New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4519, 14 September 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.

North America does not seem to present many attractions for the overflow of population from Europe at the present time. The Agent-General of Canada warns the British people against emigrating to the Dominion, in consequence of the depressed state of trade ; and intelligence from the United States goes to show that emigration to Europe has set in on a scale of unparalleled magnitude. “ Four- “ teen hundred steerage passengers leav- “ ing New York in one day to return to “ Europe, is an event of no small signiti- “ cance,” writes the New York Times. “ Coupled with the estimate, based upon “ the immigration returns for the first “ five months of the current year, that “ our supply of immigrants will be more “ than 50,000 less than it was in 1874, it “assumes an importance of considerable “ magnitude. If the current of the “ laboring population should continue in “ the same direction, and maintain the “ same ratio, it will leave a very small “balance in our favor. Hitherto, for many years, immigration has been “ regarded as a source of much wealth, “ while it has certainly aided very “ materially to swell the census returns. “ But if the present condition of things “is to last, and there is no present “reason to think that it will not, this “ feature in our progress must change. “ We must learn to rely more upon the “ labor and the energies of the people “ already here, and to be less dependent “ upon supplies from Castle Garden.” The cause of this migration eastward across the ocean is the overcro tvding and competition in the Atlantic States, consequent upon the Protective policy adopted in their interest, and the generally improved condition of the working classes in Europe. We cannot, however, regard this labor movement as in itself either rational or necessary. The condition of the labor classes in the British Isles and continental Europe has been improved within the last five-and-twenty years, because the surplus population swarmed off to America and Australasia. The Western hemisphere was notably the refuge of the proletariat of Europe ; and if, instead of aggregating in the Atlantic States, they had pushed out over the great western basin of the Mississippi, they would have found ample verge and room enough for the exercise of their energies in every possible condition of life. There population is sparse ; there also the prospect of attaining to independence is certain, if a man has only perseverance, and exercises prudence and frugality. But instead of spreading out over the Western States, and forming part of the producers, emigrants from Europe usually endeavored to obtain a footing where they landed, thereby adding immensely to the evils of undue competition, aggravated as these were by the repressive policy of Protection. Capital and labor cannot combine to mutual advantage in the United States. The law prevents that fusion of interests essential to the sound economic progress of the people. Class interests have been created, and the whole body-politic has been ground down to maintain them. A few manufacturers have been enriched ; “rings” have been formed, under cover of law, to plunder the people ; and the natural result has followed. Labor is withdrawn from the country, fourteen hundred steerage passengers embarking in one day at New York for Europe. Should this drain continue, and at the same time immigration to iho United States fall off proportionately, as it is likely to do, tho world will very soon see the ruinous effects of the Moreilx. tariff, on its economic side, having already witnessed it on its political side, as the inducing cause to the great civil war of which North America was the theatre not many years since, and which is certain to bring about a' social war should it bo persevered in. It was the magnitude of tho emigration to the United States which prevented tho Protective tariff breaking down utterly long ago. And it may be some years before such a check be given to the increase of population, and tho corresponding depression of trade of all kinds, as shall cause the intelligence of the United States, backed by the industrial classes, to revolt against the social tyranny of the tariff. Meanwhile, the signs of tho times should not be without warning to us in New Zealand,

more especially as wo have, nearer home, an example of the check which a Protective tariff may give to a country. Victoria is a case in point. That colony had within it all the elements of material development and political stability. But it sacrificed everything to a narrow and bigoted policy of isolation. Its population is certainly a third less than it would have been if it had continued in the path it pursued up to 1865. New South Wales, on the other hand, with an infinitely worse land law, with a less educated and progressive population, with class interests and class prejudices to which Victoria was a stranger, by simply pursuing a liberal fiscal policy, is rapidly taking the lead on the Australian mainland. Should these two colonies continue their respective policies for the next ten years, unless some unlocked for discovery of gold takes place to disturb the ordinary operations of trade and manufactures, New South Wales will be by far the richer and more populous State ; and within the same space of time, the United States will be about ripe for disruption, this time, however, to be brought about by the Western States, which are plundered by law for the agrandisement of the communities on the Atlantic slope. Now, in view of these facts, what is the paramount duty of New Zealand statesmen ? It is to promote immigration by every legitimate means, to attach the people to the soil by a liberal land law, and to stimulate the investment of capital in the cultivation of the soil and industrial pursuits generally, by an equitable system of taxation. We are aware that these objects are not easy of accomplishment. The conflicting land laws of the colony, and provincial jealousy, stand in the way of uniform administration of the waste lands in the interest of colonisation, just as they stand in the way of an equalisation of taxation for the same end. But the time has fully come when our public men must look at the country as a whole, and not legislate in the interest of particular sections. Colonial finance does not admit of a continuance of such a system. The country has undertaken great responsibilities ; it has corresponding duties to perform; and these duties we look to the General Assembly to recognise, and enable the Government to discharge efficiently. The political struggle in which we find ourselves involved, is simply the result of an apprehension, by the majority, of the great fact we have just stated ; and its solution, we trust, will save New Zealand from a crisis, the severity and extent of which it is now impossible to forecast.