The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1888. NEW .ZEALAND'S FUTURE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1839, 12 May 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1888. NEW .ZEALAND'S FUTURE.

Major Dane, a rather clever and very " cote " Yankee, haß been touring round New Zealand for the last twelve months seeing what was to be seen m a quiet way, and being generally everywhere warmly received. Before he left Auckland he treated the public there to his views on the colony and his impressions as to what he believed it wanted to develop it into a most thriving part of the British Empire. His remarks are of some weight as the Major is decidedly a man of the world, and can see fr&m experience what is the drawback which prevents progress m New Zealand. It is homes that people should try to make m this colony not fortunes, if general prosperity is to be a looked for result. The pioneers of the ear'y days were men who looked not so much to the accumulation of wealth, as a desire to carve out for themselves a home and a comfortable life far from the land of their birth. There were parts of New Zealand with a soil and a climate fit to satisfy anyone, and the Major proceeded to say of some parts of the North Island. " Nature had there bestowed her choicest gifts. There also was classic ground, where Christianity and civilisation first found a foothold, and the missionary planted the Cross. When he looked upon that land he wondered why men stopped m the cities. A land where Nature filled her lap, and said to them open your mouths and I will fill them ! He had also seen the Nova Scotian settlements, where industrious men, coming from a hard and ungenial climate, were now settled on land, where the summer smiled, and which only wanted to be «• tickled with a hoe to laugh itself into a harvest." That land wanted only population. It would come from the other colonies— it would come from his own country, it they would not enter m and possess it." The folly of men crowding into the cities and leading a hanging on sort of life when there were settlements where they might take up sections and live comfortably upon them by throwing some little energy and enterprise into their was clearly shewn. The country was a truly grand one for the young men of New Zealand if they chose to profit by it. There should be no cry of the unemployed heard. Of the resources of the colony the Major spoke as follows : — -" He had travelled eight hundred miles m stagfi coaches throughout the colony, and had viewed scenery which had not come up to expectations, while other places which had not been mentioned to him he hnd found to be beautiful. Coming back to the North Island, the lecturer took his hearers to Napier, described the famous fertile runs of the Hawke's Bay squatters — where ho found homes marked by culture and refinement. In that sparsely settled country would yet be thousands of homes of prosperous agriculturists. Then he saw the, railroads, and went over them — splendid bridges built to last for ever — and they were waiting for a population, which could only come whon the railways were taken from "the Government and Corporations entered into competition. He remembered when it cost £30 from San Francisco to New York, now it was a fourth of that. When there was one company it said " You shall not come," when others came they said " Do come." It was true the Government gave more money to the companies than the railroads cost, and millions of acres of land, but the people gained m the long run. Competition was the soul of business and development. In all his travels m New Zealand ho saw no bad land ; some parts where better than others, but none which m America, Canada and Nova Scotia would be regarded as bad. Why m Nova Scotia they had to shoot the peas into the fields, and sharpen the noses of the sheep to give them a chance to get the grass ! The men were coming here who would take that land. Their tramp might even now be heard . The country wanted population — millions — and waß capable of taking fifteen millions. There were too many shops— too few farms. Every hamlet was full of shops doing little or nothing, and others going to start. There were too many clerks for Government billets, for banks, insurance and loan companies ; too few to take off their coats. Only two men m the State mode wealth, the farmer and the mechanic, the others only used it. Factories were coming, farmers were coming, and they wanted more mechanics and more farmers. But labour wanted too much. Capital did not got its share. Labour was entitled to its share, but not more. In the States it .could bo had at 4s a day, and at 5s a day they were overrun with labourers. Those who deluded themselves with the idea that they could go to California and make fortunes would came back shorn lambs. New Zealand could grow fruits successfully with California, and why should they not send some of their young men there to learn the art of fruit canning, meanwhile planting and growing the fruit trees. The Protection that was wanted was diligence. They might have two State farms, away from the cities, to learn tho youth so disposed farming m all its branches, not with a view to making fortunes, but to found homes for themselves. It was not factories but farmers who made England ; and when agriculture declined, England felt something was wrong and was trying to remedy it. He heard colonists bemoaniug the fate of the colony, saying ({ we are ruined and bankrupt." New Zealand certainly had a healthy debt (laughter), there was no doubt about that, but, like the young men who had contracted debt and had been pulled up, the colony had her life before her, and I

could now take off her coat and liquidate. The lecturer advocated taking up the colonial debt by degrees m the country, and having it held "m the family;" the interest would circulate m the country, while at present it drained away, England, m this matter, being practically a foreign country. He had seen America ruined three times, financially wiped out. In 1857, every bank m America went but two. Credit was an enemy : pay as you go. In the North of Auckland, the country was regarded as so poor, nobody would trust the settlers, the consequence was, to day they . had comfortable homes, all free, In 1873 America was ruined again, money went m at one pocket they didn't know how, and went out they did not care where. The smash came, and Congress had to come to the rescue. The sponge was put through the slate, and those * lost who could afford to loose it. Then they began on a cash basis. Now it was 30 days and payment ; not six months and never 1 And when ha heard men talking of New Zealand being ruined — a country where everything and anything could be produced — where even laziness was almost rewarded, he felt it was impossible to ruin it. The outlook for New Zealand is a bright one, Major Dane seems to think despite the croakings of the " Standard" and such one sided writers as Froude. The idea that New Zealand was ruined was heartily denied, and the Major was tempted to say indignately " Is'ew Zealand ruined 1 Why they might as well say the sun was ruined because a cloud passed over its face. No, commerce was i setting down on surer foundations. It wa& m commerce as m nature. Tarawera had let out its pent up forces, spreading i death and desolation, but the resurrected forces of Nature was restoring the verdure and enriching the soil again ; so the convulsions m commercial life were but the preludes to a better and more fruitful harvest. Why should such fertile tracts be lying waste m Waikato ? On one farm he visited he saw 37,000 bushels of wheat grown, averaging 43 bushels to the acre ; m America they were satisfied with 33 bushels to the acre. A young man who took up his 50 or 1 00 acres and had it stocked and cleared was m a sense rich. But the young men would come there ; they would take up the land ; and make their little homes first, and their big homes by-and-bye. In America they paid no man's passage to the country. If he was not able to save enough to take him out of the country he wished to leave he was not much account. Once, however, he landed at Castle Garden, they did all they could to place him on the land and settle him comfortably. But for that policy America would only have twothirds her present population to-day. New Zealand was not a nation yet ; only a few jealous towns and districts. It would not become a nation till it had suffered sufficiently — until it had learned the lesson that the prosperity of one was the advantage of all, and the adversity of one was the misfortune -of all. The whole system of Government was vicious m principle from the very beginning. The people of New Zealand had a strong sense of justice, and would rise m their might and remove all obstacles to prcgress," In speaking like this, Major Dane has done some service to the colony. His words are not those of one who like Froude just looke_d m upon us and then went straight-away, and wrote a garbed account of what he saw and heard. Major Dane went quietly through the colony and had the advantage of seeing it under different aspects, What he tells us is to a great degree true, and colonists will have only themselves to blame if they neglect to take advantage of the opportunities which Ho around them. The feeling of depression need not be intensified by listening to the croakings of those who have some object m descrying New Zealand.