AN ESSAY ON NEW SOUTH WALES*

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4904, 9 December 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN ESSAY ON NEW SOUTH WALES*

Mr. G. H. Reid, the author of the above essay, is no mere beginner in the path of litera- i ture. In his free trade essays he showed what he was capable of doing, and although his present subject is a large one, he has done it complete justice, and fully maintained his previous reputation. In his preface Mr. Reid points out broadly what the policy of the mother colony should be, as follows :—" The supreme anxiety of New South Wales is for men. The chief articles of her export trade are raw materials, which find ready markets. But if she could only divert to these shores a stream of industrious emigrants, who would scarcely be missed at Home, the fertility it would impart to. Australian enterprise would soon disperse its fruits to every quarter of the globe. The idea that the commercial interests of communities are naturally opposed, and that it is better to sell abroad for cash than for goods, is not yet quite laughed out of credit, but most reflective minds see the doctrine to be a foolish one, and that it has crippled commerce, to the injury of trade everywhere. As men become more enlightened they will perceive national development, wherever it occurs, to be a universal benefit; for the advance of one territory to the higher, leaves room for others, in the lower forms of industry. The expansion of the manufactures of Great Britain, so discountenanced in the United States, has yet caused the prairies of the West to blossom with harvests, and when America begins to rival England in commerce she will speed the plough over the broad acres of Australia." This is in complete harmony with the policy initiated by Sir Julius Vogel in New Zealand, and by providing for a steady influx of population under the immigration scheme tve have carried out the sound political economy advocated by men of statesmanlike mind, like Mr. Reid. We should be sorry to depreciate the efforts made by the mother colony in this direction, but certainly must express the conviction that the youngest of the olive branches has far outstripped parent, brothers, and sisters in appreciating the great advances which may be made by the judicious introduction of population into a young country. As showing the superiority of the policy of New South Wales over Victoria, so far as immigration is concerned, it will be seen by reference to Mr. Reid's figures and the Victorian blue books, that the population of New South Wales increased from 502,861 in 1870, to 606,652, about 20J per cent., while that of Victoria, in the same period, rose from 726,599 t0'823,449, only 13 per cent. The time of talcing the census in New Zealand differs from that in the two colonies jast named ; but if we take the New Zealand population, as shown by the census of 1871, viz., 256,260, and that of 1874, viz., 299,385, and strike an average for five years, we find that the increase in New Zealand amounts to 27J per cent.; in other words, that New Zealand is just as superior to New South Wales in its liberal immigration policy as that colony is to Victoria. Mr. Reid then deals with revenue, exports, shipping, land sales, &c, in each case shewing a superiority; and on another occasion we hope to be able to furnish him with figures which, like his own, being derived from official sources, "can't lie," and will show that the mother colony cannot take to herself the credit of having made the most material progress, during the last five years, of all the colonies in the Australias. The masterly manner in which Mr. Reid has grouped his figures and condensed so much valuable matter in the small space of 170 pages must make a very strong impression in favor of New South Wales amongst the readers of his essay in England. Even to those who are well acquainted with the history and progress of the mother colony, there will be a surprise when they come to read over and digest Mr. Reid's facts. His comparison of the Australian Colonies with the dominion* of Canada and the United States is perhaps one of his most effective hits, showing an increase during the last 30 years in the colonies of 834 per cent., in the dominion 660 per cent., and in the United States only 126 per cent. SpeakiDg of the loyalty of the Australians Mr. Reid says :—" Instance does not seem to lessen or growth impair the loyalty of the Australian populations to the mother country. But it must not be supposed they cling to her from a sense of weakness or a want of spirit. Let those who doubt their vigor bestow a glance upon their achievements. Within forty years the colonists, with the concurrence of the Imperial Government, have fringed this continent with infant States already able to exercise the powers of elaborate political systems, and sustaining over their vast territories forms of government which blend the freest principles of the American with the most venerable safeguards of the British Constitution." Mr. Reid then goes on to remind us that 70,000,000 head of live stock are raised on Australian pastures, nearly 5,000,000 acres of land are under cultivation, 26,000 miles of telegraph in operation, 2000 miles of railway open for traffic, and many lines in progress. These are signs of such a prosperity as bodes well for the future, and although New South Wales is in one sense only " sweet sixteen," yet, if we look upon her as the nurse of the other Australian colonies, she is really 88. He then goes on to say that " for fifty years of her existence New South Wales was Australia. All the celebrated expeditions of Bass and Flinders by sea, Hume, Sturt, Mitchell, Strzeiecki, Leichhardt, and Kennedy by land, started from Sydney, and to Sydney they retraced their steps. In that city were fought those contests for the political rights of Englishmen, which have made the name of Wentworth an honored one. In 1851, the now great colony of Victoria was formed out of the district of Port Phillip. In 1859, we lost on the north the splendid province of Queensland. So, territoriallj speaking, the colony we have to describe is not that of 1788 or 1851, but that of 1860. Those who imagine that the extent and resources of New South Wales were dwarfed by these separations have a vague idea of the area and natural advantages the colony still possesses." As showing the difference of policy between Now South Wales and Victoria, which has resulted so much in favor of the former, we will again quote Mr. Reid's own words:—" Differing oh most other points, our Parliaments have always agreed that the best training lormanufac turing industry is free competition, and its best suppart that earned by the sweat of its own brow. We have the sense to perceive that in trade, as in politics, a free 1b the only healthy condition, and that to make industry the creature of legislation is to unnerve and degrade "it." Again, speaking of free trade, he goes on to say: •< Protection is an experiment for which the public have to pay dear, but those who embark their capital in the speculation may lose most in the end. A recent agitation in. Victoria affords a pointed illustration. A proposal made for the reduction of some protective duties from 20 to 15 per cent., excited quite a panic amongst the local manufacturers.* They declared this "concession would ruin them, and throw their workmen out of * employment. These piteous appeals must have been, either

