MR HALCOMBE AT THE ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 104, 24 August 1880, Page 2

MR HALCOMBE AT THE ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE.

In a recent issue we mentioned tbat Mr A. F. Haloombe, so well known in this district, had been lecturing before the Royal Colonial Institute, upon New Zealand. In the absonce of the Duke of Manchester, President of the Institute, Sir Charles Clifford, formerly Speaker of the New Zealand House of Ueprt'BuuUtiveH, occupied && ■'■' cli air, and umougst the list of those present we notice the names of a large number of persons well known in New Zealand, and also of colonial notabilities, including -ir Arthur Kennedy, Sir ti. Stafford, 6ir John «Joode, Key. J. J. Halcombe, Mr* Luby, Mes-rs A. Greenwood, S. Whibley, Purvin Unwell, N. Levin, E Pharozyn, Mr and Mrs W. Turnbull, and many others. Mr Halcombe 1 s lecture (which is reported in eztenro inTheColonies andlndit) appgair to hare been well received by the influential audience which assembled to bear it! He began by expressing regret at the abaenoe of the Duke of Manchester, lhaJ?rtflident of . the Institute, and Chairman of the Feilding Corporation. He then stated that his lecture would be au " endeavour to draw a i picture of New Zealand as it i* at the present time," and proceeded to sketch the country, stating its size, population, characteristics of the climate, &o. Of the latter he said — 'As to the climate — at the Northern end, oranges and lemons will ripen, while at Otago Scotchmen and oats especially flowrish. The climate about , Cook's straits i» like the climate of England, with three of the winter mouths cut and a great de«i more sunshine put in." He then referred to the large xeaboard of the country and the number of its harbours, necessitating the colonisation of the country at many different points, and after glancing at the work done by the Acclimatisation Societies, proceeded to take his audience "at a canter through the islands." Start* ing at Nelson, he proceeds dowu the West Coast, across to Lyttelton, through Christchurch, down by rail to Dunedin, and on to Invercargill, sketching the principal characteristics and industries of the settlements, and picturing most vividly the wonderful ptotrretis that part of the country has made. Referring then to the Noith ißland, he first; indicates the chief difficulties under which settlers in this island have laboured — difficulties caused by tho thick vegetation, tne moisture of the climate necessitating metalled ronds, and the Maori troubles. Hs then proceeds to refer to the progress made in the North Island, and starting from Wellington proceeds to Wangauui ; of ■which he says.— . " Wanganui is the outlet of a large rich, agricultural country. In the midst of this district is the Manchester Block, so called after his Grace, the Chairman of this Institution and President of the Eraigiant and Colonists Aid Corporation. There they established a large settlement six years ago, and there is now a thriving population of nearly 3000 people, That is another instance of what it is possible to do a? the result of the Public Works Policy. Before the railway to this block was made, it. would have been impossible to colonise it. The block was covered with timber, and the timber is the chief export from it. Without the railway this timber could not have been curried; and the effect of the opening of the railway is not only that the persons producing the timber can find a market for it, but that the purchasers get the timber at a reduction of from 6s to 8s per 100 ft, being the saving in cairiage.by railway transport." Taran&ki, Auckland, Tauranga, and Napier are all referred to, and their principal features given in a succint and interesting manner. Having taken his audience for a tour over tho country, Mr Halcombe proceeded to lay before (hem some statistics, showing the progress of the Colony during the two decades from 1858 to 1878. After giving a number of very telling figures, he briefly referred to the financial condition of the country, and in doing so attributed the* severe depression under which the Colony was labouring to the fall in the price of wool, asserting tbat the all round fall of 4d per lb. which took place nieunt a loss of one million of pounds to the colonists of New Zealand. As to the financial soundness or otherwise of the country, lie referred to the opinions of Mr A. Hamilton, an able financier, " and certainly an impartial man as far as New Zealand," whose opinions be biiefly quotes. We extract the following passngf from Mr llalcorabe'd lecture: — " He (Mr Hamilton) lays down two or three very distinct propositions. One is that there is no parallel at all between the pablic debt of New Zealand expended on reproductive works, and that of the old country, where the National Debt represents war expenditure, or at all events is not reproductive. He alpo says : ' Against the < olonial debt we have to place en the credit side the value of the roads, railway!, and Public Works, so that, in point of fact, assuming these to be worth their cost, the public debt of the Colony is amply covered by sound public assets, independently altogether of the ordinary taxable resources of the community, which for its numbers is one of the wealthiest and most thriving in the world.' He goes on to say: 'The pressure of a public debt on a coinmunitv is not to be estimated by the simple process of counting deads. Regard must be had to the wealth and resources of the population.' Now, as to the wealth of the population, let us take the laborers' wages. What do we find f A laborer in New Zealand can easily earn his hundred bounds a year The conclusions drawn by Mr Archibald Hamilton were : ' That there was no reason to fear the liabilities had outrun either public or private resources, and he had not the slightest doubt that the railways would return the interest on the cost of their construction in a few years ' Nor should there be doubt on the subject. We find every , mile of constructed railway pays interest at once of 2A per cent. They are now iv a disjointed and unfinished state ; but in a short tivie, when they are completed, and the population has increased, they will pay higher interest. In the meantime the colonists can afford to pay balance of interest on loans, because they are saving by tho cost of oarriftge over aud over again what they have to pay in the shape of taxation." He then proceeded to refer to the taxation of the country, and oombatted the statement " that the public debt alone im'posea a taxation upon the people of £3 89 per annum," showing that the total taxation of the country " to meet expense! of Qovernmeut and interest on loans " amounted to only £3 10a per head, the remainder of the revenue being derived from receipts for services rendered, and by sales of land. Hr Halcombo then proceeded to ! refer to the immigration question. He showed that out of the 67,000.000 acres of land in the Colony only 3,523,000 were in 1878 cultivated, from *hich he argued that "there is ample room for more English capital and Enghcu labour to come in and do as the 430,000 people already there have done." Dr. Hector reckons there are 1^,000,000 acres of Agricultural land in the country, and 50,000,000 acres of pastoral land, leaving 5,000,000 acres unfit for either agricultural or pastoral purposes. .Three classes of immigrants wero wanted— first, the laborer, and with him the capitalist— and Wtly men wit h sufficient money to em* plo* themselves, and who would not be dependent on the labour market for employ

