"THE WAKEFELD SYSTEM OF COLONISATION." (From Blackwood's Magazine.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 413, 30 March 1850, Page 3

"THE WAKEFELD SYSTEM OF COLONISATION." (From Blackwood's Magazine.)

Mr. Wakefield's system — for it is he who has the honour of originating this politico-economical scheme — contists in putting a price upon unoccupied land, and with the proceeds of ibe sale raising a fund Jor transmission of emigrant labourers. This it, however, but a subordinate part of his project, which we mention thui separately, because, for a purpose of our own, we wish to distinguish it from the rest. This price muit, moreover, (and here is the gist of the mutter.) be that "sufficient price" which will debar ih? labourer from becoming too soon a proprietor of land, and thus deserting the services of the capitalist. The object of Mr. Wakefield, it will be seen at once, il to procure the speedy transmii-sionin due propoition of capital and labour. The capitalist will afford the means of transferring the labouier to the scene of action ; the labourer would be retained in that condi. tion in order to invite and render profitable the wealt'i of the capitalist. The twofold object is good, and is an apparent limplicity in the means devised, ■kjbich, at first, is very captivating. There is nothing

from which the colonial capitalist suffers so much as from the want of hired labour. He purchases land and finds no one to cultivate it ; the few he can engage he cannot depend upon ; the project of agricultural improvement which, if it he not completed, is utterly null and useless, is arrested in mid progress by the desertion of bit workmen ; or his capital is exhausted by the high wages he has p.iid before the | necessary works can be brought to a termination. The capitalist has gone out, and left behind him that class | of hued labourers without which his capital is useless. Meanwhile, in England, this very class is superabundant ; but it is not the class which spontaneously leaves the country, or can leave it. Mr. Wa < efield's scheme supplies the capitalist with the labour so essential to him, and relieves our parishes of their unemployed poor. But these emigrant labourers would soon extend themgelve« over the new country, as small proprietors, — Mr. Wakefield checks this natural tendency by railing the price of land. There is, w<j say, an apparent and captivating sina. plicity in the sche.ue ; but we are persuaded that, the more closely it is examined, the more impracticable and perplexing ifc will reveal itself to be. As Mr. Wakefield's system has tnaue considerable progress in public opinion, ond obtained the approval, not only of pager specu'ative minds, but of coot and calculating (cmoraists— as it has already exerted some influence, and may t-xert still more, upon our local legislation — and as we believe that the attempt to orry ifc out will g>ive rise to nothing better than confusion and discontent, we think we shall be doing no ill service to the cause of colonisation by entering into some investigation of it. We are compelled to make a division, or what to Mr. Wakefield will appear a most unscientific/rflc/wre, of the two parts of his scheme. We acquie«e m fixing a price upon unappropriated land, and wth the proce di of the sale forming a fund for the trmsmission and outfit of the poor emigrant. We do not say that these proceeds mnst necessarily supply all the fund that may be thought advisable to spend in this matter, or that the price is to be regulated solely according to ihe v.ants of this emigration fund. But do not acquiesce in the proposal to fix a price for the specific purpose of retarding the period at which the labourer may himself become a proprietor. The doctrine of " a sufficient price" (as it has been called, and for brevity's sake we slnll adopt the name) we entirely eschew. To the imposing of an artificial value upon the laud, for thii purpose, we will be no parties. Simply to transport the labourer hence, shall be the object of our price, beyond such oilier reasons as may be given for gelling at a certain moderate sum the waste land of the colonies, instead of disposing- of it by free grant. This object may be shown to be equitable ; it appeals to the common justice of mankind. But a« to the longer or shorter term the hired labourer remains in the condition of hired labourers, far this the capitalist must take his chance. This must be determined, as it is in the old countiy, and as alone it can be detei mined amicably, by that current of circumstances over which neither party can exercise a aiiect control. To such collateral advantage as may accrue to the capitalist from even the price we shall impose, he is welcome ; only we do not legislates for this object —we neither give it, nor take it away. The wild unappropriated iand of our colonies belong to the crown, to the state— it i», as Mr. Wakefield say», " a valuable national property." In