The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4031, 27 January 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1876.

Democracy, as exhibited in Victoria, is bearing its bitterest fruit. We know of no better form of government when Demos is guided by knowledge and reason; but when he happens to be ignorant, he is the worst of tyrants. It is not now merely a question between free and restricted trade that agitates that Colony. Thirteen years ago that was the issue placed before the country; and had a wise and liberal commercial system been adopted, the Colony would have been rich, united, and prosperous to this day. The complications that now harass and vex the community would have been avoided, and those who have acquired fortunes, and those who have thein to make, would have worked together harmoniously. But selfishness, the more intense in its development because shared in, aided, cherished, and approved by numbers, has produced its natural fruit: it has divided the Colony into two adverse parties, each seeking to defend and perpetuate the wrong, systems from which the interests of the masses are suffering. Victoria’s sins have found her out early; and that Colony, blighted in its prosperity through the ignorance of its people, stands a beacon toWarn us, lest we too should follow in its steps—a danger by up means distant. It is not merely its commercial system that is to blame for tlie difficulties in which the Colony involved. Demos decided upon mouopoly in opposition to the demonstrations o£ political, science, and in the face of centuries of experience pointing out the falsity of its basis. The' Mother Country had abandoned protection as rdinous, and’was growing rich through courting pommercia.l relations with the world -on equal torms of competition,, 1 * But yict'orjq’tf Demo’s proved

the old proverb to be trtie, “ Young folks think old folks fools j old folks know yoiiEg Ones to be so.” Graham Berry was held by his worshippers to be a wiser man than Stuart Mill, or Adam Smith, or Richard Cobden, or Sir Robert Peel, or John Bright, or Earl Russell and it seems questionable whether, even yet, With a dozen years to learn the lesson in, the scales have fallen from their eyes. But this was not the only error thfe people fell into. They believed they had invaded and taken possession of a pleasant land—a land of gold and grapes, and com, and wool—and they would kedp’ it toUhelnselves, or only admit those who paid for coming. They would not advance money to bring out others—theyjfcaid they had work todo, and they would keep it to themselves: “then,” they said, “wages will be kept up, and we shall haye no competition.” Demos was wrong. His selfishness only looked upon feme side of the question. It would have been very true had .work . grown as work was finished. But work once done does not grow. To use an Irishism, it grows less, and so it happened the supply of workmen soon became larger than the demand, and wages fell. Demos made the blunder of forgetting that every family that arrives has to be provided immediately with shelter, food, lodging, accommodation, and clothing, and that however skilful as handicrafts, they must depend for these upon others’ labor. They forgot that the wants of one family give employment to the hands of many tradesmen during a greater or less length of time ; while only one or two pairs of bands are added to tjhe number of laborers or artisans. They forgot or never reflected that work would have increased in proportion to the increase of numbers arriving, Had those) two blunders been avoided, the third, though not the less real, would have been comparatively harmless. But , now it is making itself felt and' adding to the complications requiring to be unravelled. The last error is not so much that of Demos as of Aristos. : Both wanted, possession of the land : the first to grow food on, the latter to grow wool. Had Demos been wise instead of ignorant, and been content to, pay a fair and equitable rental for the use of land instead of. baying it, the niatter might easily have been arranged. At that time Aristos was generally paying rent. But Demos wanted to become Aristos on a small scale; and though he tried, all means but the right; one of i preventing the land falling into the hands of Aristos, it became an affair to be decided by the heavier pocket. Demos lived from hand W mouth, and, trade being crippled, if he raised produce had no market for it; so Aristos bided his time and bought .him out. Demos stopped trade arid immigration: Aristos stopped settlement on the land and converted farms and hamlets into sheep runs. The three cardinal errors of Victoria have been monopoly in trade, labor, and land. Selfishness, national selfishness, is the sin of the Victorians. They have tried to get rich by themselves, and they cannot. It is to be hoped the selfishness of New Zealand will not be. a blind and envious one. We do not object to grasping at all the good that can be obtained. Call it selfishness or by any less uncomfortable name—it is quite right that as a Colony we should seek to grow rich, because, only rich communities can be free and happy. But our selfishness should be an enlightened one. It should not be based on the idea that prosperity can be achieved by refusing to exchange with other nations, nor should we look with envy upon them if they are more prosperous than ourselves. Should that be the case they are jfist the customers we want—willing to buy. able to pay. Had this liberal spirit been acted upon in Victoria, and the "labor and land questions been understood and carried out intelligently, the Colony, instead of a warning, would have been an example to the world. * ,