104 AGEICULTURE AND TARIFF REFORM. 



either now get, or, so far as we cau see, will iu 

 future receive for the land they own. Land 

 Nationalisation, therefore, is but a theory and is 

 unsuitable in a country like this, where the people 

 still believe both iu honesty and in the right of 

 every man to make a reasonable profit from his 

 work or from his investments. 



We once heard of a labourer who had saved 

 a few pounds and who went to a "socialist" 

 meeting. The speaker was remarking how much 

 each would receive if all the money and land 

 were equally divided. The labourer turned to 

 a fellow labourer and enquired " Eh ! Bill, what 

 did he say?" Bill replied, "He says that we 

 shall all have £5 apiece if we go iu for his policy." 

 " To Hanover with him," the labourer emphati- 

 cally observed, "I've £1Q already, and I'll take 



d— good care nobody has £5 of that ! " 



Directly a man obtains a few pounds, an allot- 

 ment, a house, a small holding or what not, he 

 has something he can call his own. The " magic 

 of property" acts. It is essentially a healthy 

 thing, and the man possessing it at once becomes 

 a better citizen. Experience everywhere proves 

 it to be so. lie is not subject to those panics, 

 sentimental or not, which seem periodically to 

 overcome others not so fortunately situated as 

 himself; and the legislation of recent years has 

 been largely in the desired direction. What else 

 can the Acts mean, nationally, which have been 

 passed to put the labourer and artisan on to the 

 land, and to enable him to possess his home? 



