SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1848.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 246, 7 October 1848, Page 2

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1848.

In reply to the deputation of thirty-five gentlemen, who waited upon the Govemor-in-Chief, at Wellington, on Monday, the 19th of September, His Excellency is represented to have said, that " At the present moment, there is probably no " portion of the world in which life and pro- " perty are more secure than in New Zealand, " nor is there ony other country which holds out " qreuter promise of prosperity and happiness " to intending emigrants " To the accuracy of the first portion of the above sentence, we are most happy to be able to add confirmatory testimony; but from the latter clause, which we have purposely italicised, and to which we solicit general attention, we regret that we must not only respectfuly demur, but totally dissent. General and sweeping assertions are easily made, and are frequently difficult to contradict. They tickle the ear and look fair to the eye ; but, if fallacious, or unfounded, they do infi - nitely more mischief to the cause they seek to support than would the most unfavourable expositions, if based upon fact. Until Sir George Grey shall follow up his assertion by demonstration of the sources of the "promise of prosperity" he proclaims, we cannot but regret that he should have given such marked assurance of a quality we strive in vain to detect— nay, the very absence of which weighs heavily npon the hearts, and casts a cruel blight upon the hopes,of our most -energetic and intelligent colonists. Inquire of the most sanguine what inducement they can offer to friends or relations to emigrate to New Zealand, and the unpalateable truth must out. We are aware that several persons here have invited their relatives to join them— not with the view of purchasing land, but, in hope by such aid to enable them to preserve or advance a prosperity the fruits of •unwearied industry and anxious toil. But is there really one source of industry peculiar to the country which can even ! promise commensurate return to the capitalist 1 J We shall be most happy to be proved in error, I but, until that be done, we must reply to our i own interrogatory, and answer — none ! Is our j traffic worthy of the name of commerce ? Is our husbandry worthy of the name of agriculture ? Do our pastoral pursuits deserve to be termed grazing ? Do we possess a single export ? Nay, do we grow anything like food sufficient for our own consumption'? Or, whilst the sale of land is insanely burked, is there any " promise" that we ever shall ? $ We may be desired to consider the progress of Auckland and of Wellington during the past three years, and the rapid extension of those towns now going on ! But what does that prove, other than that an unusal naval and I military expenditure, in addition to an Impe- ] rial subsidy, have produced their usual results, | imparting stir and vitality to spots which would inevitably fall back to insignificance the moment the aliment whereon they battened was withdrawn ; unless, indeed, a more healthy, a more legitimate, and a more unfailing means ; of nourishment were offered for their support. Now, is New Zealand destitute of 'such inherent nutriment 1 ? Quite the contrary, ! Cast off the fetters which at present lock up her ' soil. Let it be attainable at a moderate\value. Let but a tithe of the inducement be held out, in comparison with that which, in 1820 and the four subsequent years, sent such a stream tide of energetic and intellectual emigration to Van Diemen's Land, and then, indeed, the innate worth of New Zealand will be shown in

