PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Southland Times, Issue 1073, 14 December 1868, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

DEBATE ON DR HODGrKINSON'S \ IMMIGRATION EESOLUTION. ; Dr Hodgkinson in moving, " That tLis Council, being convinced of the absolute lecessity of introducing population and capital as a mesns of restoring prosperity so the colony, is of opinion that free grants of land, at the rate of forty acires bo each adult, and twenty acres to each . shild, with conditions requiring settlement and improvements thereon, should be given to immigrants from Great Britian and Ireland, and the North American Colonies, and request the representatives from Southland in the General Assembly to endeavor to effect the passing of an act in accordance with this resolution," said the subject was one of the utmost importance, not only to the province, but to the whole colony. He » had not hitherto felt warranted in bring- j ing it forward, and occupying the time j of the Council with a discussion thereon, owing to the unfavorable financial state of the province, and to the fact that until lately the G-eneral Government had been comparatively indifferent to the subject. He was glad, however, to have recently observed signs of improvement in this respect, the G-eneral Government having lately enacted that a certain per eentage of the land fund should be devoted immigration purposes. The action taken by several hon members showed that the urgent importance of the question was beginning to be generally acknowledged, and he hoped the Council was by this time convinced of the absolute necessity of doing something. The hon member for Hoslin (Mr Johnston) had on a previous occasion introduced a motion something similar to his, proposing to give land to immigrants in proportion to the amount expended by them in defraying their passage to the colony. The member for Oteramika (Mr Pearson) had also, at last session, brought before the Council a most comprehensive scheme, and had gone so fully aud with such ability into the matter, that he (Dr H.) felt little inclined to speak on it now at any great length. It might b*e objected that that the question was one more properly pertaining to the G-eneral Assembly, but the manner in which it had been entertained and spoken upon by hon members on the occasions referred to showed that questions of even colonial magnitude could be discussed as comprehensively and with as much ability in the Council as in the Assembly ; and it was but right that the Greneral G-overnment and legislature should be put in possession of the views of the several Provincial Councils. It really appeared, judging from the Bills passed on the subject, as if the nature of colonisation was not understood. Colonisation actually meant the introduction of people to till the soil, and any scheme not having actual settlement in view as its primary object, was . defective in principle, and would fail in accomplishing the end desired. He would refer shortly, in illustration, to the various Land Bills which had been, and were, in operation in the colony. First, there was the Imperial Bill, better known as Wake- | field's scheme, under which land was sold at £1 per acre, a certain per eentage of the proceeds being applied to the purpose of opening up the country. Next came Sir G-eorge Grey's Bill, by which land was reduced to 10s per acre. This had been a most ruinous measure. Under its operation vast quantities of the most valuable lands in the colony had been absolutely wasted — given away to absentee speculators. This was evident from the fact that large tracts of land in the vicinity of Christchurch had been sold at that price, and yet immediately thereafter, on the formation of the province of Canterbury, when the land was raised to £2 per acre, it still sold freely ; the . purchasers before the establishment of the province being thus made a gift of 30s per acre. In some other places, land had been sold at prices still more ruinous, for in certain cases it was reduced as low as 5s per acre, and the consequence was that at the present day large tracts of fine territory were stocked with a few sheep, instead of sustaining a numerous population. The next Bill he would notice, that of Canterbury, had been much praised. Our own land laws were partly framed from it, yet he did not think it deserving of all the credit it got. It had, no doubt, assisted to send that province ahead, but there were other causes in operation which had to be remembered when considering the progress Canterbury had made. It was an excellent pastoral and agricultural country, possessing many natural advantages, and had. from the first, attracted men with capital. The high price of land there, however, had produced a state of things not at all desirable, one evil result being that, as a rule, the former was not a freeholder. The next Bill to which he would allude was that of Otago, under which land was sold at £1 per acre, with conditions of improvement. This Bill had, however, been mischevious in its operation. Not having been strictly administered, those who faithfully complied with its provisions and went to great expense in effecting the stipulated improvements were no better off than the mere speculator, who could generally procure his Crown Grant as readily as the bona fide settler. At all events no little discontent was felt at the indiscriminate manner in which the act was carried out, and it failed bo attract population to any great extent. He now came to the land bill of Sou: ..imid, which was also bad. He had to ;i-.i.uit having a hand in its formation, bu 1 ; lie could plead this excuse, that it wa s framed to meet certain exceptional circumstances. It was, in fact, produced under extreme pressure, its chief aim being to make land sell rapidly to raise funds foL- certain pressing liabilities, rather thau with the object of inducing settlement. He agreed with the resolutions which had already been passed by the Council, but thought they did not go far enough, and