me ut. — W« quote the following passage, from the lecturu : — ' " When it i» considered that wiihin the last ten years we have taken in all 177,000 people, moßt of them of the laboring ulase, from England, instead of wondering that there it any little overflow in the labor market at the present time, it is only sur prising how we have been able to absorb suoti an enormous mans of labor during ho short^ajime*' But the fact is, that every immigrant who is true to himself may work into a position thoroughly independent of any labor market, in a few yeaiß. In ft part of the colony I know well, called the Bangitikei, which ia a purely agricultural district, and wbioh is now held in small farms by a* large population, not fire Descent of the present freeholder* came with any capital at all to the colony, and their farms now yield them incomes of from 4200 trt £8000 a year. " Now I otfnoie to the capitalist. Every part of the Colony offer* opportunities f»r improvement. The railway lines have opened up large tracts <'(ft new country, which are at present unoccupied altogether, and blocks of Maori lands opened by good roads are being acquired by the Government. In the neighborhood where I live I can stand on a bill, not 100 feet high, and loofc over 2,000,000 acres of lard as rich its any in tbe world, in a beautiful climate, and well watered, where certainly not mo<e than 10,000 people are collected, and these 10,000 are located within a radius of miles ; the rest of the country is unoccupied. As to the third claas of immigrants, ihe man who comes with sufficient money to employ himself will always find a place. " Now there is in Kngland a large number of men with capital who do not find they can manage to get on, and this has been shown very strongly by the sending out two gentlemen from Lincolnshire, delegates from a number of Lincolnshire farmers, to visit the Colony in order to see what tfs profitable occupation could be got for their capital before they lose it all at home. I trust we may 9oon have the pleasure of reading the report of those gentlemen, which I believe will be to the effect that New Zealand offers a good field for the migration of the class of capitalist farmers. " My advice to a capitalist is ' 3>-ofc before you leap!' and do not hurry too quickly into any investment. There are good investments in every part of tbe Colony. Ido not think any one part offers special advantages over another, and he should look thoroughly about him when he invests at all. "To the labourer I should say. When you get to the colony, do not hang about the town. That is the fault of labourers generally. Go at onco into the country, and take the first thing that offers itself, whether you consider it underpaid or riot, so aft to give you time to look round and find something that may serve 3011 better." In conclusion, Mr Hnlcombe dwelt at Jeonsiderable length, and in powerful lan"guage, upon the native race, erediiing them with a number of good qualities, and closing his lecture with these words : — "We have had a good many conflicts with the Maorin, and if you ask any old settler he will tell you be does not quite know why ; and if you ask the Maoris, they will say the saite. They are a high spirited, warlike race, «nd seeing that the consequence of our civilisation is their extermination they naturally seek a remedy, and • large body, called the King nation, have isolated themselves in the interior of the country as being the on'.y mode of eolf» preservation. It may take some time before this barrier within which tho King native* have withdrawn themselves will be broken down. But there is not tbe slightest fear of any more Maori wars, if only common prudence is exeiciaed. Late events have jkown most clearly that the natives know How hopeless a struggle it is for them, and that the only result to them of an appeal to arms is the lessening of their numbers and the loss of their land."