MR. HAMILTON’S PAPER ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5003, 6 April 1877, Page 3

MR. HAMILTON’S PAPER ON NEW ZEALAND.

(From the Home News.) A very interesting paper on New Zealand was read by Mr. A. Hamilton, a Fellow of the Society, to a crowded meeting of the Statistical Society, which, as our colonial readers are probably aware, is one of the most important and influential of the learned societies of Great Britain. We give below some extracts from Mr. Hamilton’s paper, also a precis of a speech made by Sir Julius Vogel, who followed Mr. Hamilton at the request of the chairman, Mr. Heywood, F.R.S. A very animated and interesting discussion ensued. Sir James Fergusson spoke at some length. We regret we are not able to give his speech in this issue. All the speakers seemed to vie with each other in the expression of their belief in the capabilities, resources, and future of the colony. On this paper the Fall Mall Gazette remarks as follows :—“ The paper on the economic progress of New Zealand which Mr. Archibald Hamilton has just read before the Statistical Society conveyed pleasant and on the whole very encouraging information about that colony. It seems _ but the other day that the colonists were waging by no means an unequal war upon the Maoris—a war that became chronic in 1860, lasting with some intervals down to 1870, about which year hostilities gradually but finally died out. In 1863 the colonists, under irresistible pressure from the Home Government, ‘ reluctantly undertook the management of the Maoris, and have conducted their affairs ever since.’ The colonists certainly justified the policy of the Imperial Government. They raised a force of from 2000 to 3000 men especially trained for the

peculiar tactics, of Maori fighting, and with friendly native levies successfully ended the war, which, with some intervals, had continued seven years. After 1870 the war degenerated into a hunt after the rebel chiefs; but to meet the cost of the war the Colonial Government decided to raise a loan of £1,500,000, but for which they failed to obtain the sanction of the Home Government, who, however, after a deplorable amount of haggling, guaranteed one of £1,000,000, Then the colonists, finding it easier to employ the more friendly Maoris than to fight them, set some to make roads, employed others as an Armed Constabulary, aud occasionally, from prudential motives, purchased land of the natives. , Peace, says Mr. Hamilton, ‘is now so firmly established that in parts where little more than ten years ago a powerful military force could penetrate only with the utmost difficulty and danger, mail coaches now run regularly across the North Island in various directions with as jmuch safety as the amateur teams which ply in summer between Piccadilly and Windsor.’ Altogether, the expenditure of New Zealand between 1863 and midsummer, 1876, for native defence purposes has amounted to £6,633,000, of which more than £4,600,000 has been raised on loans. On June 30 last the colonial debt was £19,543,000, inclusive of £BOB,OOO of floating liabilities—the annual charge payable in respect of the total now being £1,056,000. Mr. Hamilton regards the population as equal to about 400,000 Europeans ; that, of course, is independent of the Maori element :—Europeans, 391,856; Chinese, 4800 ; Maoris, 45,470 ; total, 422,126. Beyond the expenditure for, defence upwards of £9,250,000 has been laid but on a variety of remunerative objects— i.e., on railways, £6,198,000 ; immigration, £1,113,000 ; roads and bridges, £700,000 ; purchase of laud, £445,000 ; public buildings, £299,000 ; water races to develop mines, £281,000 ; telegraphs, £228,000.

