LAND REFORM

y outh ; homesteads stand vacant aiid f orlorn ; it is increasingly difficult to get labour; ever- "widening areas are badly and stingily farmed; the land begins to pass ont of use ; and, on the other side, the centralization of population proceeds with swelling volume and créâtes that complex of social problems which apparently passes the wit of statesmen to grapple with and solve. Thèse secondary problems cannot be solved until the primary one is settled, any more than the relief of symptoms can cure the disease.

To place a nation squarely on its own base, spreading eut its people far and wide in honoured usefulness npon thesoil.

Building up ail uses and capadties of the land into the life of the masses,

So that the riches of the earth may go first and forentost to ihose who produce them, and so onward into the whole structure of society ;

To render the life of the people clean and gradous, vital from base to summit, and self-determining,

Dépendent simply on itself and not on cUques and coteries of speculators anywhere ; and springing thus inevitably up into wild free forms of love and fellowship;

To make the wild places of the lands sacred, keeping the streams pure, and planting fresh blooms along their edges ; to préserve the air crystalline and without taint — tempting the sun to shine where before was gloom;

To adom the woodlands and the high tops with new trees and shrubs and winged and footed things ,

Sparing ail living créatures as far as possible rather than destroying them ;

What a pleasiure I