THE PASTORAL INTERESTS OF AUSTRALIA. [From the Times, May 12.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 741, 8 September 1852, Page 4

THE PASTORAL INTERESTS OF AUSTRALIA. [From the Times, May 12.]

While Ministers are dreaming of protection to agriculture, and devising terms tLe 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 threadbare fallacies, one of the greatest interestsof the country is in danger of perishing for want of protection, and no oue steps forward to say a word to 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 suslaiu the imminent and almost certain loss of the raw material of its staple manufacture ? Hitherto, with unaccountable apathy, those, the very existence of whose industry is imperilled by the gold discoveries in Australia, have remained in a state of quietude, very unusual to persons so clearsighted and so active, and have looked on' with torpid amazement, while ship after ship has arrived, fraught with fresh news of riches leading to poverty, and treasures sure to cause widespread 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. If, 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 its own affairs, even though such a step should necessitate attention to the internal concerns of our noble dominions in Australia. It has been the f leasure of this country, or rather of the Colonial-office, to retain in its own hands the management and consequent responsibility for the management of the waste lands in Australia. The local Government has no power to settle anything except under authority and by the direction of the central. In an emergency of an 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 flock's of Australia are on the verge of destruction, and that trade which supports so large a population in comfort asd 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 great Australian continent, suffers the riches of its boundless domains to be rifled at a nominal price by ail comer?, and presses down the proprietors of sheep by its own enormous and irresistible competition. The Colo-nial-office 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 those means it has forced 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 richesof a virgin continent. To make in 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 islands, an import of 48,000,000 pounds of wool is in process of being annihilated. Let us consider for a moment the cost of capital at which the gold of Australia is produced. First there is the loss 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, Huddersfield, and the other great towns of the West Riding, maintaining a population 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-street the remotest extremities of the earth. It is just that upon us as well as our colonies should occasionally fall the weight of our misgovernment, 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 operation of natural causes. But the lawless bands which appropriate on terras dic- | tated 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 future. We ask,' then, as we, have a good right to ask, for protection to the great clothing trade of England, and the pastoral industry by which, it is supported, not against foreign rivalry, but against the overpowering competition of our cwn Government, which flings the riches of a vast continent into the opposite scale, and bribei 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 from 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, for the' purposes of en igration. 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 emigtants. But the existing system must not be permitted to continue. It cannot be tolerated that tbe public property should thus be allowed to be plundered on such terms as. the miners 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 col.lect, and. give them every inducement to remain faithful, and we see no reason to despair of, British soldiers doing their .duty in this service as, .they have ever beeii found ready to do it in every , other. x At any rate; the 1 experiment ought to be made. To do nothing leads to ineviable disaster; an effort to avert it may fail, but ought not on that account to, be omitted. Lastly, complete power should be given to the local authorities to deal with the land without reference home. If the flocks of Australia were tbe property of small resident farmers working ■for themselves on their own land, instead of large graziers who tend their flocks by hired servants, tbe catastrophe- which is now impending would be impossible. It may not yet be too late to effect, something in this direction, but certainly there is not a moment to be lost.