New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4230, 10 October 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1874.

Thebe is very little real difference, so far as a country like England is concerned, between colonisation and emigration. If countries are to bo colonised, there must be a stream of emigration directed to them, or the work will prove a failure. This has been the experience pretty nearly all over the world. The French colonisation of Algiers cannot be considered a success. The deportation of a few thousand Communists to New Caledonia will not cause that island to be a flourishing French settlement. All these miscarriages may be set down very accurately to one cause. There has not been emigration from the Mother Country to the infant dependencies. In the case of a Colony being acquired by Great Britain, the very contrary has been the case. To the United States and Canada there has been an enormous amount of emigration, not only from Great Britain, but from many other countries in the Old World. So there has been to Australia and New Zealand, and so there will bo to such islands in the Pacific, as may be acknowledged to be British territory. Several of these Pacific groups nominally belong to the French, but they will never be colonised by that nation, for the reason we have given. This is not less a misfortune for the mother country than for the dependencies. To any colony, a man is worth just as much as it costs to introduce him. According to statists there are three periods in the lifetime of an individual. Until he is fifteen years of age ho is supported from the earnings of an adult; and he is, as a rule, supported out of either his own savings or those of other people after ho is sixty. Statistically speaking, if it costs £2O per annum to clothe and support a youth until he is fifteen years of age, and able to earn his own living, he is worth £3OO to any colony on his arrival in it, inasmuch as ho could not have been “ growed” for any less sum. Perhaps the argument might be employed that if he bo a gain of that amount to the country that receives him, he is an equivalent loss to the country from which he goes. This is not the case, for many reasons, one of the moat important of which is that by leaving an overcrowded population he makes

it better for those who remain. There is no denying the fact that population, in some portions of England, is overcrowded. If many thousands of persons could be removed from the East End of London, to a country where they could readily obtain employment, an incalculable amount of human misery would be avoided. If the Laborers’ Union, of which Mr. Holloway is the agent in New Zealand, could send 20,000 men, with their families, from the southern counties of England, the position of. the agricultural laborers left in their homes and habitations would be infinitely better than it now is. If there had been a constant outflow of emigrants, during the past twenty years, from Paris, there would have been no occasion to deport a few thousand Communists to New Caledonia.

There is another, and really a very statesmanlike way of viewing the subject of colonisation and emigration, that has recently found expression in the Imperial Parliament. Mr. Gladstone, alluding to the report of the Commissioners on the annexation of Piji, said it was “ one of the most chaotic public documents he had seen.” Mr. Lowther, the Under-Secre-tary for the Colonies, seemed to be quite equal to the occasion of replying to the ex-Premier, whoso ability and eloquence have so often and so worthily been extolled. He deprecated the idea that the colonisation, for which Great Britain has been so remarkable, was at an end. He considered that an abandonment of the principle would be but the precursor of national decay. He was not alarmed at the possibility existing that in the event of war the possession of the Colonies might involve additional burdens, for, said he, “Any power which thought fit to engage in a life and death struggle with us would not have to reckon merely with the thirty odd millions of the British Isles, hut with many other millions of Anglo-Saxons, who looked on the mother country with feelings of veneration and regard, and wore by no means indisposed to accept the duties and obligations which attached to them as members of a great Colonial Empire.” This may bo accepted as an authoritative statement of the Colonial policy of the Imperial Government, and it was endorsed by leading members of the Opposition, and others. Mr. Knatcliball Hugessen, Under-Secretary for the Colonies in the late Government, expressed great satisfaction at Mr. Lowther’s observations, and showed that he was entirely opposed to Mr. Gladstone’s opinion. Mr. Muudella, who is an influential member of the House, and was a firm supporter of Mr. Gladstone’s government, condemned the policy of the Liberals towards the Colonies, and blamed them very strongly for having permitted New Caledonia to be taken possession of by tlie French, and converted into a penal settlement. His speech was received with loud cheers, and Sir C. Dilke, who proposed that ‘‘ great caution should be used in approaching the subject of annexation,” could only get twenty-seven members to follow him into the lobby of the “ayes.” A proposition put forward that a Governor for the Fijis could be found for abous £I2OO per annum was almost scouted, and an opinion was expressed that not less than £4OOO should be offered to a man of ability and influence. If Fiji be annexed, and of this there can be little or no question, a fresh field will be opened out for the emigrants who annually desert Europe in such large numbers. It will be welcomed, because America, which has so long been a home for the overcrowded population of Europe, is no longer regarded with favor. It is calculated, by persons in a position to make an accurate estimate, that whereas the States had, previously to the year 1874, annually absorbed 250,000 immigrants, during 1874 they would not receive 100,000. During the first half of the year, 78,323 landed, against 148,482 during the same period in 1873, thus showing a decrease of 70,159. The greatest decline was in the receipts from Germany, and to this fact due prominence should be given. A German settler, if ho finds himself prospering, and he be in a thriving community, is not slow to act as an emigration agent. More, he remits a portion of his savings to his friends in order that they may come and share in the common prosperity in which he is a participator. When they arrive he takes them in charge and bridges over the difficulties that have to bo encountered by most settlers in a new country. The stream of German emigrants to America has not dried up because of want of material, but in consequence of the want of attraction in America. Testimony to this arrives in a variety of ways. A traveller recently wrote to the London Times cautioning men of education and ability from essaying life in New York. They would, said he, even if senior wranglers at College, be treated as outcasts. And ho warned commercials not to expect much better usage. If they were steady-going and honest they would be pushed to the wall in favor of persons possessed with Yankee acuteness. They would not have even the chance of earning a living. Nor did the traveller think that mechanics and working men stood a much better show. The truck system, so abominable in its results, rules in New York. Something of the fearful amount of bankruptcy that takes place every now and then in the States is well known ; and employes must suffer when these periods occur. A man is not safe whilst working for a public company, as recently 1700 men were discharged, in one day, from the Erie Railway. The miseries some Englishmen endure in New York can never be told. It is calculated that there were, in the middle of last summer, 20,000 immigrants there in a state of semi-starvation. Such facts must be present to the Imperial authorities, and, understanding them, we were not surprised to find the London Times recommending emigrants to ship for New Zealand. Polynesia would be similarly recommended if it were similarly governed, as there is a probability it may be. Some countries, says our great contemporary, are fated to acquire empire at the cost of much blood and treasure ; and others attain a peaceful supremacy. The German Empire has been recently extended, but at what cost 1 The Russian Empire has been stretched over Central Asia at the point of the bayonet and to the music of the rifle. The kingdom of Italy embraces Venice and Rome ; but only after hard fighting. Great Britain took possession of its Indian empire at small cost, and both Affghanistan and Beloochistan might be absorbed as readily as a finger could bo held up, if it were not considered desirable to allow the fierce mountaineers to form a natural buffer to the Cossacks of the Czar. As a matter of fact, India was taken possession of in the teeth of law after law, and resolve after resolve, that no further territory should be acquired. The same thing is happening in respect to Fiji. The British Government could not evade the responsibility of accepting the cession. It is a mission of the Anglo-Saxon race to colonise, and find a

home for emigrants from the Old World The policy of the Imperial and the New Zealand Governments is, we are glad to say, alike on the important subject of founding an Australasian and Polynesian branch of the Empire.