The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2911, 18 June 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1872.

Amongst the parliamentary discussions foreshadowed is one on Immigration. The Agent-General is blamed for refusing to pay immigration agents what may be termed head money on the exportation of capitalists from England. We are quite prepared to believe a better Agent-General might have been found, although Dr Featherston while in New Zealand had the reputation of being a first-class business man ; but when the public are called upon to condemn an agent’s proceedings, there should at least be the substratum of common sense in the accusation. As far as we understand the question, the Government immigration agents are engaged to fulfil a certain duty : they are employed to obtain immigrants of the laboring class, to see that they are fit and proper persons as required by the regulations, and that they require assistance to enable them to emigrate* The agents might find it more easy and profitable woilc to induce small capitalists to come out here, but the Government would not be justified in assisting them ; and it is therefore outside the duties they are engaged to perform if they turn their attention to that class of emigrants. On this point the nonsense put forth by our political Solons is scarcely worthy of serioas reply. Their style ©f reasoning is : The Government agents are not to be paid for inducing capitalists to emigrate, therefore no capitalist will come to the Colony : therefore the Government is discouraging the importation of capital: therefore the immigrants will starve on their arrival. Now the slightest glance at such a ehain of conclusions is sufficient to show their absurdity. What the Colony needs is labor, and that is all that the Government is justified in providing. Without a supply of labor either the public works projected cannot be carried out, or there must be a cessation of private enterprise. The very object of the public works scheme is to provide means for employing a continually increasing supply of labor. Were this not the end desired, the prosecution of such large undertakings would be simply waste of money ; and if this is not the result, the whole scheme will be a failure. Nor is it at all likely that a reduction of wages will result. Such a consequence would be contrary to all experience; the teaching of which is that wages are highest and best maintained in a community with a continually expanding field of employment. Perhaps, too, an appeal to experience is the best way of refuting the absurd argument that the Government discourages the immigration of capitalists by refusing to pay the agents capitation money. And, basing our arguments on knowledge of the past, we ask is there to be found an instance in Colonial history whex*e capital was wanting if there was a good prospect for its profitable investment % That its want may have been felt there can be no doubt. The evidence of that is before us in the higher rate of interest paid for the use of money in the Colonies than at Home. Profitable undertakings, too, may have been delayed because of the want of means to carry them into effect: but the evidence of increasing confidence on the part of capitalists in Colonial resources is seen in the gradually reduced rate of interest obtainable for the use of money in Colonies. Loans once barely obtainable at 8 per cent, are taken up at 5 or 5L In Victoria money can be bad at G per cent, on mortgage, and probably on first-class securities for long periods at

very little more in New Zealand. The idea, therefore, of a scarcity of capital is a mere chimera raised by ill-informed dabblers in political economy or politicians, who, calculating upon public ignorance in such matters, seek to raise a cry against the Government. Gould it be possible to reverse Dr. Featherston’s arrangement, and to suppose he had offered head money for the introduction of capitalists, it would have been found that precisely the same persons who now find fault would have been up in arms against him. They would have said, capitalists are not the men we pay for. There is no need to induce them to come out. They are well enough informed about our resources, and if they can see prospects of good investments, they are sufficiently wide awake not to let them slip. It is only necessary to scan the reports of debates in our Provincial and Colonial Legislatures to learn that the great complaint of those who oppose the Government, , and especially the Treasurer, has been that capital has had no means of investment in New Zealand, and that because of our wicked land regulations it has been driven away. It is very far from improbable that some of these objectors might have been somewhat jealous of the competition of these capitalists who are supposed to be kept at Home by Dr Featherston’s action. Had they arrived and picked out the best investments, we might have been treated with long winded letters about “What must we do with our boys'?” We should have been told there was no chance of their getting on when they were forestalled by competitors from England, who were content with profits that to them seemed enormous, but which would hardly pay the cost of tobacco indulged in by our Colonialbred youth. This, however, is plain, that labor needs help to travel from Europe to New Zealand, but capital can help itself. The cost of agency is therefore needed for labor, but would be simply wasted upon capital. Labor is a Colonial need; capital is for individual profit. We should recommend our captious politicians to seek for a bigger hole in Dr Featherston’s coat than they have found.