A LULL IN EMIGRATION: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 66, 10 April 1852, Page 7

A LULL IN EMIGRATION: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

[From the " Now Zealand Journal." " We have learned, from good authority, that the Land and Emigration Commissioners find it difficult to fill up the last vessels they have laid on for .Melbourne and other ports in Australia. This shows that the emigrating class in this country are not disposed to run blindly and headlong in search of an El Dorado. But it also shows that the current of emigration sets in at this,atiotnent more slaokly than usual —at least in the direction of the south. True, the Australian colonies are beginning to feel the effects of combined convict transportation, but not tit present to a greater extent than of late years; and, on the other hand, the discovery of gold in Australia adds a new and valuable article to its produce, and ought tints to render the country more attractive even to those wiio have outlived the Whittiugton age, when visdous of gold tire nmst attractive. .So the only way in which we can account for the slowness with which the emigrant ships of the Commissioners are filling up is, that there is at present a lull in emigration. And it is natural that there should be. Keeping unlucky Ireland—always exceptional, and sending its emigrants almost exclusively to America— out of account, there is at present a more than average amount of remunerative employment to be had, while the prices of all the necessaries, and many of the comforts of life, are lower than they have ordinarily been in this country. Such a time is not a time for large emigration. The attractiveness of the new land may decide the direction of the emigrant, but it is the pressure at home that unroots and sets him in motion. When, from temporary circumstances, this pressure is relaxed, the amount of emigration for the time necessarily diminishes. Cease altogether it never can ; at least so long as men continue to "increase and multiply,'and to "eat their bread in the sweat of their brow."

Such a state of affairs must necessarily affect, more or les;, the operations of all who are engaged in the work of. emigration and colonization. But it will be felt more and more early by those who act upon no principle aud no system, or by those who, like the Emigration Commissioners, attempt to act upon a system which they understand imperfectly, and are too vain or too indolent to master thoroughly. We much doubt whether the lull has yet been felt by the Canterbury Association. An enterprise commenced and carried on upon deliberately adopted principles, and with well-weighed arrangements, is less exposed, than others to the alternations of times and seasons. It holds on a comparatively steady course.

It is not, however, our cue at present to talk of the Canterbury Association and its settlement. They are actively, and as far as all appearances go, hitherto judiciously employed. It is of other parts of New Zealand we would speak ; and more especially of the Cook's Strait settlements—for the wise men of Auckland never listen to any voices but their own ; if indeed they can be said even to do that, seeing they have a habit of talking all at once.

Now the condition of the Cook's Strait settlements is this:—The impossibility of obtaining good permanent titles to laud, in the districts best adapted for settlement (for example, in the Wairarapa), checks the progress of the colony, and neutralises its attraction for emigrants. On the other hand, the quantity of land that has been thrown into the possession of private individuals—many of them non-resi-dents—in other districts, has made it a drug in the market. At Nelson, again, a mistake in the proportion of labourers to capitalists sent out to that settlement, has deranged all calculations, and materially retarded its progress. We have not undertaken to give a catalogue raisonne of all the embarrassments peculiar to

this or t'other of the Cook's Strait settlements, or common to one or more of them. We are only recalling to memory some of those which are most generally known and appreciated, for the purpose of showing that the stoppage of emigration to those settlements is entirely independent of the present lull, and is owing to causes that will be permanent unless active measures are taken to remove them. About these measures we shall have something to say when Parliament meets; perhaps even a few weeks sooner. When members of Parliament and of the Government begin to return to town, and the gentlemen from New Zealand, who are now in this country, authorised to speak in the name of the settlers, resume their activity, it will be time enough for us to speak out. In the mean time, if anything can be done to renew emigration, even on a small and partial scale, to the Cook's Strait settlements, it ought to be done. Its entire intermission is paralysis and death to a colony. The lull may make it more difficult to do anything, but the lull cannot last long if there is to be " marrying and giving in marriage" as hitherto, with the usual consequence thereof—children.

Now a forced emigration is, if possible, worse than none at ail. By a forced emigration we mean that allurement of emigrants by holding out groundless expectations, which has been too often resorted to by speculators in hind, and by shipowners in want of freights. Any emigration of this kind throws upon the coloiijva number of burdensome, helpless'' creature's, and injures the good cause of emigration here by their melancholy stories about gulls and victims. Emigration to he profitable, either to individuals or the public, must be spontaneous. All that can be done in aid of it is to impart system and regularity to its movements.

The question, therefore, is:—knowing that there is even now a stream, thuugU :l noinparatively slender one, of emigration, setting in upon tiie South, and that it must soon increase, by what legitimate means can a portion of it be diverted to the Cook's Strait Settlements, notwithstanding the obstacles offered by the blundering of Government?

There is one plan we have heard discussed by practical men, who- have a stake in the colony, that seems deserving of attention. Let us take Nelson as an example. In that Settlement a considerable amount of laud has been thrown into the possession of private individuals. More than one person, as we'll residents

ill the colony as here, hold more lands than they can use themselves or find purchasers for. It has been proposed to throw these lauds into a common stock, aud form a company to dispose of them ; and the mode of disposal suggested has been this:—To select among intending emigrants from this country —or among the surplus labourers in the Settlement —steady reliable individuals, with more intelligence aud probity than means. To allot to these farms oi limited extent, for which they shall pay no rent for the first year or two, low rents lor the next few years, and fiiir rents afterwards; and to allow these tenants to purchase their farms, if they are so minded and able, at moderate prices and by instalments. We are given to understand that among the small fanners ami the better class of agricultural labourers in this country there are many who would be glad u> proceed to New Zealand under such an arrangement; and they would add a most valuable class to the colonial society—something akin to our sturdy Westmoreland ;' statesmen."

Now we do not believe that this would be a good Avay for Government, or any other trustees acting for the general interest, to dispose of the colonial waste lands. A fixed sufficient price, payable at once, and concession of the land permanently in fee simple, is the only way in which Government or public trustees can dispose of waste lands for the general benefit. But the lands of which we are now speaking' have already become private property. They are of no use to their owners in tiie present state of the local land market, and they retard indefinitely the time when public laud sales can be resumed on sound principles. The object of the plan we have been describing is to enable private land owners to turn their property to good account ; to relieve the glutted land market, and to render possible a legitimate immigration into the settlement in its present exceptional condition.

It could be wished that the gentlemen who have entertained this idea would call a meeting to discuss its merits and inquire whether any means can he adopted for carrying- it into effect.