all its excellence — the promise, wow, erroneously, proclaimed, be more than amply redeemed. We have had a long and an intimate acquaintance with the Australian colonies. We witnessed their gradual progress from competency to wealth — their retrogression from wealth to insolvency. We have contemplated, practically, their transition state, through their several phases — not with the dulled perceptions of a continuous residence, but with the sharpened observation consequent upon European absences, and with the awakened interest which time and change, dm ing thoLe absences had effected. We are, therefore, we venture to believe, competent to offer a pretty accurate opinion as to the causes of their fluctuating prosperity, as well as to show the reason why New Zealand cvn not hold out any hope of prosperity, so long as she shall continue to be tied and bound by the most tyiannical Land Act that ever palsied the powers of a country otherwise blessed with the choicest gifts of nature. ______ We have iterated and reiterated, that to the Free Grant System, and to that alone, the marvellous rise of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land was attributable ; and we challenge any one, who has investigated the subject, to rebut that assertion. The first inducements to attract colonization, and to conveit penal settlements to healthy possessions, were by granting land to emigrants, and promising more to their children— by giving, in many instances, free passages to families — and by furnishing them with rations, for some time, after their arrival — and by lending them cattle, the property of the Crown, to be returned, after a term, from the offspring of the cattle lent. In this lay all the mystery of the early and unexampled success of the penal colonies, and to that politic system is attributable the extraordinary growth of British Supremacy in the Southern seas. At that time, the Crown granted the Land, free of quit rent, and without any reservation, save (as far as we can recollect) timber for Naval purposes. But, as prosperity progressed, and as emigrants encreased, one restriction followed after another, until the stream of emigration dwindled to a rill and the rill to an occasional drop. From a peppercorn, quit rents rose to 2s. per 100 acres — and from that to something like 2d. per acre — Mines, and minerals were next impounded, until, in Colonel Arthur's grants, even the soil was subject to removal, if required by the Government. By this time, 1829 or 1830, emigration had ceased, except in the instance of an occasional passenger. In 1831, free grants were put an end to, and the present landcoeicing Secretary, then Under Secretary, Lord Howick, established a minimum price of five shillings per acre on all Australian Waste Lands. From that | hour, the declension of Australian prosperity | may be dated — although it almost immediately thereafter appeared 10 flourish with unexampled vigour. But, test its truth by after results, and what do we find but misery, insolvency, and ruin. The cause of the seeming prosperity lay in the surprising and sudden rise in the price of wool, and the almost contemporaneous establishment of British Banks with large capitals, which, to work their own object, gave large credits. Ambitious landholders thus bought largely, squaring up their extensive blocks, and augmenting their flocks and herds and enhancing their clips of wool. Imported capital blew the bubble. A body of Van Diemen's Land settlers migrated to Port Phillip and their success spread the fame of that Province. South Australia was, at that moment, created, and New Zealand projected. Again the Emigration stream ran breast high. Upwards of a million of money were available from land sold in New South Wales alone. Jason was a blockhead compared with Macarthur, and more Banks, Loan Companies and Capitalists hied to the real El Dorado at Botany Bay. Land jumped to 3 and 5 pounds per acre, and sheep, not long before Is. 6d., to 40s. and 50s. per head. A moral Delirinm Tremens pervaded all ranks. Estates changed owners, and se.^ tiers retired, upon easily earned fortunes, proceeding, en P. nice, to England, ere long to return, as paupers, to New South Wales. And wherefoie 1 ? Had any pestilence swept the colony 1 Had any material convulsion engulphed its possessions ? By no means. The single cause of all the ruin and miseiy lay in the land having been purchased at five shillings — a price at which it could yield no adequate return — especially at a, moment when convict labour had, also, been withdrawn. The folly of Downing-street — not content with the fruits of their mischievous inteimeddling in questions they did not comprehend — raised the minimum price from ss. to 1 2s. and eventually to 20s. but the work of destruction had already proved complete, and an empty purse proved an argument too potent to enable them to profit by the unstatesmanlike impost. I Let any one contemplate the present prospects of Australia, and say if they be such as her vast resources should warrant them to be. If the search be a keen one, we fear it will be seen that her settlers are enduring a hand to mouth struggle to keep the wol£ from the door. Commerce languishes — Agriculture droops — and Grazing is scaice equal to siutain the burthens beneath which it totters — and all, because a few individuals of the British Ministry are privileged to impose a fictitious price upon land

