ENGLAND LOOSES A BILLION AND A-HALF ABROAD.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 87, 31 May 1879, Page 2

ENGLAND LOOSES A BILLION AND A-HALF ABROAD.

In his speech at Rochdale, Lord Derby said—" The estimate has been made—l never vertified it, but I believe it has been made on good authority—that English capitalists nave lent more than throe Hundred millions sterling to States that will never pay them a shilling." It is a very singular thing that while tho statistics of cattle and crops, of exports and imports, of deaths, births, and marriages, are gathered with more or less aire, tho investments of Englishmen abroad are treated as if they were outside tho pale if national resources. It is only in coses of apprehension aud distress, when foreign States are shunting out of their engagements with their creditors, and foreign companies have turned out swindles, that we hear of the way in which a great deal of English capital is squandered Lord Derby need not hesitate to affirm, with every confidence that during the hut decade £300,000,000 of British capital have been lost by the defaults and dishonesty of borrowing foreign States. And ho may

add, with equal confidence, that in the Mine period of time a greater mm than that ha* been (wallowed up by bankrupt non-paying, or absolutely iwindling foreign enterprise*. For thaw two assertions there is the verification of ascertained losses. But that is not all. The foreigu investments of our capitalists, lost, endangered, or safe, have, dur--1 ing the last auarter of a century, exceeded certainly X 1,500,000,000 sterling. The half of this immense sum has been lost and the half of what remains is in danger if being lest likewise Not a penny has, "!i the other hand, been lost through loans raised DJQ the guarantees of our colonies and dependencies Had the money t'trown away on foreign securities —which were not securities, but traps and blood suokers—been used with wise energy aiK? discretion to develop tho waste places of the widely-extended British Empire, we should not have been to-day Buffering from collapsed trade and oredit, and an over-packed population Lord Derby is as truly alivo tc the over-packed state of our population as to the immense loss of capital due to foreign faithlessness and tho folly of our investors. " I thiuk it is a fair question whether in this little island >f ours we are not getting packed too closely, and whether v<=. have not suffered from the comparative stoppage of emigration in the lost few years Emigration is 'or a people like ours a natural and even a, necessary outlet. You may pass what laws yoo please, you may lighten the. burden of taxation until the working men are practically exempt; but as long as there ore more of them than get. work, and as long as two men ore looking after one employer, neither votes nor freedom from taxes, nor anything ejjeJttM politicians can do, nor yet any expjjflent of their own for producing artificial scarcity of labour in special employments, will, in the long run, prevent tlujut from being badly off." This is- tho philosophy of common sense. Tho Ignited Kingdom hits, and long may it retain, the power of increasing its population by four millions or more in every ten years. Shade <1 Malthus be not, horrified ! This is our way of conquering and replenishing the earth It proves us to be still a young people untainted by the vicious decrepitude of France and the old settled States of America, whose vital [statistics indicate extinction in a few generations, unless morals bo reformed. We quitengrec with Lord Derby that the British islands are not large enough, under the best circumstances, for containing a population much exceeding thirty-five millions A huge amount of nonsensi has been talked about peasant proprietorship and the reclamation of waste land. Reclamation is tho luxury of the rich, and would be storvation of the poor. By a natural process which has commenced already rents will be loweied and large farms will be broken down. The result of the process will be to attach n greater number 'if people to the soil. But it fs quite safe for Lord Derby to challenge these- who speak of peasant proprietors to form companies, buy laud, and carry out t.hei» theory. In a (otntry '.vhere land is sa dear that it only returns two or three per cent at best, and where the soil goes dead for six months in the year, a farm of less extent than. 20 acres would hardly yield a living. We must therefore look upon emigration' as the natural and iMcessairy outlet for our surplus population. Why does not Derby connect the-tsiro ideas—profitable investments for British capital, and comfortable settlement of British surplus population ? "Why does ho look to tho United States, rather then to the British Colonies? He was speaking at Rochdale to people who personally or through their friends hast seme experience- of the difficulties with which emigrants to tho United States, in these days of bad trade had to contend. " Our kin beyond the sea * have a Homestead Act under whiebi agricultural immigrants can get home, farm, and seed on condition of repayment of outlay by instalments m a number of years. Separate States of tho Union have ulso special acts of their own for encouraging new comers to settle on theland and to cultivate it. But why should not the English colonies hold out oven greater attractions to people accustomed to English life and laws ? Several of them are just now spending considerable sums on select immigration. But this mode of drawing away chosen people is not satisfactory in the end to tho colonies or to this country. To bring our artisans and servents in order to cheapen labour is rather •» dovice of squattership than of statesmanship. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, have immense areas of waste land! which can be profitably cultivated. England has a surplus population of two or three millions. Should trade revive as strongly as any resonable being can suppose, the subsidiary trades that live upon the general prosperity of the country cannot revive for years to come so as to employ as many hands as they did a few years ago. Meanwhile by natural increase, every year will add half-a-inillion of baby mouths to the population. Is it then unreasonable to recommend the Government of England and tho Colonial Governments to put their heads together, and to inaugurate a State emigration on the basis of the Homestead Aot, by which an outlet should bo given to our surplus population, and a safe investment found for the capital that otherwiae will be probably toast in foreign loans and companies ? Why should the United States be allowed to moke themselves, strong as trad.) rivals by attracting our people when with equal inducements most of them would prefer to go to our own oolonies, where tfiey would Iwoomo producers and consumers—our be .t cus-

tamers' We have the lan<], we have tV pa pie, and uiuoa us we Lave lost, vc liave the money loq But tbe MOpta of our manufacturing districts, -hilo ready euough to talk largely about proprietors and reclaiuatioii of and id this overcrowded country, have <nme fear of their ability to thrive as free holders iu lands where the noil Joes .tot go dead for SU months Us the year This fancied incapacity is rather mental t..an physical ihey .vould thrive very wall u they had the courage to try, and if they VON settled in communities ou moderately sized joldings. like the petted soldiers of the Foreig. Legion, at the Cape, who never fought England's butties, but for doing nothing during the Crimean struggle, excepting rating money and causing vexation, received free arms, and are thriving upon ihsd to this any.—Daily News.