THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1857, 5 February 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1880.

The immigration of agriculturists is of course eagerly welcomed by the New Zealand public at large. When wo read of a ship like the British Empire, which arrived in Auckland yesterday, bringing 400 immigrants, paying their own passages and being chiefly small farmers, the hearts of tho taxpayer, the politician, the shopkeeper, the professional man —in fact the heart of the general public gives a spasmodic jump of joy. For such arrivals mean a good deal. They mean a more easy bearing of our burden of taxation, the introduction of population without cost to the colony, the securing of a class of persons exactly adapted to the circumstances of the case, and several other things besides. The delegates from the Lincolnshire farmers have been welcomed on our shores with considerable empressement, and rightly too, for on the opinions they may form as to the country will depend whether a large number of the most desirable set of immigrants possible determine to settle on our shores. But there is one point in the whole question of this farmer immigration question which is often lost sight of. Many appear to hold it as a thing for certain that henceforth the stream of small agriculturists with capital will continue without cease, considering that the agricultural prospects of England are completely used up. But is such the real case ? Truth compels us to say that it is not, and consequently it is all the more needful that New Zealand should “ make hay while the sun shines,” and secure at the present juncture as large an influx as possible of the class alluded to. For, if all the factors in the present state of agricultural depression in England are taken into consideration, it will probably ho found that the bad state of things is abnormal; and although matters may not rise again absolutely to the flourishing state in which they wore some years ago, yet that the general interests of agriculture in England are by no means in a hopeless condition. The farmer in England has lately suffered from a series of unusually bad seasons, and from a flush of grain from the American markets. The former evil is evidently only transitory. Unless it can be proved that the climate of England has permanently changed for the worse, it means nothing. Of course if the Gulf Stream has taken upon itself to wander erraticly out of its course, as the New Zealand Gulf Stream was lately said to have done, it is a different matter, and the sooner the inhabitants at largo clear out of the country tho better. But no such phenomenon has eventuated, as far as is known, and it is just as probable that the coming harvests will be exceedingly favourable as that they will be unfavourable. Again, with regard to American grain. Will the state of things now obtaining continue for an unlimited period F Certainly not. The land adapted for wheat growing in America is not absolutely unlimited, and tho present system of farming that enables the grain to he raised at such small cost quickly exhausts tho soil. The wheat centre has rapidly travelled westward, and is now twelve hundred miles from tho Atlantic Ocean, and can go hut little further, as it will be stopped by the central deserts of the continent. Then in tho Western States it is stated on very good authority that, although the large “ ranchers” get 85 cents per bushel for their wheat, they are not by any means so well off as might be imagined, and tho average yield of wheat land all over America is, according to tho “Scotsman,” but eleven bushels per acre. Indeed the system of raising successive crops of grain and then of moving on to fresh land is evidently rotten, and must in course of time cease. Whenthatevonttakes placeitis patent that one of the causes which tolls so much against the English farmer will have been removed, and he will be able to work bis own system on its merits. And be will have one enormous advantage. Ho will bo close to a gigantic market. It is too much tho custom to talk of the dense manner in which England is populated. It is not borne in mind that the reason why the population looks so large on paper is not because the agricultural districts are becoming more thickly covered, but because the towns are growing in such a remarkable manner. The civic population of England is as distinct from the agricultural as it is from tho population of any other country. The four million inhabitants of London, the populations of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and the other centres of trade, represent a body of people that have no more to do with the agricultural counties than they have to do with New Zealand. For imperial purposes of course the lot of both the civic and agricultural populations aro bound by tho closest ties. But with regard to the economic principles which regulate tho supply of food, a sharp line must bo drawn between tho two. The agricultural districts of England are not becoming on tho whole much more thickly peopled. In many counties the tillers of the soil are absolutely decreasing in number, and in others the population is at a stand still. It stands, therefore, to reason that under favorable circumstances agriculturists at home are in an exceptionally favorable position. It is true that tho land laws militate against them, but future action on tho part of a popular Government will in all probability remedy this to a largo extent. Other countries, where the laud is hold under different regulations, have their agricultural population much thicker on the land than is the case in England/

Indeed ;i general review of t-bo existing crisis in the agricultural interests of the old country leads irresistibly to the conclusion that the present state of affairs cannot bo considered as permanent. It behoves us, therefore, all the more to use the utmost energy to make the most out of a situation exceptionahly favorable to New Zealand. A like opportunity may not present itself again for a number of years, and if wo now slacken in our efforts to secure the largest possible number of desirable immigrants of the small farmer class we shall bo sorry for it hereafter.