IMMIGRATION.

Southland Times, Issue 1045, 26 October 1868, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

■ : — ♦^ ■ We are requested to publish the following speech, delivered, by Mr Pearson in the Povincial Council^ during the last session, on 5 the subject Immigration : — Mr Speaker, it will be unnecessary to detain the Council for arty length of time in moving the resolutions on the subject of Immigration, which" stand on the order paper in my name, inasmuch as I have already written and -had published a series of letters on the subject embracing the main arguments in its favor, which I think, could, be well adduced. I will now therefore as succinctly as may be recapitulate thenu The subject may be divided into two heads, the necessity and the advantages of Immigration. First as to the necessitystagnation in ' a young colony "means retrogression, if you do not go forward you must go back, there is no stopping no Halting ground. Now unless there is a constant stream of fresh blood infused into the body politic stagnation must ensue; unfortunately ' we have reached that stage, and not only we, but every province of New Zealand ; we have been living on one another so long, that very . shortly the attenuation will be complete, there will be- nothing left to feed" upon, and what would with Immigration become a fair and prosperous country, will witaout it relapse intio comparative desolution. The success of the United States of America, is as I have shown in the letters I have published, solely consequent pn the great tidal wave of Immigration having flooded her shores ; without it her census returns in 1866 would have shown a deficit of some 21,000,000. Victoria, notwithstanding, she enjoys a larger influx of Immigrants than New Zealand, is so fully alive to the inportance. of the question, that she has laid on a line of steamers via the Cape of G-ood Hope, to conquer the disadvantage of distance from. Europe, and try to turn the tide in the direction "of /the, Australiasian group. . It . behoves . the colony of New Zealand to be up- and doing, to ! take immediate and energetic steps to increase her population, for she requires it more than Victoria. Amongst r the arguments which may be adduced for

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the necessity of Immigration is^/Utedlft* popular one of lower&jg*the^^«^i|^ to such a compass,,as jfili reinuiißrate^tt^ employer.; I wistf it r distinctly i»^be tfj§£'der|tibo<3|tbat I^have uo;desire Jtos|r^u©jj|| the pric^^bf labor beldw its fair§«na:rto|j|p price ; on, the contrary, I would glaVUy Site it at 20sla day; if at- sucti: a price.^ip" employment p>id, for it would '•' degree of commercial prosperity hitherto unprecedented. The laws of supply and demand are immutibly fixed by circum--stances. Dr Smith states, " the demand for those who live by wages, therefore necessarily-increases with the increase 4>fthe revenue,and stock of every country, i and cannot possibly increase without it. The increase of revenue and stock ii the i increase- of national wealth. The demand for those who live by wages therefore naturally increases with the increase of national wealth, aiul eatmot^ possibly increase without it" then may lie the desire of the laborer to obtain a high wage, here is a limit fixed which must ultimately determine the*; - questibn. If a farmer cannot afford to pay 8s a day, he must either not employ labor, or doing so, become bankrupt. The alternative to the' employed is, either he gets no work, or gets no pay ; and I think we have at last cooled down to the conclusion that the national wealth in this Province is not increasing. A shorty time ago I was asked by a very respecijable laboring man if I could get him some Work, and on questioning, I ascertained that he wanted 8s a day, that he did not expect it would pay his employer to gjhre it, but that as it was the standard >pric6, he w.ould not take lessj that if he did; not get it, he would leave the PYoTince» that he knew he could not get. the same price anywhere else ; that in seeking employment else where,, he would have to, pay his passage, spend money waiting tow obtain work wherever he went, and perhaps not obtain it at all, "but he would not take less here J In this oneinstance maybe '' read the lesson of bur present position. Contrast with this the state of the labor market in the United States of America, the great absorbant of the superabundant population of " Europe. The picture is drawn by Anthony Trollope. "I have said, that there was ; hut little; poverty—little to be seen of real want in • these thriving towns* but that they Who labored in them had nevertheless their own hardships. This is so, I would not have any man believe that he can' take himself to the "Western States of America^--t6 jthoie^ States of which I am speaking— Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnisota, lowa,, or, Illinois, and there by industry 1 escape the ills to which flesh is heir. The laboring Irish in these towns - eat meat seven days ft week, but I have met many <a laboring Irishman among them who has wished himself back in his old. cabin. Industry is a good thing, and there is mo bread so sweet as that which is eaten in the sweat of a man's brow ; but* labor carried to excess wearies the mind as well as the body, and the sweat that is ever running makes the bread biirtjer. There> U»» think, no task master over free labor so exacting as an American. H© knowi nothing of hours, and seems to have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks he will go for. ever. I . wish those , masons in . London who strike for nine- hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the labor market of "Western America for a spell. And moreover, which astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried— as it were forced forward at their work, in a manner which to an English workman would 'be intolerable^ : ' This surprised me much, as it. was at Variance with our, or perhaps I should say with my preconceived ideas as to American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not submit to" be 'driven ;, that the spirit of the Vcquniiry if ; not the spirit of rthe individual would have made it impossible. I thought that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other boot. But I found fthat. such driyipg: did . existj and American masters in the West, and whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject, all admitted it. 'These mea i'll never half move unless they're^d^yeij/. a foreman said .to me once as we stood together over some twenty men who were at their work, 'They 'kinder look for it, and don't well know how to get along when they miss it;' It was jnot his - business at this % moment to '< drive ; nor was he driving. He was standing at some little distance from the. scene with me, and speculating in the^ sight before him. I thought the men were Working at their best ; but I their movements did not satisfy his practised eye, and he saw at a glance that there was no one immediately dyer them. But "there is worse even than this.- Wages in these regions are what we should call high. An agricultural laborer will earn perhaps 15 dollars a month and his board ; and a town laborer will earn a dollar a day. A dollar may be taken -as representing four shillings, though it is in ..fact more. Food in these parts is much cheaper than, in ( England, and therefore wages' must be considered- as very ;good. .. ?Li making, however, a just - calculation, it must be borne in mind that clothing is dearer than in England, and that much more of it is necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the laborer to save money— if only he can get them paid. The complaint that wages are held back, and not even ultimately paid is .very common." It is argued that the climate here precludes constant employment, and hence the high price, yet I find by the satisfies of New Zealand for. 1866 that in Otiago during that year there were 179 days in which rain fell, which in Southland "there were 136: "Take last year, which was exceptionally wet, how many days were there so bad as to have prevented a laborer in Scotland at 12s a week from working ? It is fsommonly urged that what, we want is freiktapkdl men with, money to employ,, lab^pr. j I do not believe that in any.^part of N©w Zealand, probably not in , tiift' wfiole Australian ' group '' v \ad tnidre 1 iC been so !j much^ capitial introduced, in proportion to the area, and the

