SMALL FARMS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 43, 18 November 1871, Page 11

SMALL FARMS.

In our last issue we endeavored to show that in proportion to the facilities offered to intending immigrants for their acquisition of small freeholds, on easy terms, so in proportion, other things being equal, would be the inducements held out to them to come to this colony in preference to any other emigration field, and for them to become permanent settlers here after their arrival. These are both important points, but we are inclined to think that the last is the one entitled to most weight; and more particularly is this the case when the immigration is conducted partly, or chiefly, at the cost of the colony. Free passages, and high wages, will probably be found quite sufficient to induce any number of restless men to come to the country ; but it is not out of this class permanent settlers are made, and yet they constitute probably the large majority of the emigrating classes. Those who have not given their attention to the subject would be astonished at the numbers who, after emigrating to some distant countiy, take the first opportunity of leaving it again. At certain seasons of the year, the ships, which leave New York for Liverpool, carry more steerage passengers for Great Britain and Ireland than the ships which leave Liverpool for New York

convey to North America. From personal observations and experience, we know that this was the case formerly, and we have every reason to believe that this is the case now. Everybody knows that a very considerable proportion of the immigrants who have arrived in this province have again left it; and the same thing has no doubt occurred in every other province in New Zealand. Hence, when th 6 passages of immigrants are paid partly or chiefly by the colony, it is not only necessary to offer inducements to immigration, but inducements to settlement. There are in fact two classes of emigrants, both of which are an advantage to shippers, and to immigration agents, but only one of which is of any advantage to the colony. The first of these classes may be briefly described as men who are more anxious to abandon their native country than to settle in a new one; and the second of these classes consists of those who are anxious to better their condition and prospects in life, and who emigrate for that primaryobject. It is out of this latter class only permanent settlers are made. We, however, may rest assured that men of this class will not break up their present homes without they see a prospect of acquiring new and belter ones in the country they are invited to go to. Show them that they can become proprietors of small farms, on better terms and conditions than any other colony offers, and they will not only emigrate themselves, but probably induce others having small capitals, to follow their example. It was by such inducements, in spite of Kaffir wars, an African sun, bar harbors, and wild beasts, that Natal was colonised. So much land was granted to every immigrant who paid his own passage ; and, as at Auckland, this was found sufficient to induce large numbers of people to go to the country, though it was not sufficient to induce even a moiety of them to remain in it long after their arrival. Hard barren soil, in inaccessible positions, is not worth cultivating anywhere ; and, we repeat, that our object should not be so much to induce people to immigrate to the colony, as to encourage settlement. There is no better means than the small farm system for accomplishing this object.

But the small farm system, though it must prove very attractive to intending immigrants, though it offers to working settlers permanent homes, and though it affords the cheapest means of colonising the country, is, independently of these considerations, 1 he system best adapted to meet the circumstances, to answer the requirements, and to develop the agricultural resources of the colony. Unlike the much vaunted system under which land is sold on deferred payments, and which has proved a failure in almost every country in which it has been tried, and inflicted at the same time untold misery on many of its most innocent victims, the small farm system has been eminently successful wherever it has been adopted, and would have proved still more successful had greater facilities been afforded for its extension, development, and progress. Small farms in this country vary from forty to two hundred acres ; but in parts of Belgium and France they do not exceed five acres Perhaps ten acres of bush land in New Zealand is quite as much as a man without any capital but his muscles can profitably manage ; but it would be always advantageous in such cases for him to have a right of commonage, wherever pract cable, over the open land adjoining, which, for that purpose, should he reserved from sale until the settlement of the bush land had tended to enhance its value. This probably could not have been done at the Pahautanui small farm settlement; but it could have been done at Greytown and Carterton ; and had it been done it would have proved a great boon to the settlers in those townships, while the land thus reserved as commonage would have realised at this time, instead of 10s, insome cases, £lO an acre. Tnstead of £IOO,OOO, it would have been better to have, borrowed ten times the amount, for the purpose of making roads and bridges, than that the land should have been disposed of in the way it has been, for the purpose of raising funds for these professed objects. The history of the lands legislation of this province has yet to be written. We may remark

