35° T HE National Geographic Magazine 



him raising .eighty bushels of democratic 

 wheat to the acre. 



Let us go down to a town where to- 

 morrow morning there is to be divided 

 up among the people one of the great 

 estates which has been taken by the gov- 

 ernment from the former owner by vol- 

 untary negotiation. We find the town 

 filled with people, the very cars on the 

 track used as lodging-houses. The peo- 

 ple have come to see the distribution of 

 land on the morrow, and to take advan- 

 tage of the last opportunity to make a 

 part of that distribution. The method 

 of distribution is worthy of our special 

 attention. The} r have been waiting for 

 weeks, yes, for months. The land com- 

 missioners have been sitting in their re- 

 spective places to receive applications 

 from those who wanted a chance to get 

 a farm, which is only given to those who 

 are competent to use the land after they 

 have taken it. For months the land 

 had been advertised — the property as it 

 was, the convenience of access, and so 

 on. The necessary investigations are 

 delicate matters, involving the disclosure 

 of personal affairs ; but knowing of my 

 efforts in New Zealand and desirous 

 that I should know as much of the op- 

 erations as possible, the judges allowed 

 me to sit bj' their side. I have seen few 

 things more interesting or more dra- 

 matic than I witnessed as I stood there 

 in the court-house and saw the stream 

 of men and women passing through and 

 listened to the sound of their feet. 



There was one man who had for 

 thirty years been working the land. 

 There was a fine, buxom woman, the 

 mother of a family, who applied with 

 her husband. " If I get it, it is his ; if 

 he gets it, it is mine," she said. There 

 were three red-cheeked dairy maids who 

 had applied together to triple their 

 chances to get it. Beside the moderator 

 sat the professor of agriculture in a 

 neighboring college, who had to con- 

 fess that he did not know much about 

 farming. A man from Oklahoma, who 



had been all over the world, said to me, 

 " It isn't much like Oklahoma, is it ? " 



And the next morning was the meet- 

 ing in the court-house, and the streets 

 were full behind it, with the women all 

 pushing forward to the front seats, for 

 it is not considered the thing for the 

 men to have the best places. 



Now, these distributions are arranged 

 very simply. All the applications for 

 these farms are put on a sheet and num- 

 bered. Then twenty balls, numbering 

 from one to twenty, are put in the bal- 

 lot-boxes, and these are drawn out, and 

 the number corresponding to the num- 

 ber on the sheet gives the lucky name. 

 These good democrats selected a person 

 who had come from America to repre- 

 sent them in doing that dut} 7 , and so 

 upon this occasion it was my happy 

 duty to distribute among the democrats 

 of New Zealand the great estates taken 

 from the monopoly, and never have I 

 done and never will do an}'thing that 

 can give me more satisfaction, unless on 

 some .happier day it should come to me 

 to do the same thing for my fellow-citi- 

 zens. 



And so, as each farm was called out, 

 I placed in the box the requisite num- 

 ber of balls, kept my eyes off the balls, 

 closed the door, and stood with my back 

 to it ostentatiously, put nry hand, in and 

 drew out the ball, read the number and 

 read out the name of the happy man ; 

 and as I picked out balls with the num- 

 ber I saw some flashes of pleasure light 

 up the faces of my dair} r maids. They 

 had gotten their farm. It was not much 

 like Oklahoma, was it ? 



But I want to tell 3"OU of how they 

 deal with the unemployed, which is one 

 of the great triumphs of New Zealand 

 politics. Come with me to the viaduct 

 where the government is building a 

 great railway bridge, among the green 

 trees through which gleam the white 

 tents of the workmen. The govern- 

 ment gathers up in the streets of the 

 cities and the country roads the men 