“Mr. Hamilton has no difficulty in establishing his assertion that the working classes ‘ are mnch better off than at Home, as the wages are higher in the colony, while the cost of provisions is less.’ In support of this we have two tables in the appendix, one of wages, the other of the cost of provisions, to which we must refer the, reader, pausing a moment to say that artizans’ wages range between 7s. and 10s. 6d. a day, and that beef is 4Jd. and mutton 3d. a pound, salt butter ’ lOd. a pound, and milk 4d. a quart. These advantages, judging by the increase of immigrants, are more appreciated of late. In 1870 the immigration was of 9124 persons; by 1874 it had risen to 43,965, aud by 1875 to 31,737 per annum. The exponents of the material prosperity of New Zealand are emphatic. In 1873 there were 145 miles of railway open; in 1875 there were 542 miles at work. In 1866 the receipt from telegraphic messages was£9lls; in 1875 it was £74,420,0r more than eight times as much as it was ten years earlier. In 1875 the messages sent were close upon a million. The live stock is increasing fast; in seven years the sheep had increased by 39 per cent., the number in <1874 being 11,657,000. The exports of wool, valued in 1866 at £1,354,000, rose in 1875 to £3,398,000. The exports of New Zealand produce generally during the ten years ending with 1875 present a curious contrast. In 1866 the gold sent thence was 42,845,000 ; by the close of the decade it had fallen to £1,408,000; whereas all other articles had risen from £1,552,000 to £4,068,000 : there -was hence a resultant increase of £1,079,000. Mr. Hamilton mistrusts the statistics of imports for the purposes of inference, because of the recent shipment of railway plant and material. The value of imports in 1866 was £5,895,000, and in 1875 they were £8,029,000 all told. The Crown lands were originally 47,000,000 acres —13,000,000 acres have been sold or otherwise appropriated, and 34,000,000 acres are ‘on hand ’ —that is to say, there is an area to be disposed of which is considerably in excess of the whole area of England. In 1875 the Government sold 318,681 acres for £448,697 ; these were put up in town, suburban, and country lots—the last description averaged from ten shillings to forty shillings per acre. The land under cultivation in 1876 was 2.377.000 acres, not counting in 146,000 acres ‘ broken up ’ in that year preparatory to use--286,700 acres were under grain crops, and 2.091.000 acres under green crops, permanent pasturage, and bare fallow. The cultivated area of New Zealand has trebled during the last seven years. This acreage amounted in 1869 to 809,000, and in 1876 to 2,426,000, inclusive in the earlier of 96,000, and in the latter of 146,000 ‘ broken up ’ acres. We have purposely limited ourselves to showing from Mr. Hamilton’s full and suggestive pages the material progress of the colony. The fiscal policy of New Zealand comes to a certain degree under the writer’s censure. Mr. Hamilton, alluding to the rapidity with which New Zealand brought loans upon the market, is of opinion that the Government of the colony ‘ must moderate their expenditure, even upon works of the greatest ultimate advantage to that country, and not suffer their zeal for developing its resources to outrun their power of borrowing on fair terms in the London money market.’ ”

Sir Julius Vogel (in response to a request from the President that he would open the discussion) said he was sure that every .one who was connected with New Zealand would feel indebted to Mr. Hamilton for the able paper he had just read. He was glad to be allowed to make a few remarks about it. It was not until 1869 that the soldiers were actually taken away from the colony, although since 1863 such' a step' was ■ threatened. At the time of the removal native affairs were very gloomy, and the Government viewed with alarm the determination to carry it into effect. Since then native affairs have occupied much attention, and at times occasioned very great anxiety. No doubt the Public Works policy bad materially aided in reconciling the natives to European rule, but to Sir Donald McLean’s patience, immense personal influence, and exquisite tact, was, in his (Sir J. Vogel’s) opinion, mainly to be attributed the fact that for the first time, in . the history of the colony native affairs had ceased to be the all absorbing subject, and leisure and freedom were afforded to deal with questions of colonisation. He much regretted the reference Mr. Hamilton had made to the provinces.. Besides that, he recognised the good old maxim de mortuis nil nisi honum. It was far from the case that they were responsible in the way Mr. Hamilton supposed for the railways being carried out simultaneously from several points. Any other plan would have defeated its own ends.. Supposing, as Mr. Hamilton thought desirable, only one rail-; way at a time was to be made, the commercial, advantages would have pointed to the railway from the Bluff to Christchurch. But if this had been the only railway, instead of ending! in settling the North Island, the effects of the! policy would have been to drain it of popula-! tion. The provinces had done good work in the past, and although the need for their existence ceased to be, their services should; not be forgotten. Now that the abolition was completed it was gratifying to think that the organic change in the Constitu-. tion had not been made without much argument and consideration. To have lightly* changed the Constitution would have shown that it had not deeply sunk into the hearts of; the people. Ho could not admit the justice of all Mr. Hamilton’s comparisons. To his mind a comparison of the debt thrown away upon war purposes with the debt incurred for large public reproductive works had no meaning. If he attached importance to the figures, he might point out that in including the lastissued loan in the amount negotiated up to the end ’of June, Mr. Hamilton had omitted to bear in mind that at least a half-million of it, besides the £BOO,OOO guaranteed debentures, should not have been included as expended. But the statement of indebtedness per head had' no meaning unless' it was considered in reference to the objects of the expenditure and the ability of the population to pay it. Light taxation might press on some communities far more oppressively than heavy taxation on others. ’■ The quotations from day to day of the Stock Exchange were not oriterions -,of value, hut of the amount'of stock in the hapds of wholesale dealers. ‘AsVmatter of fact, all the loansof the Constitutional colonies were undeniably secured. They were first charges on the revenue. Neither the Governor, nor the Audit

