Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1183, 28 November 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1871.

It is often a matter of enquiry with ns what are the peculiar inducements the agent of the New Zealand Government pi England has to offer to the particular class of emigrants it is his aim to transfer to this Colony. We must confess that after much calm consideration, we are quite unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion in the case. The time has been when it could with truth have been said to such, — " In New Zealand you will be free from the pressure of the National Debt; you will not have to contribute to the support of enormous establishments in the army, the navy, and the civil service; you will be free from the restrictions on tirade and commerce which exist in your native land. In fact, we ask you to make your home in a land where you may the fruits of your labor free from almost all the fiscal burdens imder which yp.u suffer where you are." All this might have keen said with truth, b : iit that day has long since passed away. No more can \\ be saicl that we enjoy here any advantage in freedom from taxation oyer the inhabitants of Great Britain. "We have our public debt, srh;ph rapidly and constantly increas iqg, already bears more heavily upon us than does that of the. mother, couu-

try upon its population, and witfy this difference, that whereas, means are adopted for the gradual reduction, if not ultimate extinction, of theirs, the aim of our statesmen appears to be to

add to purs. t Qur taxation too is increasing and spreading in a direction in which that of the mother coimlry is beinsc contracted ; for whereas at home eieiy opportunity is taken to relieve trade and commerce from existing restrictions —imposed in days of ignorance of the true principles of political economy—we are adopting the contrary course, and insanely taxing the food of the people, and placing obstructions in the way of a free interchange of commodities between our own and other countries. Another paint, too, must not be forgotten, which is that even under the favorable circ imstanees that formerly existed emigration was of necessity fjelt to be a sacrifice. Early associations, fast friends, and many of the conveniences of civilised society had to be left behind \ ties had to be rudely sundered, and only in each individual case could it be known how great the sacrifice was. It was, therefore, necessary that advantages of considerable weight should be placed on the emigra riQn side of the balance to countervail the manifest considerations existing on the opposite. These advantages, unhappily, have ceased to. exist, and it would be hard now to promise to any emigrant an equivalent for what he has to leave behind. To the working man we cannot offer certajn and constant employment, nor any great thing in the way of wages while employed. To the small capitalist 've cannot offer advantage of investment or certain increase of b|=» capital : the chances are, on the other hand, that it would gradually melt away under the adverse influences by which he would be surrounded. To all we can only offer hard woi k and a hard struggle, with at best a remote prospect of ultimate success, and that only to the few.

If die Government is really in earnest in its professions of desire to i3iduc,e immigration to our shores, ii must adopt a widely diverse policy from that it has hitherto, pursued. Tt mast re duce departmental expenditure, and this by no small or trifling amount, Jt must cease the policy of getting into debt, and it must free our trade and commerce from its fiscal burdens. It will be of no use to tell intending emi grants that we are deeply in debt and heavily taxed, and that we want them to come and bear a portion of our burdens, so as to make them lighter for us, for we shall not find any «o philanthropic as io come to our shores on any such tei ms or conditions. If we want immigrants we must first make it their interest to come, and next show them that we have done so—a state qf things the reverse of that now existing.