THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Issue 60, 18 May 1858, Page 2

THE COLONIST.

NELSON, TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1858;

1 -'r;!Mrtrath is truth, • .' _, ~• **•£. ■; VAnd, tolil by halves, niay, from a simple thing1' By misconstruction to a monster grow, I'll tell the whole truth.1' ■ - ~•-. Sheridan Knowles. [Conclude!*.]

At the first, this might be disputed, but more considerate thoughts would induce this conclusionIt would be perceived that, in the slow progress of time, dear land would be certain, as the effect of our internal growth numerically. The natural fecundity, of the place would demand grain, and so long as it can be grown more cheaply than imported, the land must be used for its production. This circumstance alone, combined with a prime climate, will ever stamp the value, and that a high one, on the general soil. This becomes an assured circumstance by the consideration that the superior healthfulness of the country will uniformly tempt reflecting invalids, and lovers of pure air with means of comfortable support, to our favored region, and at the same time bind the white natives to their .golden isles. But were measures adopted to give ■us," what would otherwise be the mere' increase of generations, a large influx of population in a series of months, —a more immediate augmentation, —then the land-price of ahundredyears hence would' be quickly realised, at all events on well-swarded and duly fenced farms, with homesteads promotive of that domestic enjoyment so dear, so delightful an instinct^ to the heart of a true Briton; No one Letter knows the certainty of the ultimate dearness of land here than the prosperous shepherd. He keenly sees how sheep, on estates most cheaply leased, will bring an easy and a large income; he sees as acutely how sheep can buy the country, if the prices and mode of dis]Dosuig of the soil be under his control; he views c very morning of his life the way of doing best for himself, without unpleasant Competition, by keeping poor men out of the landmarket, or by refusing to workmen the cPeclit so covertly enjoyed by himself as a lessee • ho never talks, unless it be over a cup or so,;6^t^sematters, but full light streams through j standing-on these points., like the: rays*of intuition1. But hfe" keep his "flocics in. somtf r?twiile MritoTy' under the ring of Saturn, where th^re'ra^iy occasional clouds but neither night ndr^naturai shadow, all his interests couM not be depastured more obviously in the light. But should you hint anything to encourage labor on the land—a word or two respecting some ten shillings per acre to improvers and farmers of the soil, attended by a credit in another form of lease in which purchase may be honestly expressed—a credit to; bring hither more men than sheep—o horror, a horror on which every little boy may then see what "monstrum horrendum" means; as it now means a great bugbear in some of the gorges leading to vast sheepruns; it means that " Tempe's vale" itself would be to you the jaws of destruction if you do anything to sell to foreigners the rich Thessalian plains beyond; it means that/you are a fool of a Statesman, a ram-headed dunce, if you intend to do anything prejudicial to our sheep-runs: and so you are. But, patriotic souls, ~we. .excuse your. sheepish fears; we do not .want to turn your sheep-runs into even runs for children —just yet. Still we do, as humble*brethren, actually prefer a large prosperity, amongst all classes, to a stunted one confined to mere bleating claims of flock owners, or the blatant arguments of their partizans. We own something more valuable than some fifty thousand acres and five or ten thousand ewes and lambs;—we really do own British rights, rights equal to those with the most golden pockets, or most brazen faces—or the arrogant parts of things with wealth of yesterday's getting. Now you may stand up for your sheep —we will be as erect as you for ourselves, and then for our race at large, the English part thereof especially. Well then, we mean to affirm and prove that, jealous as the flock owners are, as to the disposal of the waste lands, the best they can do" now is to assist heartily in the good work of bringing hither persons who* with our present laboring residents, can.be induced to farm the land' 1 in prospect of being small proprietors. The more of these we can bring to "settle here^xnthe reasonable hope of becoming freeholders, the better for them, for a noble yeomanry, for the safety of the country, and for the greatness of coming ages it Will inevitably be. By a sane and sober measure, —like that recently framed and enacted at Auckland, <*and now passing into operation with general approbation and satisfaction, and now demanded in substance everywhere else, emigration and a provident Credit System, w ; ith regard to lands, can easily and most beneficially operate. The method proposed, giving land to reimburse parties for passage expenses, and enabling theriV probably to become occupiers on a scale sufficiently large eventually as to raise sheep as well as grain, without passing the land into the hands of sharpers and speculators, will be a glorious benefit. It will secure to the country the very best laborers—those who have something of their own to commence with when leaving England. It will bring a thrifty and virtuous multitude to our shores Wore readily than any gold mania. It wilbsprcad a hardy class over the country; the very sort of nien who will have the necessary muscle for our minerals, and ultimately for our fisheries. ■

Emigration funds are vicious, as ordinarily applied, inasmuch as tliey bring out poor people from unions'^ and the surplus and unemployed portions of manufacturing towns, /who.'being mostly demoralised by poverty, intemperance, indolence, and demagogues in haunts of crime, have neither sufficient. moral tone or habit of diligent economy to fulfil engagements When they arrive iri a new settlement. Corrupted in principle by the oppress

sion of former indigence, they often become the bitterest enemies of those kind relatives and friends whose names have ham pledged as security in bringing them out; and. too often have sureties to pay for the passage' of their acquaintance, who have hot honor enough on arrival at their destination to work, and repay the sums raised by the generosity of kindred or older settlers, in being responsible for them. Involved in debt'by the vitiating patronage of emigration schemes, mere achemes.to cheapen labour, these refuse population of old countries, already but too degraded, and still more by being brought out by such means,—feel themselvesbut new kinds of paupers on arrival a£ a foreign port. Is it matter of wonder that they resent the folly or the craft that brings theni.like animals to perform cheap work in a strange land'/ Disgusted in feeling themselves imposed upon, they seek to match colonial cunning by obstinate resistance in breaking the snares laid for them. You and their humble friends call them ungrateful: they ask> are we to be thankful for being brought hero to pay debts contracted for general benefit ? Grateful for working at lowered wages, or rptting in prison if we refuse to do so, in repaying passagemoney ? We have been assured by one man that his countrymen, whom in this way, in all kindness he induced to come hithfer ? have often threatened his life for this very reason; and although he met their obligations for them, they have never forgiven him, no not even at the grave of a common parent! Now we do not say that such people can, as they often do, become far more than they ever would have been at their native place; all yve have to say is, this case is no uncommon one, and is the consequence of a degrading plan.