Department would allow the annual votes to be defrayed until the permanent charges were paid. Besides, not only were the unsold lands security, but the sold lands could be reached by taxation. Immigration was the most profitable work a colony could engage in, as long as it retained its immigrants. This was more than done in New Zealand, for the excess of arrivals over departures for the four years ending 1875 was 11,400 more than the total number of assisted immigrants. The total excess was 77,000, of whom 65,600 were assisted. Thus they had more than retained their population. The speaker then stated that by an elaborate calculation a German philosopher arrived at the conclusion that an immigrant aged twenty was worth £2OO. He (the speaker) thought this an under estimate ; but it was difficult to find any principle on which to base an estimate. The policy of public works was not to provide work to immigrants for the mere sake of keeping them, but to enter upon such works as would enlarge the scope of private enterprise by giving a market to the produce of land hitherto cut off from communication. They hardly conceived what the value of the land was, or they would not doubt the policy of opening it up. The following data had been given to him by colonists at present in this country:— 2094 acres of land were purchased about 1871 at £2 an acre—when a railway was not opened within eighteen miles. The land was sold in 1876 in thirty-five lots at an average per acre of £9 os. 6d. The railway then ran past it. 4774 acres were bought in June, 1878, at £2—about 10s. an acre was spent on it. It was sold in July, 1876, at £5 ss. per acre. Three months after the purchase nearly every acre was ploughed. There were twenty double-furrowed ploughs at work. Railway not within sixty miles when purchased. When sold open within eight miles.

6000 acres within sixteen miles of Timaru let to contractors for one crop (the land being in its natural state) yield fifty and fifty-five bushels of wheat per acre—this wheat, if sold by the contractors early in the season, that is, shortly after harvest, would have brought 3s. 3d. and 3s. 9d. per bushel in Timaru. As the year went on, prices rose, and by last advices, wheat being scarce, was selling at ss. and ss. 3d., but this price may be considered exceptional. Farmers, as a rule, may calculate upon receiving 3s. 3d. and 3s. 6d. immediately after harvest in such districts as Timaru ; in the Oamaru district, from its proximity to Dunedin and a more populous district, prices rule about 6s. per bushel above Timaru.

The contractors in the Timaru district' have the land for one crop, according to situation of land. Some they get rent free, and pay, in some cases, ss. and 10s. and 15s. per acre. The landlord fences' the land, and provides grass seeds where grass is sown with the wheat. The cost of producing wheat, say from breaking up of the land to delivery of wheat at a port, is about £4’per acre, that is provided the proprietor of the land does it on hie own account* and employs labor by contract—contractors who take the land for one crop having the labor within themselves, of course can do it much cheaper for themselves. The profitable result to contractors during the last two or three years has increased the demand for land on the cropping system, and they can afford to pay ss. and 15s. rent, and make a good profit—lss. is being paid by contractors this year for land in the Waikato district in the Otago provinces, thirty miles from Oamaru.

There was no extravagance in constructing railways to open up laud like this., It was part also of the Public Works policy, to settle the North Island. It had often been stated that if left to themselves the colonists would be cruel to the natives. Their reply was the money spent on roads and railways this decade against that spent on wars the last decade. It was a policy of public works and settlement against one'of fire and sword—a policy of saving life instead of destroying it. Let those who were ready to censure the colonists take these facts to heart. People were all more or less swayed by surrounding influences, and Mr. Hamilton, though he had most ably and conclusively defended the colony, had not at the last the courage of his opinions, but to some extent censured the Government he had so ably vindicated. Let them remember this, that on deciding on the policy they adopted, the colonists had everything in their favor. The people were educated to a far greater extent than the mass of the people in this country. The climate of the colony was splendid, its lands of vast productive power ; it did not suffer from droughts ; it was a country capable of supporting millions. The laboring men of this country found in it a great relief. There they had easy hours, plenty of food, and, above all, a career open to their children. , Thousands of persons in happy homes, whose lives would otherwise have been miserable, were ready to justify the policy of the colonists. And, after all, what had the colonists to justify ? That they asked British capitalists for money on good security to spend on reproductive works, instead of asking the British taxpayer to contribute to the cost of wretched wars.