DANGER TO THE YORKSHIRE WOOL TRADE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD DISCOVERIES. [From the Times, May 12]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 670, 15 September 1852, Page 3

DANGER TO THE YORKSHIRE WOOL TRADE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD DISCOVERIES. [From the Times, May 12]

While Ministers are dreaming of protection to I agriculture and devising- terms the most choice and least expressive in which to conciliate their opponents without alienating their friends, while every day sees some fresh attempt to revive exploded delusions, or to dress up anew worn out and thread-bare fallacies, one of the greatest interests of the country is in danger of perishing for want of protection, and no one steps forward to &ay a word or make an effort on its behalf. The West Riding of Yorkshire can do without the two additional members whom Mr. Disraeli burns to bestow upon it, but how will it sustain the imminent and almost certain Joss of the raw material of its staple manufacture? Hitherto, with unaccountable apathy, those, the very existence of whoso industry is imperilled by the gold discoveries in Australia, have remained in a .stale of quietude, very unusual to persons so clearsighted and so active, and have looked on with forpid ainnzomenf, while sbipafter ship has arrived, fraught with fresh news of riches leading to po\erty, and treasures sure to cause wide-spread ruin. It is "only a colonial question," people think, and will doubtless settle itself after the fashion colonial questions usually do, without troubling any one here to think seriously about it. ]f, however, the English public is resolutely determined to take no interest in the colonies, it would do wisely to avoid dependence on countries which we saddle with the burden, while we deny them the benefit of a Government. But as the woollen trade has chosen by the marked preference it has shown for the Australian fleece to identify itself in interest with one of these unfortunate communities, it will do wisely to look to it? own affairs, even though such a step should necessitate attention to the internal concerns of our noble dominions in Australia. It has been the pleasure of this country, or rather of the Colonial-office, to retain in its own hands the management and consequent responsibility for the management and consequent responbility for the management of the waste lands in Australia. The local Government has no power to settle anything except under the authority and by the direction of the central. In an emergency of unparalleled difficulty and danger the power to act and to decide is placed at a distance of half the globe from the land whose destiny is in its hands. If the flocks of Australia arc on the verge of destruction, and that trade which supports so large a population in comfort and content is likely to die of inanition for want of the raw material of its operations, it is because the Home Government — the absentee landlord and proprietor of the greit Aus' v li.m eontinen', — sufle s the riches offts boundless domain to be rifled at a nominal price by all comers, and presses down the proprietors of .sheep by its own enormous and irresistible competition. The Colonial-ofiicc first checks systematic colonization, the improvement of agriculture, and the progress of permanent settlement in the colonies, by abandoning the waste lands to the owners of flocks and herds; and when by these means it has foiced into existence a mighty pastoral interest, possessing boundless lands and innumerable sheep, it flings away the result for which so much had been sacrificed, to found on its ruins a mining republic composed for the most part of persons who, having been transported from this land for private plunder, are now enabled to take, on their own terms, the boundless riches of a virgin continent. To make iv a few months the fortunes of some thousand desperate adventurers and expiree convicts, to load with undeserved wealth the very dregs and offscourings of European civilization, under the authority and with the acquiescence of the Government of these island I*,1 *, an import of 48,000,000 pounds of wool is in process of being annihilated. Lot us consider for a moment the co 3 t of capital at which the gold of Australia is produced. First there is tfie losh of the flocks. Next, there is the shipping which found employment in the importation of a bulky article, for which gold will be a most inadequate substitute. Then there is the capital invested in Leeds, Ilurttlerbfield, and the other great towns of the West Hiding, maiutaiuingapopulation and supporting a trade, both home and foreign, the very jeopardy of which is enough to strike the stoutest heart with dismay. All this we are to pay for the satisfaction of having a California of our own, and of governing in Downing-strect the remotest extremities of the earth. It is just that upon us as I well as our colonies should occasionally fall the weight of our inisgovernment, and in this instance the lesson seems likely to be as severe as it is well merited. There is no analogy between the case of Australia and that of California. In the latter country there was no accumulated capital to lose, no existing industry to destroy, and it was, possibly, right to leave the discovery of gold to be regulated by the opeiaiion of natural causes. But the lawless hands which 'appiopriate, on terms dictated by themselves, the mineral wealth of Mount Alexander, are undermining the foundations of British industry, and tearing up by the roots the occupation of the present and the fair promise of the j future. We ask, then, as we have a good right | to ask, for protection to the great clothing trade i of England, and the pastoral industry by which it is supported, not against foreign rivalry, but against the overpowering competition of our own Government, which flings the riches of a vast continent into the opposite scale, and bribes by premiums which cannot be resisted the desertion of the labour essential to its support. There is no time to be lost— something must be done, and that speedily, if we would save the threatened interests fiom the ruin which impends over them. The first and most obvious resource is a loan, to be advanced on the security of the Land Fund of Australia and the poor-rates of the United Kingdom of emigration. But emigration is not the only remedy, nor would it alone be adequate to the disorder Mount Alexander is doubtless not the only spot where riches may be had for the taking ; and in these vast territories, if the existing system of licensing continues, occupation more profitable than private service may be found for any conceivable number of emigrants. But the existing system must not be permitted to continue. It cannot be tolerated that the public property should thus be allowed to be plundered on such terms as the miner.* think fit to pay. It is indispensable that the executive Government should be armed with sufficient force to assert the supremacy of the law. That force it does not now possess, nor are the elements of it to be found in the colony. If it would be our duty to send troops to protect the colony from invasion, we are equally bound to shelter society from disorganization and capital from destruction. It will be said that it is impossible to do this. To us it appears still more impossible to leave interests of such vast magnitude to perish without an effort. Pay the troops employed in proportion to the revenue they collect, and give them every inducement to remain faithful, and we see no reason to despair ol' British soldiers doing their duty in this service as they have ever been found ready to do it in every other. At any rate, the experiment ought to be made. To do nothing leads to inevitable disaster ; an eflbrt to avert it may fail, but ought not on that account to be omitted. Lastly, complete power should be given to the local aiilhorilio i Id don! with the land without reference home. If* flic flocks of Australia wei c (lie proporty of small resident fanners woikitig for themselves on their own land, instead of large gnuicis avlio tend their flocks, bj lured servants the catastrophe which is now impending would be impossible. Jt may not yet be too lale to cflcct something in thi.s discretion, but cci tainly there is not a moment to be lost.