brevity of its existence, ras into this Province. There are more wealthy men in this Province, considering its size, than in any other in New Zealand. I refer to the squatters. "Where has there been such a lavish expenditure of foreign Capital as that by the company located in the Oteramika and Mataura districts? Yet the general conclusion ftppeaf s to. tie that it does not pay to farm. Why? Because the price of produce does not bear a fair proportion to the cost of production. Still people cry out that the importation of more capital to employ labor is the panacea for all our ills. I ask what is it to do ? la it to be employed unremuneratively as the past capital has been ? It so, it will do harm, not good, to the community. It may give a temporary prosperity, but the reaction will be proportionate. It is the beneficial use, not the wasteful expenditure of capital, which confers a lasting prosperity. There is capital enough now in the place, there are many thousands locked up in the Banks, simply because at the present price of labor it wiE not pay to employ it. Men with money are generally blessed with an average amount of brains, and they will not unnaturally say if the large capital already invested in this place has proved unreproductive, it would be folly to follow the example of others. The arguments' therefore if those, who avoiding to strike at the root of the disease, prescribe nostrums which only feed it, are fallacious, however popular they may be with a class. It has been Urged and singularly enough by the vegr~men -who declare that we require the introduction of fresh . capital to employ labor —that farming will not pay ; ! I say., it will to those who understand it, if only they; can .get labor at a moderate price. ABk any artisan whether it requires an. apprenticeship to enable a man to practice, with any hope of success, his trade, and he will naturally assure you it does ; yet the artisan will, without possessing the faintest elementary knowledge, purchase and farm a hundred acreß of land, feeling surprised, after a year or two that it does not pay him ; abuses the country for his own folly. Others again cry out that the absence of roads precludes the possibility of bringing produce to market. That good commnjuoation..between ,the. interior and seaboard is of paramount importance there can be little doubt, yet in this Province, taking into; consideration its age, the difficulties -to be contended with in this respect are not as great as in other places of a similar growth. *When I first came to Otago, . the settlers in the East Taieri had_far graver embarrassments to overcome. Before the road w^s made over Saddle Hill near Dunedin, it :was /with great difficulty one could walk down it after rain, much more cart up it. I have seen settlers unload their drays and take over a bag of produce at a time. Erpm Saddle Hill to the Taieri Eiver, the road l^as a series of spurs to be crossed with? a swamp in each gully. Tet the farmers managed to pull through. They did so because they were farmers who uiid^rstoqcl their business, and followed it^ ..who 'helped themselves instead of looking to the Government for everytStig. Talk of the cost of carriage here, contrast it with what it is in the far "West of America. \ .. (To he continued)