that they were not probably the eat that might be devised to encOtirage the right class of immigrants from Europe. He believed the great defect of past Land Bills to consist in their being framed more with regard to their effect in raising money than for the purpose of facilitating ana" encouraging settlement. It did not even Meem to have been a fortunate thing for' the provinces to have large revenues, as the rule had been, the more money the more extravagance and recklessness. He believed that when, a few years ago, land was raised to 40s an acre, it was simply with the object of having more money to spend, and to spend on costly works of a comparatively useless character unless the fixed population was correspondingly increasing at the same time. He believed it would have been better to have given away all our land to lona fide settlers than that its disposal should have been made ' simply the source of supply for extravagance, without reference to its effects on actual settlement. Before going further into the system of free grants, he would notice a few of the objections generally raised against it. The first was that there was in it something of injustice to the old settlers. They, naturally enough, asked the question — Who most deserved the gift? and as naturally answered, — those tfho have borne the burden and heat of the day. This, he considered, was altogether a false view of the subject, proceeding from an erroneous impression as to the nature of the transaction. The land given to the immigrant could not, or should not, be regarded as a gift, but as purchased by him for a given consideration. It could not be regarded as a gift, as ifc was neither given from motives of charity, nor as the reward of merit, but was simply sold to him at its presumed worth — value to be received in some way or other for it. The land was the public estate, and we had no right to part with it ; except on terms the best obtainable for the public advantage. To part with it as he proposed, he considered the species of sale best calculated to promote the interests even of those already here, Who had purchased their land, and, if looked at in its true light, would be seen to be neither unjust nor injurous to the old settlers. He would make a comparison by instancing the course frequently adopted by private speculators. A man buys a tract of land, lays it out into lots, a number of which are bought up and occupied. Bye-and-bye the owner finds his sections are not selling freely, and he thinks, to give the place a fresh start, it would be advisable to give away some on certain conditions. The old settler then comes and says "you are giving away land, why not give me some ? When the speculator, of course replies, " Oh, you are already here, and have got your land at what you considered it worth]; its the other man t want, and to get him to come I must offer some encouragement ; his coming will in no way injure you, but rather be to your advantage, as you will share in the prosperity induced by his presence." The transaction was entirely of the nature of a purchase. We can't get population. We want it — must have it — and consequently must offer a premium for it. This was the right idea on the subject ; the other was false, and should be got quit of. At the same time it was necessary, to make the scheme effective, that free grants of land should be conjoined with conditions requiring actual settlement, which should be the principal object of all Land Bills. This plan also possessed the recommendation of extreme, simplicity. It offered land at once, instead of first turning it into money, and then, applying it to immigratiou. Thus the extent of immigration was limited only by the extent of waste land in possession. Here we had at least a million acres, which could be made at once directly available, instead of waiting till it was sold iv driblets, and then spending the proceeds in introducing immigrants who we had no gurantee would become bona fide settles. He might compare immigration to irrigation, and would say, " don't apply to a rill when you have a broad stream at hand." There was plenty of population in Europe, a constant stream was flowing from thence, and we should try to catch some of it. We had in our possession the means of attracting it to our shore, but would not avail ourselves of them to their full extent. The scheme was thus at once simple, comprehensive, and practicable, and while doing no injustice to the early settler, offered positive and substantial advantages to the intending immigrant. A man with his wife and four of a family would be entitled to 160 acres, which was something solid and tangible to begin with, and would have a great effect in drawing population, as it was, so far as the immigrant was concerned, a positive saving of £160. As regarded us, it amounted to a sale of the land, and the purchaser paid dear enough for it, but to the man in England it would really appear a gift, and thus possess an additional feature of attraction by allowing him to retain all his capital to begin with. Another advantage was that it not only attracted a stream of immigration, but it secured a fixed population. The land being the object for which the immigrant had come, on it he would go, and on it he would remain. Another recommendation of the scheme was its great antiquity. It was nothing new. The Romans, who were most successful colonisers, had practised it upwards of 2000 years ago, and in later times it had been put into successful operation in America, New South Wales, and Tasmania, to all of which places it had attracted a great many people. The next argument for the plan was its absolute necessity. We had thousands of acres of valuable land lying idle, which would not sell, on which we could not raise money to bring people out even on the present system, and it was perfectly evident that they would not come spontaneously in any considerable numbers. We had to compete for population with other new countries, some 1 of which offered still greater inducements.

