The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tursday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Thursday, August 29, 1889. MISLEADERS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 344, 29 August 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tursday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Thursday, August 29, 1889. MISLEADERS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

It is astonishing how coolly some writers set themselves to give a misleading view of things when they have no knowledge of the subject on which they are writing, but simply use it as a peg on which to hang an attack upon political opponents. In regard to no subject is this failing more particularly noticeable than in the “ criticisms" which we have observed in certain newspapers that attack the Native Land Bills now before the House. Instead of discussing the matter fairly, and excluding the prejudice of party feeling, these journals blunder on in the most ignorant fashion, denouncing the Bills as being all that are bad, and the writers seem to care not at all whether anything better can be devised. The Wellington Post, a journal which should be in a position to get information that would enable it to take a just view of the condition of things, falls away completely from the high standard it ought to occupy, and contents itself with nagging at the Government, because the policy of the Post is to try and get them displaced from the Ministerial benches, no matter to what extent the country may be made to suffer thereby. The Post does not give a single good reason to account for its opposition to a better class of native land legislation being introduced, and it completely ignores the bitter experience of the past. On one point we can agree with our contemporary, that it will be a scandalous thing if a permanent billet is allowed to be made for Mr T. W. Lewis. But a means might be taken to prevent that sort of thing without allowing the best interests of the country to be sacrificed on that account. Is it reasonable that because there is the suspicion of this favorable treatment of Mr Lewis, the taxpayers should be forced to continue bearing a burden which the adjustment of native land titles would at once relieve ? On the other hand ths Napier News takes up the pld parrot cry of landsharks, and launches forth into a wild tirade against such men as Mr Ormond. The News is completely at sea in regard to its “facts,” but if it were not so the arguments it uses have really no application to the difficulty. When one sees the tracts of land lying either waste or almost so qn the East Coast, one is led to look more closely into these matters, and very little enquiry will soon make known the reason why things are as they happen to be. We are surprised that the leader writers on some of the influential journals of the colony do not make a study of this perplexing question. The population is still being gradually drained from the colony, and those who remain have to labor on, continually struggling against the great burden of taxation, while large areas Qf th? best land in the colony still remaips unproductive, a great deal of it useless either to European or Maori because the bungling laws have made it the source of endless confusion and expense. For a long time we have been as one crying out in the wilderness < pur legislators remain deaf to the appeals of reason, the papulation continues to drift from the colony, and those who remain have to bear the increased burden of taxation. But how much more serious will be the state of things if many of our best class of settlers, discouraged by the harassing conditions under which they labor, also free themselves of their connection with New Zealand ? If many of them knew the vast field that is open in South Africa there would he a very bad look out for Neu* Zealand. In 'that country a very different stafC af £ W’ In his farewell speech at the Cano, 1 Hercules Robinson said of British!

Bechuanaland : “ The country is British, the colonial trade route is secure, the land is available for every Cape colonist who may desire to purchase it, at one shilling per acre" and he continued :—“ Whatever may be the political future of South Africa there can be no doubt that it is a country of surpassing interest and promise. It combines natural advantages which are not to be found in conjunction in any other part of the world. It possesses a magnificent climate, vast pastoral and agricultural resources, and mineral wealth which has apparently no rival on any other quarter of the globe. Even its varied population, now supposed to be its weakness, will eventually prove a source of wealth and strength. In its native population it has a never-failing supply of cheap labor; while the blending of the two European families will produce a race which will be no whit inferior to any in the world.” Just think of those words, and then reflect upon the state of the North Island of New Zealand. Think of the vast area of land that is tied up, through no other cause than the incapacity of our legislators to deal with the question. And yet we have the disheartening fact to ponder over, that a section of the Press, and a great number of politicians, are (metaphorically) up in arms directly any remedial measures are proposed. How many of the best men in the colony—men who are the backbone of the country—have been brought to the verge of ruin by the inextricable difficulties in which they have become involved through our patched up Native land laws ? If we drive out those men who make the best settlers, the class of men whose capability and energy have made the colony what it is, what will then be its condition ? The departure of a few hundred tradesmen and laborers to the Australian colonies would be no comparison to the disastrous blow that would be inflicted on New Zealand were a large body of those settlers who add to the prosperity of any country, to take their departure for South Africa, where by the expenditure of a lesser amount of energy, with good land and cheap labor, they have every prospect of great success, to say nothing of the development of the mineral wealth.

It behoves our legislators to study these matters, or the day may shortly arrive when it will be found that this colony has been so badly crippled by its legislators that its recovery can only be hoped for after a long duration. An improved slate of things may come when it is too late, It is time that those in power gave over paltering with the question, and set their minds to work in the devising of an effective remedy, instead of allowing every obstacle to be thrown in the way of those who have the brains and experience to point out the proper course. The present state of things is a disgrace to the country, and those who help to perpetuate it are quite incompetent to carry out the duty which they owe to the State. Fortunately there is a prospect of a majority being obtained in Parliament in favor of the legislation that has been introduced this session, and the division on the second reading of the Native Land Court Bill is an indication that the opposition which is created by ignorance and prejudice will yet be overcome.