THE SAMOA TIMES. "Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I." SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 77, 26 April 1879, Page 2

THE SAMOA TIMES. "Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I." SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

I*mi> I» !■:kiiv has beun making a speech which will considerably reduce hie reputation for common souse at well as states-

nianship. Adducing a meeting at Liverpool ou the 3rd of January he deplore J, as every humane mau would naturally do, the large amount of sufleriug existing iu England at that date and caused wholly through stagnation of trade If his Lordship has been correctly reported he gave it us his opinion, arrived at after mueh careful consideration, that the only remedy was wholesale emigration to the L'nited states and Australia. Had the statement been made by any of the Agents-General one would have concluded that the expression of it was prompted by a desire to advertise Australia as a whole, and his own colony in particular. Coining however from a Peer of England, and from one who has held high office under the ClOWl), we are bound to believe that the statement was made iu good faith Nevertheless the stern logic of fuets leads to an opposite conclusion. England for the lust fifty years h;is been the workshop of the world; until of late years absolutely without n rival. She is so no longer. In Europe, Belgium with her coal fields anil her dense population is a virry formidable rival. France is advancing iu the same direction. Germany builds ironclads for herself, and manufactures the largest of cannon. In the New World things are even worse; in some lines she undersells England iu the European market. To a British statesman and to one of Lord Derby's calibre these undeniable facts must cause anxiety and deep thought. Yet his remedy is a I>oor one. Did the suggestion come from the lips of a popular agitator we should term it clup-trup. Years ago Mr. Bright used to sing one never-ending puiau übout the working man's paradise, America. He sings it no longer. There is frost and snow, and distress and suffering, and dearth of employment in the Great Republic as in all countries cursed by civilisation. America can absorb agriculturists; such can make prosperous homes for themselves within her farstretching boundaries. But of artisans ami tradesmen and city people generally she has her full share. And yet these 1 are the classes so solely pressed in England, and into whose oars Lord Derby has been dinning wholesale emigration. It is plain that America cannot receive them ; how then about Australia > .She undoubtedly can offer employment, ami to those who can pay for it laud, provided the immigrants come in a steady stream, and provided they are of the right stamp: domestic servants, labourers, agriculturists. These, however, are not they by whom the stagnation of trade has been most keenly felt during the last European winter. They who have experienced its intensity have been colliers, iron-workers and the large number to whom stagnation in these two industries means starvation. If, however, England with her vast stores of coal and iron, with her manufactories ready built, and iu good working order, and in close proximity to the markets of Europe, we say, if England with all these advantages cannot hold her own, cannot rind employment for her population, how is it pos- . sible that Australia can suddenly absorb and sustain these starving thousands. ! Discarding Lord Derby's advice we would deem it wiser council to recommend patience while bad trade lasts, witli greater economy in social habits after its revival, and a lively appreciation of the fact that i the British artisan .has Continental and American rivals. It may even be that in a few years he will have Asiatic com- , petitors.