making use of this land, one main object would be to relieve the destitute of the old country ; to give them, if possible, a share of it What more just or more rational ? To give, however, the soil itself to the very poor would be idle. Tuey cannot reach it, they cannot travel to their new estate— they have no seeds, no tools, no stock of any kind wherewith to cultivate it. This would be a mere mockery. We will sell it, then, to those who can transport themselves thither, and who have the necessary means for its cultivation, and the pui chase-money shuil be paid over to the very poor. By f»r the best w.iy of paying over this purchasemomy, which as a mere gift of so much coin would be all but worthless, and would be spent in a week, is by providing them with a free passage to the colony where they will permanently improve their condition ; obtaining high wages, and probably, after a time, becoming proprietors themselves; nnd assisting, in turn, by the purclme-money will have enabled them to pay to brin,<r over other emigrants to the new field of labour, and the new land of promise. This is an equitable arrangement, and, whit is more the equity of it is level to the common sense of all mankind. It effects also cettain desirable objects, though not such as our theorist has in view. It places the land in. the possession of men who will and can cultivate it, and who, by paying a certain moderate price, have shown they were in earnest in the business ; and it has transmitted, at their expense, labourers to the new soil. With the question, how long the c shall continue labourers, it interferes not. It is a question, we think, no wiie man would meddle with. Least of a.'l does it represent that the capitalist has obtained any claim upon the services of the labourer, by having paid for his passage out ; this payment was no gift of his ; it was the poor man's share of the •' national prop rty" They meet in the colony as they would have met in England, each to do the best he can for hinibClf. Observe how the difficulties crowd upon us, when we entic upon the other and indeed the essential part oi Mr. Wakefield's scheme. The emigrant is not "too soon" to become a proprietor. What doei this " too soon' 1 mean ? How long is he to be retained in the condition of a hired labourer ? How many years ? Mr. Wakefield nerer fixes a pei iod. He could not. It must depend much upon the rapidity of immigration nto the colony. If the second batch of immigrants is glow of coming in, the first must be hep' labourers the longer. If the stream of labour flow but scantily into this artificial canal, the locks must be opened the more rarely, but how is the " sufficient price" to be de. termined un'il this period be known ? It is the sum the labourer can save from his wages, during this time which must constitute the price of to much laud as will support him and his family, at.d enthle him to turn proprietor. Thus, in order to regulate the sufficient price, it will be necessary to find 'hat the average r,ite of wages, the average amount of iavings that a labourer could make (which, again, must depend upon the price of provision* and other neieisaries of life) duiing an unknown period !— and, in addition to this, to determine the average produce of %o tmuy acres of land. The apparent simplicity of the scheme resolves itie f into an extreme complexity. Tue author of it indeed, proposes a short method by which his sufficient I rice may be arrived at without these calculations : what that short method is, and how fallacious it would prove, we shall have occasion to show. But granting that, in any manner, this " sufficient price" could be determined, the measure has an unjust and arbitrary char»cter. It is not enough that such a scheme could be defended, and shown to be equitable, because lor the general good, before some committee of legislators ; if it offends the popular sense of justice it can never prosper. " I know," the humble emigrant might say—" I know there must be rich and poor in the world ; there always have bten, and always will be, To what is inevitable one lemnsto

s ubmit. If T am born poor there is no help for it, excej t what lies in my own ability and industry. But if you set about, by Artificial regulations in a new colony, where fruitful land is in abundance, to keep me poor, because lam so now, I rebel* This is not just. Do I not see the open land before me unowned, untouched ? I well enough understood that in old England, I could not take so much of any fie'd as the merest shed would cover— not so much as I could burrow in. Long before I was bom it had been all claimed, hedged, fenced in, and a title traced from ancestor to ancestor. Here, lam the ancestor !" j Tell such a man that a price is put upon tho landjn order that tome companions whom he left starving in England may come over and partake the benefit of tli's unbroken soil— he will see a pl<tin justice here. He himself was, perhaps, brought