"An Essay on New South Wales, the Mother Colony of the Australia," by G. H. Rold. Sydney; Thomas Eiehaids.

genuine or simulated. If the former, they show how soon men of spirit who learn to lean on supports of the State can descend to the importunity of mendicancy ; if the latter, how soon they acquire its hypocrisy. In New South Wales, where manufacturers have always bad to fight their own battles, the repeal in 1573 of 5 per cent, ad valorem duties, imposed in 1865 for revenue purposes, did not suggest a single remonstrance from them. Not habituated to dependence, their spirit was as sound as their industries. In visiting lately some of the most extensive workshops in Sydney, we weie pleased to meet with men who, against the competition of the whole world, had worked their way up to the control of establishments employing hundreds of hands, and who concurred in the declaration, 'We want no protection.' Such men are an honor to their country. They are proofs of the vigor which freedom always develops in the AngloSaxon, and enable us to look forward with a lighter heart to the future of this colony, blessed as it is with all the material elements which enterprise such as theirs can. transform into national greatness." Altogether Mr. Reid's work is worthy of careful perusal by statesman and politician, and to the ordinarily intelligent reader it presents many features of interest. Doubtless it will have a large and extensive circulation throughput Australia ; and we are sure that in New Zealand it will meet with no small share of public patronage. It is well got up, and contains a capital map of the colony, showing railways and postal roads, with their proposed extensions, telegraph lines, boundaries of pastoral districts, &c, and a splendid birdseye view of Sydney harbor. Mr. Reid has written his essay in a loving spirit of the land of his adoption ; and although we cannot agree with his last sentence, we will quote his concluding paragraph,as showing the patriotism which pervades the whole work:— '. "We have concluded our task, which has been a pleasant one. We think it would be difficult to examine attentive'y the condition, or conjecture the prospects, of New South Wales without a glow of satisfaction. There is so much of plenty and happiness amongst all classes of the population, and the elements which can yield the like blessings to millions more are so rife, that the most depressing disposition can create no anxiety as to the future. The colony is pre-eminent in pastoral wealth ; has areas large as kingdoms suitable for the leading branches of husbandry ; and slight examination has brought to light untold treasures of" coal, iron, gold, copper, and tin, to assure grandeur in those riper forms o£ industry to which her resources hasten our enterprise. A magnificent seaport shelters her growing fleets and gives her the command of the Pacific. Blessed with the wealth o£ every favored zone there does not seem to be any height of national development to which this country may not aspire. If we turn to the social fabric, the eyes rests upon a community young yet conservative, pushing yet generous, free yet orderly. Living under the political system which has made England illustrious, our people have adopted also the commercial policy which has helped to make her prosperous and powerful. If they strive, besides, to emulate the virtues of the British character, New South Wales may soon become the Queen of the South, with none to dispute her right to wear her crown."

These are not the words of a mere writer, but those of a man who feels his heart and soul in his work, and we can commend the book on this ground, as well as for its masterly style and comprehensive grasp of the whole subject with which it purports to deal.