and unless we adopted some such *J"*!^ ■> we were placed at a disadvantage in the competition, and could not expect to divert, to any appreciable extent, the stream of population constantly flowing. from the shores of Great Britain and other places in Europe, the greater portion of which found its way to America, attracted there by the liberal terms on which land was to be obtained, and the cheapness of transit. The American Government, during the first administration of Me Lincoln, some seven yean ago, had passed a Bill for the purpose of securing homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, which was of the moat liberal and attractive character. The principle of the Act was that every foreigner going to the United States, and becoming a citizen, could obtain , 160 acre 3 free, on condition of settling on it for five years, at the end of which time he would be given a Crown Grant, . The Republic of Chile. had also recently seen the necessity of adopting measures to" attract popttfauctt, ' and now offered most tenlptirig" cef note ttf immigrants — the particulars of which he" had recently seen published in a^local p a p er — they not onlp gave the land at a very low rate, with plenty of time to pay, but they actually supplied the immigrant, if necessary, with the means of cultivating his ground— giving him; intpliments, rations, seed, and cattle. jWith such examples before us it was plain' we must do something, We could scarcely expect to be placed on an equatt footing' with America; its exhaustless territory would cause the stream always to: flow in that direction, but we might get at least the driblets. The advantages of a pecuniary kind which we had to offer, combined with a mild climate, and the fact that they would still be under British rule, might decide the donbt with many, and turn the scale in preference of New Zealand. It was also to be observed that this plan would in no way interfere . with the working of that now in operation, or with the other schemes proposed. It might even be an advantage to have several going^on at once, each being suited to different classes of immigrants. He was of opinion, however, that if ever this sysfteni Wai enforced it should be applied ..solely td families, not to young unmarried:, men, the condition of actual settlement being the primary object. He considered that if it could be put in operation, even as far only as Stewart's Island, it would be worth all the trouble they had taken about it, and there were other districts— the West Coast and elsewhere— where it could be carried on without. -the danger of interfering with existing interests. There were plenty of people (M the West coast of Scotland, and in. British North America, who would gladly come here if proper inducements were held out to them. Those people, from > previous training, were admirably suited for these localities. At the same time he thought it would be a pity to in any way restrict the operation of the scheme by limiting it to any particular district, or even to the whole area of this Province, and would rather see it made a colonial one applied to the whole lands of the country. Another objection raised against the free grant system was that it had lately been tried in Auckland and foiled. TJ^ ifr^had done so was due to a defect in the system there adopted, viz., the absence of conditions of settlement. The land had simply been given away to any person who came to the province, little care being exercised in. getting the right class. Instead of farmers, and people accustomed to agricultural or pastoral pursuits, or to other industries practicable in a new country, the greater number were tradesmen and shopmen, men ill adapted for pioneers, and not at all required, at least in any number, in their own calling. The consequeuce was general dissatisfaction. A few from British America, being of the right sort, did well ; the others, many of them, never went near their land, but left the province, while very few actually settled on it. The onlj condition attached to the gran|b was that the immigrant should remain in the province four years, a stipulation which had the effect of locking : : ap the land, as the Government could not resume it until the expiration of that term. In short, the Auckland scheme was a bad system badly administered ; besides, they had but little land to give, and of that, to the immigrant, the choice was not extensive, being mostly forest. The Auckland system was therefore no criterion whatever of the value of the scheme he proposed. Another objection was, that it was expensive, that there was something lavish in the very idea of giving away land. Those who had gone thoroughly into the matter, however, saw that it was in reality the best possible way to sell it. If by giving away land you could get men, the exchange was surely a beneficial one. In America, when the cotton trade was brisk, a man, even a black one, a poor slave, was valued at £400; surely a stalwart English tanner was worth more, and by this plan we would get them at much less. For 160 acres of land,, otherwise comparatively useless, we would get, not one man, but a family of six, whose contributions to the Customs revenue alone, at the present average rate, would in a few years pay , off ;the whole, not to speak of the other benefits accruing from their, labor and expenditure. If it could be proved to him that the land could be sold, and that population and capital would at the same time flow in, he would withdraw^the motion, but as that was hopeless he thought it should be passed. Another objection was that the land was after all no great attraction, that no one cared about it, looking at the first cost as a mere nothing compared with the outlay required to make it productive, some £6 or x ,j£,B an acre. This objection was also quite erroneous. Imagine a family... selling off in England for the pwpose of emitting, and suppose their sale realise £000, and that this sum is then reduced some £150 in paying their passage out. If it hae

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td be still further reduced by £160 for fond, their capital stands at a very small amount, scarcely sufficient to start with. In short it made all the difference between success, and a very hard struggle. Another objection was, that we would by introducing this system loose our land revenue ; consideration would, however, show that it would practically increase it, so long as we had land to sell: The people who came out would not be content with the amount of their grants, but would buy quantities of that adjoining. They would also send for their friends, -who who would come and do likewise, and thus the country would soon be so well settled that we could do without the land revenue, the customs being increased to such an extent as would be amply sufficient for all local rates. Another objection was that it; would be a rash step to bring so many people, aa would likely be attracted by the scheme, to the Province at once. He thought thiß also an error, and had no fears of too many coming. Coming with a definite object in view, which they would be certain to carry out, there would be no danger of creating a population for which there was no employment. Another objection was that, apart from the land we had no advantages to offer. His own opinion was that no colony in , the southern seas had greater advantages to offer than Southland. He would conclude by again urging the extreme necessity existing for devising means to bring people to the country. It might be said fhat it was late in the day to begin, but we had to learn in the school of experience, and finding that one system did not answer, we should try another. He still hoped to see the return of prosperity, to see the introduction of population, capital, and cultivation, and then would be seen what was most important of all, ■the object of all their labors — the wasi;o and desolate places of the land inhabited by industrious and prosperous families. Mr Peabsok seconded the motion. (To be continued)