over by the price paid by some precursor. What he had received from ( nj more prosperous, he returns to another Jess prosj t erous than himself. But tell him that a pricp is put up^n the land, in order th.it he m«y serve a rich mashx the longer — in order that he may be kept in a subo ril in<)te station, from which circumstmces now pern it him to escape—he will see no justice in the case He will do everj thing in his power to evade your law ; he will hole upon your <c sufficient price" as a cruel artificial barrier raised up against kir n; he will go and " fquat" upon the land, without paying any price at | all. i Indeed, the objection to his scheme, which Mr: Wakefield seems to feel the strongest — to which he gives the least confident reply, is just this— that, equitable or not, it would be impossible to carry out his law into ex°cution ; that if the price were high enough ( to answer his purposes, the land in colonial dialect, would be " squatted" on— would be taken possession of without any payment whatever. A moderate price m- n will cheerfully pay for the greater security of title : Englishman will not, for a slight matter, put themfe ye« wittingly on the wrong side of the law. But, if coupled with a high pii c, there is a rankling feeling of injustice : they will be very apt to satisfy themselves with activil possession, and leave the legal title to follow as it may. It is true as Mr. Wakefield urges, the richer capitalists will by no means favour the squatter ; they will be desirous of enforcing a law made for their especial benefit. But they will not form the majority. Popular opinion will be against them, and in favour of the squatter. It would not be very easy to have a police force, and an effective magistracy, at the outskirts of a settlement stretching out, in some cases, into an unexplored region. Besides, it is a conspicuous part of Mr. Wakefield'i plan to give municipal or local governments to our colonies : these, as emanating from the British constitution, must need be more or less of a popular character; and we me persuaded that no such popular local government would uphold his " sufficient price,'' or tolerate the principle on which it was fouuded. But, even if practicable, if carried out into complete execution, it remains to be considered whether the rr.eaiute pioposed would really have the effect contemplated by our theorist — that of supplying the capitalist with the labour he needs. With a certain number of labourers it might— hut of what char cter? It was not a remote possibility that will influence a common day-labourer to save his earnings. It in one of the terms of the pioposition that high wages are to be given ; for without these there would be no emigration, and certainly no fear of a too speedy promotion to the rank of proprietor. It follows, therefore, that you have a class of men earning high wages, and not under any strong stimulus to save— a class of men always found to be the most idle and refractory members of the community. A journeyman who has no preising motive for a provideut economy, and who earns high wages, is almost invariably a capricious unsteady workman, on whom no dependence can be placed ; who will work just so many days in the week as are necessary to prorure him the enjoyment he craves. One of these enjoyments is indolence itself— a sottish, halfdrunken indolence. Drinking is the coarse pleasure of most uneducated men : it is so even in the old country ; and in a colony where there are still fewer amusements for the idle hour, it becomes almost the sole pleasure. How completely it is the reigning vice of our own colonies is known to all- Imagine a labourer in the receipt of high wages, little influenced by the remote prospect of becoming, by slow »avings, a proprietor of'laud— -and feeling, moreover, tbat he was retained in a dependent candition, arbitrarily, artificially, expressly for the service of the capitalist— what amount of toork think you the capitalist-farmer would get from such a labourer ? Not so much in seven years as he would have had from him in two, if, at the end of that two, the man had calculated upon being himself a farmer. Recollect that it is not »lave labour, or convict la* hour, that we are here dealing with : it is the free labour ot one man working for another man, at wages. He gets all the wages he can, nnd gives as little labour as he can. If the wages are high, and the inducement to save but feeble, he will probably earn by one day's work what will enable him to pass the two next in idleness aud dtbauchery. What boon will Mr. Wakefield have conferred on the capitalist ? The theory of a "sufficient price" is, therefore, placed in this hopeless predicament :— l. It would be almost impossible to enforce it; and, 2. If enforced, it would fail of its purpose. It would supply the capitalist with inefficient, profligate, aud idle workmen, on whose steady co-operation and assistance he could never calculate .