OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 338, 15 August 1889, Page 2

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

jraoM oub own ooaMsroNDiNTs.] Bydnmt, Ang. 3. The Land Bill has at last passed through the Assembly, and it is hoped that it will become law, that it will lead to a restoration of confidence, and to a revival ot enterprise. Land legislation, like the land with which it deals, is the very foundation of national prosperity. It is of more importanoe that it be solid and fl:m than that it be accurately shaped to meet the views of any political school, But it can’t be firm and fixed nnless on the one hand it is based on firm and immutable principles of equity and justice, nor unless on the other hand, there is suffloient conservatism among tbe legislators and people to secure for the measure thus framed a fair trjal, Batter land which does not attain the maximum ot richness and fertility, and which yet is reasonably secure, than land of tbe very choicest which yet is in momentary danger of being overturned by an earthquake. I don’t hold altogether with the idea ot •• fixity of tha tenure ’’ ac propounded by the pastoralists, because I have a shrewd idea that soma ot them mean by it ths virtual “ grabbing ” sine die of that portion ot the public estate on which they happen to ba located. But definiteness ot tenure, which puts a period to a lease and stands to it, is a very different matter. Definiteness ot tenure is as necessary to security as solidity ia to land. Definite tenures appraised as to valua by public competition will giva the State a fair return for its land, and afford to all classes of occupiers the fullest security for the investment of their capital and labor. Fixity of tenure as opposed to deflr.iteners of tenure, hae led to the aggravation ot the large estates, which lock up so much of tha best land in the country, and which constitute such a formidable barrier in the way of national progress. We have oapital unemployed at one end of the soale. labor unemployed at the other end, and between the two these great tracts of country able to find scope for ten times as much capital and labor aa the colony is likely to be able to command within ths next century. That capital la unemployed, let tha great plies of unremunerativa buildings io tha metropolis bear witness, tba booms In land and mines which draw money by hundreds of thousands simply beaauaa it has not been invested in productive enterprise, That labor is unemployed country roade. and city streets, station paddocks, and river banka, every place whare idle laborers congregate, bear unequivocal testimony. The great tracts of unused land Speak for themselves. They can't be hid ot shuffled out of right. They stand open and unabashed in the sight of all, monnmenta ot the avarice of the few, and the ignorance OV folly of the many. Their owners Bay in effect i—“ The law permits us to play tbe part of the dag io the manger, and, aa that part Is congenial to us, or as we see the possibility of making money by playing it, we intend to play it for all that it la worth, We will ba very estimable members of society (some of us) in every other respect, but we will resolutely monopolise as much land a* we can lay our hands 00, quite irrespective of our power to put it to naa." But the peoule who have the making ot the law have their say in the matter also. It is now their turn to move, and the next move is so obvious that it Is a wonder that it has not bean played long ago. It people are determioed to hold these large estates let them pay for the privilege. And let the payment increase In proportion as the Bias of the holding threatens tbe public welfare. Let the house, holder, the farmer, the working bees, be as tar as possible exempt, on the same principle that an income tax exempts the small in. comes from its operation. A land tax is the natural corollary of a land law which permits wholesale alteration. The question needs only to be discussed, and the proposition becomes self-evident,

That it will be discussed, and brought prominentlv into public notice is pretty certain. The Daily Telegraph is beginning to move in the matter in a manner that cannot fail to awaken a response. When a cause is espoused by a powerful section of the Press, it is nearly secured. That is to say, it it has any inherent justice in it, or even it iifl has any decent show of plausibility. tunately the only return which some papers make for the enormous which they draw from the public, is a fixlff determination to aid the dominant plutocracyin sitting on the safety-valve. Tha jury who tried tbe murderer of Constable Sutherland, to the great surprise of everybody, have recommended the culprit to mercy. And they further state that had it □ot been for certain “ legal technicalities" they would have found him guilty of simple manslaughter only. The “ legal technicality ” was that the prisoner was wrongfully resisting arrest. In other words, he waa defying the law on which social order and security depend. Yet twelve average men are so badly instructed in tbe very rudiments of citizenship that they can see no real difference between a case of this kind and an ordinary “rough and tumble.” The difference to them is only " a technicality." They deserve credit for standing to thsir convictions in the face of the summing-up of ths Judge and tbe almost universal indignation of the community. Bat all the same their convictions, as I said before, show great mental confusion. Tbe circumstance points out one weak spot in our judicial system, On all points of ethics and consoienoe there is an appalling and widespread ignorance. le it safe to allow the administration of the law to depend upon the hasy notions of mm who are certain to be more o; less infected by this ignorance ? For my own part, I think that the dangers even of suoh a dangerous system as this are outweighed by the advantages of making the fate of a criminal depend on the suffrages of mon drawn from the rank and file of the society against whom ho has sinned. To take the powers of decision out of the hands of juries, and leave it, say to a Judge, would be establishing an invidious privilege, and the aberrations of privilege are far more threaten, ing than those of ignorance, as we law the other day, when a judge sent a man to gaol for two vears for contempt of Court I But the difficulties of jurors are very much increased by the practice ot allowing them to be hoodwinked by some of tha most astute and unscrupulous man in the country, whn play on their sense of responsibility .exaggerate their Ideas of their own ealf.lmporiancg; confuse their own moral distinctions ot rignl and wrong, aud only glory when they have succeeded In obtaining a decision at flat variance with the fact* and principles embodied in tha ossa before them. To make the worst apjoar the better cause becomes a positive matter of consoienoe with many pleaders. They call it doing justice to their client. In many oases the real justice would be ** a long rope and a short shrift.*’ There can be qo “ justice ” to any one in the triumph Of injustice. I do' not say that any of these remarks apply to the particular case which suggested them, or to the undoubtedly clever barrister who defended Morrison. But I believe the system to be entirely inqtional and indefensible, and which would only hq tolerated by a society which believed io its heart that justice was a matter of comparatively trifling importance. From grave to gay Is a transition less unnatural than appears on the surface. Wo are to have a visit from ** Buffalo Bill ” with hia Wild West Show, which is at present delighting the polished Parisians. The *' Wild West Show ” Is a practical illustration of the taste for realism which is beginn|ng to take’ possession bf tha public. So far as it betokens a reaction from th* stilted shams of ths stags and an interest Iq the manners and customs of other races it la a healthy sign. But like every other todies, tlon of the popular bant, this one alto te loaded with about as much humbug aa ft can carry. Among the Ashes of the Yen Yean, Mr Do Bavay, a Melbourne brewer, announoea that he has discovered typhoid fever germs—at the rate, I believe, of some two or three to the drop. The natural Inference te that every Melbourne waterdrinker imbibes acme millions of these interesting anlmaloulM in the course of the year. Another inference It that they would feel much safer if they wei-e to oonflne their potations to bser. Whether they would be safer or not, te of course a matter of opinion. But, after all, what toothless, fangless, harmless creatures these alleged typhoid bacteria must be, if acme hundreds of thousands of persons cab aWqilaW them wholesale year after year wlthou* taking any visible bodily harm I My own impression Is that there has boen some egregious blunder about the whale matteit.