which, if unrestricted, would fetch its full value — to the incalculable gain of the British possessions, the immediate benefit of British emigrants, and the certain enrichment of the British Merchant. We argue from facts of which we are well aware and of whose disasters we have been frequent and painful witness. But. let us fortify our practical position by the aid of that able political economist McCulloch, who pointedly observes :—: — "It would seem to be supposed that all the evils incident to colonization have resulted from the settlers getting land on too easy terms •, and that, all that was requhed for the establishment of a colony on the best possible foundation, was, to sell its land at a high price ; in other words, to make it as like an old country as possible !" One is almost tempted to imagine that our economist was gifted with political second sight, and that he had a prophetic eye upon the ruinous dogmas whose enforcement were to crush the young hopes of New Zealand. "It says little for the public discernment, that opinions of this soit should have obtained any currency. We concede, indeed, that nothing can be more injurious to a colony than the making of large grants of land to individuals, who do not intend to settle upon them, or are unable to clear and bring any considerable portion of them into cultivation. But because such inconveniences have resulted, from the injudicious granting of land, it does not therefore follow, that it should be sold at a high price, or even at any price at all. The more we reflect on the subject, the greater are our doubts as to the policy of exacting any ! price for land, particularly in such a country !as New South Wales. Considering the very inferior quality of most of the land in that colony, ss. an acre seems quite extravagant as a minimum price ; and instead of being made the lowest point in the scale, it should rather have been made the highest, Hence, it is that the existing regulations, the high price de- j manded for land (55.) and the difficulty of obtaining a location, have put an almost total stop to immigration of the most valuable class of persons, that is, of small capitalists. Sup- ; posing an emigrant's family to consist, ser- i vants included, of seven grown-up persons, he would (in the steerage, and according to Mr. M'Culloch's calculation,) save £77 on the mere expenses of the voyage, by going to Canada, rather than to New South Wales ! It does appear to us that government should pay some regard to this circumstance in fixing the price i of land in Austialia. In our view of the mat- j ter, it would be both just and expedient to j allow all emigrants to Australia who made purchd&cd of laud, » deduction fiom its. puce [ equivalent to the sum w hich th« passage out costs them over and above what it would have cost them to go to America. This would be a great relief to small capitalists ; and, even with this regulation, the balance would still incline, in the opinion of most persons, very much in favour of Canada." Nothing can be more reasonable than such j a concession. It would not only enable the Australian and Canadian emigrant to start j upon an equality, but by opening a practicable j door to British settlers, give a turn to British j emigration, and tend to the strengthening of the Empire, by absorbing in her own bosom that energy and industry which is annually driven to add might and intelligence to the United States. Looking, then, to the present prostration of the strength of New South Wales— looking, also, at th« rickety condition of these provinces — and all because of the same injurious land restrictions — we cannot but consider that His Excellency was more than premature in pronouncing such a glowing eulogium on the " promise of prosperity" which we must conicientiously declare we cannot perceive. It is impossible, utterly impossible, ,'that New Zealand can, at nine years of age, pro- : sper under a burthen,— and that an enormously j aggravated burthen, -— which crushes New | South Wales at sixty. If His Excellency desires, (as we firmly believe he does,) the prosperity of the Provinces, which, of himself he so ably rules, he will render every assistance to their settlers to rid them of an import'on against which they will spend their energies in vain. But the settlers must arm Sir George to plead their cause, by memorialising, in strong but temperate terms, the Queen, Lords, and Commons, — supplicating relief from a Land Act against which the bones and brain of man are impotent. Let the Northern settlers demonstrate their fitness for self government, by seeking relief from real evils, not by evincing an inordinate desire for the possession of a power which I will be theirs in due time. Par beyond Political enfranchisement— far beyond municipal seignory— far beyond every other question stands that of the disenthral - ment of the soil. Let the people band constitutionally to achieve it. For upon its accomplishment every " promise of prosperity" to New Zealand, every hope of happiness " to intending emigrants" unquestionably depends.

Government Gazette. — The following is a precis of the contents of the Gazette, published yesterday : a republication of a sale of sundry lots (10) of Crown Lands, to be held on the 21st December next, A notice of the disal-

lowauce of four pre-emption claims. Notice of a special meeting of Justices, to be held at the Resident Magistrate's Coiut on the 25th instant, for the purpose of considering applications for licensing slaughter-houses. Captain Maxwell advertises f/v fenders for sundiy stores for HM. ship Dido. Return of sale of six lots of Ciown Land on the 16' th ultimo — amount £297 Us. 4d. The resignation of Mr. Frederick Thatcher, as Private Secretary, for the purpose of entering holy orders, is also notified ; and in a manner the most gratifying, by the Grovernor-in-Chief to that gentleman, whose conciliatory addiess and urbanity rendered him geneially and deservedly esteemed. Mr. Coates,\\e are happy to observe, is re-appointed. Clerk of the Councils, the duties of which he previously so ably fulfilled. The appointment to have effect fiom the Ist instant-

Among the many remarkable features which contradistinguish the present from the first French Revolution, the tone of morality and religion pervading the minds of the people have already been frequently and joyfully remarked. In further illustration of those sentiments, and as an indication that Religious is as much puzed as social liberty, by the French regenerators, we have copied into another page a powerful speech deliveied by the Honorable and Rev. Baptist Noel, at the Wesle\an Missionary Meeting in Exeter Hall, in May last, As amongst the striking signs of the times we recommend its expositions to the attention of our readers.