SYSTEMATIC COLONIZATION, AND ITS RESULTS.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 159, 8 December 1847, Page 2

SYSTEMATIC COLONIZATION, AND ITS RESULTS.

The main features of the modern system of Colonization, to which allusion was made in our last Wednesday's number, may be summed up as follows :—- Ist. The disposal of all lands in the British Colonies, without exception, by sale only, at a fixed, uniform and sufficient price. 2nd. The employment of the whole, or of a large fixed proportion of the proceeds of the sales of land, in affording a passage to the colonies, cost free, to. young persons, of both sexes, of the labouring class. 3rd. The sale of the land in England, and the

anticipation when necessary, of the proceeds of the land sales, by means of loans, raised on the security of future sales, for the sole purpose of emigration. 4th. The concentration of the community, or the fixing of a large proportion of the population of the new colony, within certain denned and specified limits. Such then are the distinguishing features of the modern system of colonization, which has been and is to be acted upon, by the New Zealand Company and by the Home j Government in all future settlements, and on I which it will be necessary to make a few observations. With regard to the first of these principles, namely, the disposal of all lands in the colonies, at a "fixed, uniform and sufficient' price," there appears to have been much difference of opinion amongst the " disco- ] verers " of the new system, as to what constituted a sufficient fixed price. This difficulty however, was soon got over, by making it at all events sufficiently high, and the immediate effect of exacting a high price for land in a gtate of nature, was to operate as a prohibition to purchase by that most useful class, on which the prosperity of all new colonies, must in a great measure depend, namely, the small farmers, and others, possessed of some capital, however small, but sufficient to maintain themselves with their families, until they shall have raised sufficient produce from their purchased lands, to enable them to subsist. These form the most useful and healthy class of settlers in the first stages of a new colony, and it is not until after they have succeeded in establishing themselves, that a market for the labour of other classes, without capital, is open. By the exaction of a high price for wild lands in the colonies, this most useful class of men are excluded, and in their place, the land, (if bought at all) is bought up by jobbers in land, not with a view of cultivating it, but with the sole object of making a profit by its resale at a future period, when owing to the species of speculation fostered and encouraged by this wretched system, and by the government, these individuals, who have never benefited the young colony in any way by their speculations, realize their profit of two or three hundred per cent, and make room for fresh speculators. That such has been the case in New Zealand is well known, for it is certain that on the first planting and settlement of a new colony, under favorable circumstances, and whilst there is a current of emigrants and capital flowing into it, a price may be obtained for land far beyond what can be permanently maintained. In this manner, is a fictitious and gambling value given to the land, a value which, intrinsically it does not possess, and which it cannot maintain for any length of time, and the consequence of # this system, when a reaction takes place, as it must inevitably do, sooner or later, when the artificial impulse can no longer be sustained, are that the land is covered with the wrecks of fortunes lost, and that the colony presents one wide scene of bankruptcy and -ruin. To prove that this picture is not overdrawn, let us look at the Colony of South Australia, to which the principles of the " systematic' 1 school were first applied. The slate of that colony in 1842, as set forth by a gentleman residing in Adelaide, is a complete answer to, and refutation of those principles of colonization, and should have been a warning and a beacon to deter other administrations or associations from adopting those principles in the planting of new colonies. The following are extracts from a letter from a gentleman in Adelaide, dated June 2nd, 1842. "The present state of affairs in the colony is a perfect anomaly : — we are alinott starving in the midst of plenty. We cannot complain of a sterile soil, or blighting seasons} no, we have a fertile soil, fruitful seasons, and a genial clime. The crops generally have more than answeied the expectation of the sealers, and the flocks and herds have greatly mci eased. Capital to a very large amount has been invested in land, houses, &c. Here is h, country' beautifuljy !> f<si'tile, and capable vf abundant gifts for the plough, the fleece and the vine, — for hones, cattle and sheep,— yet the colony is in a state of bankruptcy. The whole though great in amount, seems unavailing in use j great in intrinsic value, yet lying dead and powerless, naught but a " vis inertias." All is darkened and negatived, not by j the want of property, but money.'* * * j «< The error of attempting to fix a largely disproportionate part of the population, as a commercial city, has been exploded ; the fallacy j of large investments in unproductive buildings has detected itself ; the fictitious and gambling value attached to mere land, lias been destroyed; | The avaricious excess of price, of goods and | labour, which put us out of keeping with the rest of the world, has ceased, and the extravagance consequent on exorbitant wages, which lias aggravated, by .improvident consumption, the heavy balance of imports against us, has been checked, &c, &c. The following graphic description, contained in the same letter, of the effect at Adelaide, of the acts of the Home Government and of the Governor, is certainly anything bnt cheering to the «* systematic colonizers." << Credit shaken, immigration ceases; banks refuse to discount, unless the most unexceptionable paper : money exceedingly scarce, terms

" cash," and "no trust " placarded in all the shops j general break-up of all the petty shopkeepers ; markets inundated with all sorts of goods, but no buyers ; several merchants fail ; every body getting out into " the bush," markets inundated with land, live-stock, and merchandise; rents reduced about two-thirds, and a great many houses left uninhabited in Adelaide! suburban villages almost deserted, every species of property much depieciated in value ; con. tinued sales of property at an immense sacrifice j a great number of mechanics and labourers unable to obtain employment, and the Government compelled to suppott them. A. general system of barter and labour exchange established ; almost all services and debts paid in laud, stock, produce or labour, and it may be added many never paid at all. The professional gentlemen of the law, and sheriff's olficers, the only parlies doing a lucrative business. An Insolvent Bill passed to relieve the government of the expense of debtors ; general stagnatiou of tiade, an immense property passes into the hand* of the South Australian Company, the Auction Company, and the Insurance Company, on account of loans, mortgages," &c M kc.

Wool.— The suitability of this climate to the growth of wool has frequently been re-, ferred to. Ihe comparative equality of the ■temperature throughout the year, combined with the presence of an adequate supply of moisture, gives an almost unrivalled texture to the fleece of the acclimatized sheep. The quantity too yielded by breeds adapted to this country, is equally satisfactory ; we are informed as a case in point, that a Coleswold ram, belonging to Dr. Weekes, has ihis season yielded a fleece, (one year's growth), weighing nine pounds eleven ounces

The Band of the 58th Regiment will in future play every Thursday, (weather per* milling,) on the space in front of the Council Chamber. The performances for to-morrow, at 4 p .m., will be in accordance with the following Programme : — Overture Opera " Strndella,'* ...•.« Flotow. Melange, Opera •' The Bondman/ Balfe. Waltz, "The Garland," Koenig. Cay., Opera " Getniny di Vergy," .... Doiiistitti, AirandChorut, Opera" Precioia," ..... Weber. Quadrille, " The JSruani," Verdi .