[communicated.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 289, 6 May 1848, Page 2

[communicated.]

The Surface of the Earth is the Source of am. Wealth. — Everything produced has its origin in the agency of food raised from

the soil, and taken as the sustenance of life by the labourer to support him, while he is giving birth to any kind of product. To this there is no sound logical exception ; because, even though the ocean may be said to afford wealth in a variety of forms, "arid the bowels of the earth may yield it in numerous grades, all the means employed to give either of these departments value, must have their origin in labour reared and sustained by food derived from the soil. The aboriginal native, when he launches his canoe on a fishing cruise, is equipped for that undertaking through means derived from the active energy of the surface of the earth. This it was which, by its produce, sustained his life, and concentrated his strength while he formed his hooks, his lines, his nets, and his frail and primitive boat. Should he also be a cultivator of the soil, some of its spontaneous products must have supported him during the operations carried on for deriving the better kind of food which he is aiming at rearing by the efforts of his labour. If any fortunate chance should have guided him to the discovery and application of any of the metallic bodies for giving strength and durability to his materials, the product ef the soil must in this case also have been the immediate cause that furnished him with the strength and energy for applying them. Even in the adaptation of other hard materials as substitutes for the metallic bodies, the same necessity arises, excepting only in a greater degree ; and the consumption of the products of the earth, during the performance of the labour required for working them, must, in like manner, be viewed as the sustaining cause of the fitness and utility produced. During the time spent in the performance of any operation conducted by the hand and the mind of man, the earth lends her aid by fructifying and ripening the edible roots and grain which he has deposited for that purpose. Having by the assistance of the intelligence which he possesses prepared the soil and sown the seed, the cultivator views with satisfaction and delight the process of increase which is gradually but surely and successfully going forward, by the operation of natural causes which he can fully appreciate, but not exactly comprehend. According to the amount of intelligence and industry spent upon the cultivation of the soil, — all other circumstances corresponding, — so will the sum of wealth to be realized disclose itself. If the intelligence and industry, or either of them, should be deficient, of course the increase will take place in a like proportion. There are, however, other causes operating to promote or retard the accumulation, such as good or bad seasons, good or bad government, and peace or war. Supposing an area of surface to be under cultivation sufficient for raising an average supply of food for all mankind during unfavourable seasons and times of trouble, and that a transition should take place establishing the reverse,— that is, favourable seasons, and times of peace ; — it is clear that in the latter case a much greater quantity of food would be raised than had previously been in demand by the whole mass of consumers. By a continuance of such a state of things it is evident that a vast increase of wealth would thus arise from the great accumulation of valuable and available produce. From this cause the following consequences would result. The cultivator would benefit by being enabled to take more to his own share, for any purpose through which that share might be converted into stock, by a variety of modes well understood and every day put in practice ; and would be enabled to give more to others, in exchange for any of the products of their labour, that he might require for his own particular purpose. "The additional quantity, which the cultivator could give to others, would, in like manner, enable them to produce more of their peculiar products, by which means the food grower would eventually obtain more from them in return ; — and thus a reciprocal benefit would arise from the additional increase in the produce of the soil, more or less, to the whole mass of the human race. This is the true origin of wealth. The excess of produce over the wants of the husbandman enables others to fabricate clothing and furniture, and construct houses for comfort and convenience, and to build bridges and ships, and make roads and carriages for transit, and to supply the world with all those permanent benefits, — none of which could possibly exist in the absence of a surplus of the consumable* products raised by the industry and intelligence of the cultivator of the earth. ' * Here it is manifest that no additional amount of labour or outlay is contemplated when the increased supply of food is supposed to be raised during periods of protection to the cultivator combined with the influence of seasons favourable to the process of vegei tation, — so that the additional quantity r«U

aed is necessarily the result of causes wholly | independent of the husbandman as an ope"v£St this light the surface of the carth Tclearly understood to be the only vehicle of growth and increase, the only geneSff medium which gives out abundant supplies of support without the aid of any amount of labour beyond a suitable preparation and attention, the only prolific receptacle which silently and unconsciously appropriates to its purposes the dews and the light of heaven, and the cognate powers and influences of increase for aiding in the accumulation of wealth, all which causes nourish and stimulate independently of the care, and unguided by the directing aid of man. These are the active but silent causes of the prosperity of empires, and the sources out of which have arisen the greatness, the grandeur, and — more than all — the homely and individual comforts of every happy people ; and, in like manner, the reverse agencies have given rise to the opposite results of destruction, desolation, and famine ; — because man has not been permitted to labour, and the earth has not been prepared to exert the efficacious means requisite for a beneficial increase. W.