THE WANTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 51, 10 May 1873, Page 3

THE WANTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

The London Timet of February last saysIn the letter of our New Zealand correspondent which we publish to-day, as also in the letters from New South Wales and Victoria published yesterday, may be read a tale of* starvation which ought to find an echo in several hundred thousand British bosoms. These magnificent colonies, which, taking them all in all, are the finest in the world, are suffering a grievous famine. It is not the famine we hear of at home, when Ireland, or the East End of London, or an Indian province raises to Heaven the piteous cry that families and populations are perishing for want of potatoes, bread, and rice. It is. not the fuel famine just now pinching us all. It is not the dearth of genius, of wit, of beauty, of landed property, of public integrity, prof beef and mutton, severally afflicting the respective admirers of the good things. No; the dearth which may be said to extend throughout the fairest regions of the Southern hemisphere- is the Dearth of Labor. It is the scarcity of men. It is the high price that must ,be given to any average possessor of the usual complement of limbs, blessed with -common health and strength, and able do a day’s work. The market of labor is so high in these regions that any working man can be sure of wages that will enable him to live well, to keep his family well, to put money by, and to become farmer, landowner, and all that he commonly desires. In New Zealand our people are at their wits’ end for working men. The European population of both Islands—or three, as they prefer to be described—is only a quarter of a million. But this mere handful possesses an unlimited territory, fertile, beautiful, and pleasant to live in; it is full of vigor and enterprise; it has rapidly increasing public- revenues, the Canterbury province alone half-a-million a-year; it is pushing railways as fast as they cun be made; it has abundance of flopks and herds, only wanting more shepherds-wßd herdsmen; it has minerals, useful or precious, 'for those who choose to dig for them. One thing only if has not, and this single want half spoils all the rest —it has not hands enough. The harvest is great but .the Mionnii are few. Our people have been coaxiaffiaod pampering the remnant of the M»nria, wfaig them plenty of mutton and rum, beef and beer, tobacco' and tea; they get some work out of He poor creatures, but the sad truth must be told—the Macris sire vanishing fast; they das fest, they no longer perpetuate their raoe, they will soon be extinct, as all savages become enmet, like moths in the blase of European civifisation, and then New Zealand will be as purely English as Warwickshire, Hants, or Dorset, excepting only in the very un-English picture that in New Zealand' it is two masters, or rather half a dozen masters, after one man instead of two men after one master. We ask, for the thousandth time, why do not our people go to the Paradise, or to one of the half-dosen paradises, now eaeily reached

by a safe and pleasant voyage of a few weeks, ata cost which any working man may cover with a year ra two’s labor and thrift ? In New Zealand, colonists, in their desperation, are offering passages that will cost a good laborer no more than £5 or £7 out of his own pocket. The 7,000 emigrants landed during the past year are a mere drop in the Jocean. They are absorbed, and the want of men is greater than ever. Yet there are people employed in drawing off our men to Brazil, to the Argentine Republic, and even to Paraguay—no doubt, fine countries, and offering grand careers to educated persons with a little money, good constitutions, good introductions, and personal ability, but not very eafe ground to drop an English laborer upon. Once in our Australian colonies, an English laborer is as much at home as he is in the parish he and his ancestors were born in. If he can get on here—if he can pay his way—if he can bring up his children well, and if he is perfectly content with his position, by all means let him stay at home, for good men are not too many anywhere. But if a laborer—say the father of a young and increasing family, or a young man who lias set his mind on matrimony —cannot get the" wages he thinks he is fairly entitled to; if he cannot pay his debts, if he cannot pay his rent, his shop bill, his coal bill, his children’s schooling, or other lawful demands, out of his weekly pittance, then his course in our humble opinion, is plain. Let him do as many of his betters are doing—get a passage for one of our colonies. He will there have everything he asks for, and a good deal besides. In Victoria, for example, he is now to have, his children’s schooling for nothing, unless he wishes them to be made fine ladies and fine gentlemen, in which case he will have* to pay for a few extras. But this is the plain and simple course, the way that Providence has opened to us, and the way that ail our ancestors came into this country. It is the way that England was made, and that the United States were made. If the labor question is to be considered in regard to the well-being of the complainants themselves, or of their neighbours, or of all at home or of the colonies, or of the British race altogether, there is only one answer. If a man wants work, let him go where it can be got. If he wants a master, let him go where masters are to be found. If he wants land, let him go where millions of acres are waiting to be stocked or cultivated. If he wants peace and quiet, let him go, where he will not have to fight for an extra shilling. If he wants to be master himself, or landlord and tenant in one, let him go where a good estate can be easily purchased out of the savings of two or three yearn* service. In a word, let him go where he is wanted. There is no better law than that; no better maxim of prudence; no bettor advice to be given by those who really cue for a man and wish him well.”