The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3474, 11 April 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1874

When it was made known that MiHollow ay intended addressing a meeting last evening, we thought he had been badly advised. He was not aware of the class of agitators living among us, who take every opportunity that offers to thrust their crude political nostrums upon the public ; and we were afraid that some rudeness, such as has not unfrequently been shown towards persons invited to give addresses, would have been shown towards him. Happily, on the whole, although the small fry who are the pests of public meetings just showed enough of their crooked qualifications to prove to Mr Holloway that this is a desirable land to live in, not merely because of its vast mineral wealth, its fertile soil, and genial climate, but because of the political liberty which every man enjoys, and some abuse. Mr Holloway’s address was a plain, straightforward statement of facts. He was commis sioned by the Association at Home to view New Zealand, and to report upon its capabilities as a field for emigration. The sound common sense of his remarks prove that the choice made by the agricultural laborers of Great Britain was a judicious one. He did not come out for political but

social purposes. He came to see New Zealand and to compare its capabilities and prospects with the land he has left. He has seen the abundance here that good wages and cheap food afford to those who live by labor, and he contrasts it with the scant fare and grinding toil of that class in Europe. He does not close his eyes to the advantage of being an employer of labor, if it tend to additional profit; but he has the shrewd good sense to see that it is better to work for another and receive good wages, than to rush into doubtful competition with large capitalists. Mr Holloway contrasts the educational advantages of this Province with those disadvantages he has bad to contend with at Home. He tells of his early days ; of his poor, hardworking parents, anxious that their

son should obtain such knowledge as was within the compass of their means. He tells us the education he received was scanty enough, and from his description of the general condition of England’s agricultural must have been but little they could afford. Who can do otherwise than sympathise with him in his efforts to better the condition of his class 1 Who can read the following true but graphic account of their sufferings, and not feel that Mr Arch and Mr Holloway are engaged in a work; of true benevolence : Ispeak more especially now in regard to the farm laborers. Their position in the past has been most deplorable. Born in the midst of poverty and distress, poverty’s arms have embraced them; poverty’s rags have covered them; poverty, shrunken, shivering, like a fiend has pursued them close through every step in life —stunting their growth, unmanning their manhood, and destroying with its very breath all that has tended to make life sweet,

and dear, and lovely. I have been brought up amongst this class of people; I have mixed very freely with them; I have entered their homes, and, in many cases, I can assure you, they are the abodes of misery and privation. Their wages have been lew; their food has been insufficient; they have had to send their sons into the fields to toil whilst yet children. It has been impossible to give them an education ;_ it has been impossible to avoid the miseries of the day, or to lay aside anything whatever for sickness or old age. The result of all this has been that, after years of toil, apd

after having largely to appeal to the sympathies and to the charity of the public, they have, in too many cases, had to end their days in a union and finally to rest in a pauper’s grave. Yet, bom amid such influences, with such scant opportunity of attaining that knowledge which so many of us ; who lack might have for the trouble of ; picking up, his views are far in advance of many of those who strove to lay bare our defective institutions, and to prove to him our prosperity was likely to be only ephemeral He

clearly sees that in a short political existence of between twenty and thirty years, during which many institutions have been reproduced that at Home have tended to the unequal distribution of wealth which has led to the evils from which he wishes to relieve bis class, there must necessarily be error. The laws, the Government, and the administration have been framed and carried out by men who left Great Britain too young to have learnt by experience or reflection that what they had been taught to admire at Home as a perfect social and political system, is in reality a constitution evolved through circumstances from feudal customs based upon the relationship of a serf to his lord; and that the movement in which lie is engaged is one that asserts and will end in that equality of social and political position that will result when classes are deprived of privileges inherited, legalized, or sanctioned by custom. Instituted by men whose busy Colonial lives gave but small opportunity for investigating the right or wrong of measures they adopted founded upon Home practice, the wonder is there is so little to amend; but Mr Holloway’s warning should not be lost sight of. He does not want to bring people out here to suffer the evils from which he seeks to relieve them, and therefore it is for us to see to it that we are not led away by any cries from men whose knowledge and wisdom are under the influence of their worldly interests. The foolish observation was thrust upon Mr Holloway last evening that “ the prosperity of the Province was dependent upon borrowed money.” His reply showed that he understood the difference between a reproductive investment and money wasted in war—a difference that so many of our politicians cannot comprehend. In their minds to borrow money, although through the use of the loan the value of all property may be multiplied three or four fold, is to get into difficulties. In the minds of men who 'can see beyond .the length of their noses, it is to widen the field for labor, to open up fresh sources of wealth, to provide ample security for further investment, to maintain wages, and to spread comfort and enjoyment through all classes. This view Mr Holloway takes. His reply showed chat he is capable of weighing up those who croak because they do not understand, and who, through their childish policy, like the Monro and .Richmond class, would bring about the very evils they profess so much to fear. Mr Holloway’s reply is worth remembering, and we commend it to serious attention :

Many people had spoken to him on this same subject, and had said that as soon as the borrowed money was gone the prosperity would go too, and that the Province would go back indeed, and lie in a state of distress. He did not believe it. The labor that was now being introduced was of a reproductive character, and would bring capital in its train. By a judicious spending of this borrowed money—by the opening up of the country by means of railways, and by the Government taking proper steps to settle down the labor introduced in a proper manner —then the prosperity of the country instead of falling off could not fail to increase.