The Land and the Empire 



the sentiment which we wish to see strong and 

 flourishing must have a practical basis, for it is 

 the duty of the rulers of every country to ensure 

 that their people shall have the opportunity of 

 the fullest national development. This I am 

 convinced will result if the Tariff Reform pro- 

 posals are properly carried out, but I could 

 wish that these Imperialists would go even 

 further than they do in their scheme of organisa- 

 tion. I could wish that they would realise that 

 behind the commercial problem is the still 

 greater problem of the Land and the People. 

 If land is one of the greatest National assets, 

 so also is it one of the greatest Imperial assets, 

 and we should clearly recognise that the Anglo- 

 Saxon peoples as a whole, whether in the old 

 or the new countries, have been so criminally 

 negligent of this great and important asset, that 

 in every Anglo-Saxon country there has been a 

 most disastrous waste of Land. 



In the United States the squandering of land, 

 of forests, of water power, etc., assumes propor- 

 tions so gigantic that the Government, full late 

 in the day, have been compelled to form a Con- 

 servation Board to protect these great National 

 assets ; and now the time is fully ripe, if poli- 

 ticians will but realise it, for us too to have a 

 great Imperial Conservation Board with repre- 

 sentatives from all the Colonies — a Board whose 

 functions would be to protect Imperial Natural 



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