of unjust monopolies of natural advantages. The advocates of protection aim at the enluragement of native industries so as to hUe them to maintain an existence in the the under-paid labor of less favored Neither of these objects would RSfe the other. Of what nse would land nationalisation be to the colonial workman, if ho were called upon to compete with Chinamen, or with the victims of the London sweaters ’ No measure of land nationalisation in Australia would raise the standard of living in other oonntries, or render them less formidable as competitors. Conversely the most thorough going protection will be of little permanent advantage to workmen, If the lion's share of the produce of their labor is monopolised by non-workers in the form of rent. At present about one-tenth of the community claim to “own” the land upon which the remainder live, and there is hardly any industry which is not taxed to the utmost extent it will bear in order to support some drone, who is, in many cases, not merely a passive burden on the community, but an active and greedy blackmailer. Protection is designed to secure our infant industries agsinst depredations from without, land nationalisation against bloodstickers within. The idea of pitting the two against one another is a device of the enemy, and it is to be regretted that representative men of both sides should have suffered themselves to be so easily entrapped. THE 810 END OF THE WEDGE FIRST. Against this it will be urged that Henry George, the great apostle of land nationalisation advocates a “ single tax,” which would of course exclude all piotective imposts. To this I teply that in all cases it is necessary to discriminate between the unmistakeable selfevident truths contained in any political doctrine and the fanaticism of its leaders. No cause can prosper without zealous champions but their very zeal betrays them into errors, they allow their own cherished project to exclude all other interests, whatever their importance. To recur to my former illustration, they are no longer content to advocate that men should wear shirts. They insist that men should wear shirts only, and that trousers and all other articles of attire should be disregarded. It must be evident to all that in a new country where all reforms must necessarily be tentative and gradual, to advocate the “ sidgle tax ” as a sine qua non is an attempt to drive the big end of the wedge first. A HXABTLESS MURDERESS AND “ INSIDIOUS ABETTORS.” Louisa Collins, the Botany murderess, who was executed yesterday, forms the text of a very voluminous, but not a very creditable newspaper controversy. Men who are quite unmoved by the oppression, the cruelty, and the misery which exists around them, nay men who actively assist, by the tone and spirit of their writings on other subjects, in increasing that cruelty and misery find themselves rivalling one another in their championship of one of the most heartless murderesses who has ever been brought to justice. The pangs of her victims evoked no indignation from these cheap and easy philanthropists, the encouragement given to those who might be meditating similar crimes evoked no compunction. It does not necessarily follow that these persons really are what they appeared to be—insidious abettors - of murder—rather, I think, must their conduct be set down to a sort of moral indolence, which would not make a single step to view the matter from any other standpoint than that of their own spurious and superficial sympathy. The care of the woman Collins was under their nose. It disquieted them, and like the Sybarite at his crumpled roseleaf, they complained accordingly. To have viewed the crime in its real hideousness would have involved some little trouble, some slight mental and moral effort. This, true to the Sybarite nature, again they did not take. The general feeling, however, is one of relief that the law, however tardily, has been vindicated at last. In America had there been any well-grounded fear that such a criminal escape the just penalty of her acts the Mteople might be expected to roll up and take law Into their own hands. This, however deplorable, would be a healthier sign than that spurious sentimentality which has no sympathy to bestow except upon thorn who do not deserve it.

FAHLIAMXNT AND ITS SCANDALS. Parliament reassembled yesterday, but being a private members' night, the time passed away without the resuscitation of any of ths burning questions which are pending. Respecting the Hornsby roads scandal, Mr Buns, the Colonial Treasurer, and a large shareholder in the lands which were improved at the public expense, has obtained leave to be heard before the House in his own defence. The duration of the session, now it has stretched into the new year, is uncertain. The Government will naturally try to terminate it as soon as possible. The Opposition, on the other hand, may be expected to resist the granting of supply until the many suspicious circumstances which are now the subject of inquiry are cleared up. To these will shortly be added an alleged scandal in the Mining, Department, in which the officials are charged with showing undue favor to a relative of the Minister, whereby, owing to some technical default of the holders of a certain-claim, known as the Mountain Maid, it is asserted that he and his partners were enabled to jump it. That such things should be possible is a great scandal on our mining adminiatmtion. I should not, of course, be warranted in laying that, in this particular instance, it has been done, But lam quite sure in saying that as long as it is possible it may be expected to be done. [Since this was written the Ministry referred to have been turned . Mtofofflse.l

BXUTAL ASSAULTS ON CHILDREN—BXLICION IN THE MUD. Sone horribly brutal assaults on children have come under public notice within 'the I last few days. In one case a great hulking ruffian, six feet high, dragged an eight year Old boy into a taproom and endeavored to force him to drink some spirits. The child resented his treatment, whereupon his cowardly Mentor kicked him, smashed his face, and split his lip. The unfortunate boy Was ths son of a woman, with whom it is (aid the man was living, so that whan he comes out of gaol a renewal of cruelty and violence may De expected. Another case is •van more revolting, on account of the religious element involved. A Mrs M’Nee, a member of the Salvation Army, has a little stepson, six years old, whom she suspected of having stolen some money ret apart from the ordinary earnings of the family for the Me of the " Army." With hu husband she Mm to have set up an Inquisition torture chamber on her own account. The child was beaten black and blue and was further burnt tritha fork, which had been heated in the