The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 61, 14 March 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1870.

Setting aside the native war, a miserable burden which we shall have to bear, until the House of Representatives ceases to be a mere arena for party fighting, or until the Maori race dies out, both of which events appear to be far awuy in the future, there is no subject which demands from our statesmen more earnest consideration, or which is fraught with deeper interest to lhe welfare of New Zealaud than that of Immigration. With a failing revenue, and an enormous, and apparently increasing, debt, we shall soon see capital leaving the country faster than it ever flowed into it. Tha result of such au uuhappy slate of things is not difficult to foresee — the rate of interest will rise, and, the cost of production being maintained, farmers and manufacturers must inevitably be ruined, thereby impoverishing the whole community. The present dribbling system, if such a term can be applied to it, of immigration can do but little towards

mitigating these evils, whereas a large and general plan would not fail to prove effectual. Nor would the laboring interest suffer from an influx of immigrants provided that it be conducted with judgmeut, and under a comprehensive colonial system which should direct the tide to wherever it is most required, aud carefully avoid overstocking the labor market in any particular locality. Indeed we believe that such a system as we wouid see inaugurated would eventually prove a positive benefit to the laborer, for it surely were better for him that wages should even be slightly lowered thau that, all capital being driven away, there should be uo longer left to hiai any chance of obtaining employment.

Thesa remarks have not reference to Nelsou so much as to the other provinces of New Zealand, indeed, should such a system as that which we propose be established, those whose business it would be to superintend the influx of labor into the country, would at once see that under the present circumstances it would be folly to import any number of emigrants into our province, where just now trade and manufactures are languishing sadly, but this is not a state of thiugs that is to last for ever, and we have every reason to hope that the new industries that have lately arisen, such as the manufacture of flax, and the working of our coal mines, will, ere long, find employment for many hundreds of men, who will have to be brought from elsewhere, for such works would never be carried on to any great extent without a large increase ia'the existing supply of labor. But what we hope to see the case in our own province is already an accomplished fact in other parts of the colony, where the scarcity of labor is greatly felt, and there is no doubt whatever that if it could be more easily ob- 1 taiued a far larger breadth of land would be placed uuder cultivation, manufactures would flourish, and, in a word, capital would once mora begin to flow into a country which possesses unequalled resources that are at present lying idle simply because the means are wanting to develop them. i