here, that had as much desire been shown to settle, as to alienate the public estate, the province would be now occupying a very different position to that which it does at present. Our pioneer settlers, instead of being, in the majority of cases, hopelessly embarrassed, would be the real owners of their beautiful homesteads, and in the occupation, at a fair rental, of the adjoining pastoral country; a large and increasing revenue would be flowing annually into the Provincial Treasury ; the money now being paid ruinously in interest, would be expended in grassing, fencing, and draining the freeholds of the sheep farmers ; and instead of three 01 foui, there would be three or four dozen flourishing small farm settlements. We have not as yet seen the Wellington Special Settlements Act, as it was finaliv passed by the General Assembly, hut if it affords facilities for the a colli sition of small freeholds, on easy terms, in the vicinity of the proposed railways and public works, we have not the slightest doubt that more people will be induced to settle jn the province during the next three years than there have been induced to settle in it during the thirty preceding years. As the principal duty of the Provincial Governments lias been assumed to be the colonisation of the country, it would be well to discover how many out of the 2d,000 inhabitants of this province were introduced by this colonising agency par excellence. All authorities acknowledge that the fact of the ownership of land being vested in him who cultivates, it develops in the man himself very valuable quali ties, frugality, foresight, industry, economy, and, above all, that sentiment of independence which is so dear to an Englishman, and which probably more than any other prompts him to abandon his native country and found for himself a new home even in a wilderness. Nor is it by any means proved that large farms are more productive than small ones, or that in a new country they can be more profitably cultivated. It is true that the system of small holdings excludes, to a certain extent, the adoption of scientific methods, and the possession of costly machinery; but probably other methods which the small farmer only can employ may prove equally as effective, and machinery can generally be hired when required. Nor should it be forgotten that small holdings render unnecessary the employment of hired labor, the high price of which in a new country prevents bush land and large farms being cultivated at a profit. Were it absolutely necessary that the whole available land of the country should be divided either into very large or very small holdings, we think that the balance of the advantages would be found on the side of the.latter Put there is no such necessity. Judging from the present state of England, with regard to this subject, there is more danger of large estates absorbing small ones than of the former being too minutely sub-divided. The question, however, which we are at present concerned with, is, which of the two systems is best adapted for securing the successful colonisation of a country like New Zealand? It appears to us that the small farm system is beyond all doubt the best adapted for this purpose, as well for the reasons already given, as for others to which we have not at present time to refer to.

We arc not unmindful that a community of small farmeis, each culti\atiiig his own plot of land, woiking bald, and probably faring haider, is not, on the whole, a pleasing spectacle. Such a community enjoys many.benefits and advantages over a community consisting chiefly of hired laborers ; but there is no necessity why communities should consist exclusively of eithei. In the present state of the colony and of colonization, that community is most fuvoiably circumstanced which is composed of all classes, and where there is not, either in point of wealth or numbeis, too great a preponderance of one class over the other. It has been remarked that ignorance, combined with self-con-ceit a coarse mind and rude manners, are’natural to .those' whose lives are absorbed by purely manual labor, and who are not united by any bond derived from social relations to the classes that have leisure and means to cultivate their intelligence. Peasant proprietors, not being acquainted with persons supe-

rior to themselves, form their ideas of the beautiful and the great from the habits which are familiar to them, and conceive a stupid aversion for practices different from their own. But is not this also the case with laborers generally, and more particularly laborers for hire? It is certainly not confined to those who labor for themselves. Still we are aware that it is not only probable, but unfortunately quite certain, that small farmers, as well as those who have risen to be large ones, do become too much absorbed in their own pursuits to take an intelligent interest in what is going on around them, or indeed to take any interest at all in any affairs but what they regard as exclusively their own. Narrow-minded, selfish, full of prejudice, and domineering, both in habits and disposition, they are the least tolerant portion of the community, the most conservative in their tendencies, the least liberal in their sentiments, and the greatest opponents of political, social, and intellectual progress. These great evils, however, will not be remedied by reducing the present proprietor to the condition of a hired laborer. Nor in New Zealand is he in point of intelligence, liberality, and public spiiit so far inferior to his more wealthy neighbor. ITe certainly as a rule is not so much inferior now, but is there not danger of his becoming so ? Is the “ struggle for existence” on a hush farm one calculated to make a good citizen, or a happy man? But then, is not the bush farmer as much likely to become both, as the day laborer is? The evils here indicated will not be remedied by reducing the small farmer to the condition of a hired laborer; but they might be removed, if means were taken to Cultivate bis intellect, elevate his taste, and thus open to him other sources of enjoyment besides those which he possesses at present. Ihe men of wealth and leisure may see many drawbacks in the small farm system, but in the eyes of the struggling laborer in the mother country, desiring to immigrate, in order to better.his condition, it possesses irresistible attractions, a fact which the Government should not ignore.