The deplbrable evils of this method of cheapening labor and augmenting population are obviated by the Auckland measure^ as printed in our issue of April 20th. By that measure forty acres is to be given to each person above eighteen years of age, and twenty acres to each one under that and more than five years old. Of course, the boon is to be granted to those only who emigrate at their own cost. This regulation will bring forth those who form part of the best of any country, the careful, sober, industrious and virtuous; good laborers from the best parts of England especially.

The most desirable working mechanics and husbandmen, men who have had ■ ifttieVjholdiugs in manors where children's children keep for ages the cottages, and gardens, and orchards under the kind squire and considerate lord. Men whom the clergy notice daily, and the doctors, and the schoolmasters, arid the shopkeepers, and farmers respect for their good habits and honorable earnings. Men whose characters never disgrace the old grey tombstones of their sires. These are the men, or their genuine sons, with reference to whom the Auckland measure has been framed with no vulgar ad captandem statesmanship. These are the men to whom it is worth while, to offer sufficient inducements to come over the deep. These are the men who will give better and more telling lessons of labor and of morals than any other. The. men these, of scores of careful savings, as sundry branch banks well know—the riieri of clean houses, clean yards, clean families^ and clean self-respect. All good farmers know such, with long years of tried honor and : trust in constant exchange between them, as employers and employed, mutually and respecting; And those of thk class, wherever they go, will be missed men; for they are, above all men, of the class who are "their country's pride," as they are the living bulwark of any nation to which they may belorig. It is men of this order that give the soil of lovely England its riches and its charm. It is wise to draw such hither if possible; for undoubtedly they will by their probity, good sense, praatical experience and superior worth "at once improve our population and our land. A few scoi'es of such will be the most that can be attracted hither, but they will be the salt of this country socially, and an incalculable blessing as patterns of the virtues, and of a worth that gold cannot buy. In all parts of England we have known such,- arid it is 1 only a tribute to their humble nobleness when British colonies frame regulations to win them to their new districts. Parties of this industrial order will come hither for little freeholds; and what excellent freeholds they will soon exhibit. Their practice will rapidly raise the character of the soil, making it correspond more fully with the culture W which they have been accustomed. They will not be afraid of a little hired work on arrival here to prepare them for such lands as by means of their scrip they may obtain. We shall not'see them dallying by the public-house or a crowded depot. They will command employment, and get it to enable them to gain experience for .their own land, or to qualify tliem for its occupation. Accustomed to regular habits of toil, and equal to their tasks, they will start in 'well-known careers of exertion, as in a race; for to such well-requited toil is an exhilaration. They will raise the browg of free men—not come with slouching, fonn^.and jealous looks, like immigrants whose* passage was paid for by charity, or who are under an unfair bargain; All these considerations compel us to the natural, unavoidable conclusion that a similar measure to that framed at Aubkland will be of the first utility both here arid in every/other "New Zealand settlement; v? '■> '? ', v f

And can any one be such a dotard as to dream of reclaimed swamps arid trim fields being lessened in value by these means 1 When: was it the case in the world's history ? Give fairplay to all other interests, arid land enterprise .here, as everywhere else, will possess our plains'and slopes, and multiply our resources. Eventually, the proprietors of smaller runs must become landlords or farmers on their own account; but that will greatly enhance their wealth. Population will bring demands for all sorts of supplies; mouths are markets; and markets'are fountains of active civilisation, streaming along the thoroughfares which they create all those means of improvement which serve to make land valuable.

Were we to concede to' the defenders of exclusiveness,—or of special protection to flock owners by, a nori-credit system in aid of small occupiers,— that a temporary diversion from the nominal value of their estates might be caused by bringing the estate of the crown more perfectly;, jnto request, still, did such a transcient prejudice fo their properties occur, which is by .no means probable, the good resulting' to them, in a very •-brief' time, would exceed all computation. Their lands as inherited by their children in family partitions, would be of far greater worth in any quartered portion of the same than in their present entirety. By confining the term of emigration aid and of land credit to some five or six years, the Government: would decasidn a speedy rush to these regions, and consequently a rapid rise in the valiie of more settled districts;'

Besides, contemporaneously with a new impetus of emigration to these, coasts for agricultural purposes, we shall witness a similar, and possibly more eager, but still; accompanying movement, towards our gold-fields, to say nothing of mines at present in rich solitude. Not only'so, but it is not in the least improbable, that persons at length will riot come hither for riches to leave, as in Australia, but to remain in security, and amidst institutions, peculiar to our insular and most sanitary position. By avoiding the errors of Van Dieman's liand, and opening the deltas and valleys of New Zealand, in a spirit demanded by the times, we shall best enrich our present proprietors—as indeed they shrewdly know while only begging time, to make a fcio more good land bargains for themselves —and at the same moment take bur colonial fortune at " the flow " of its tide.

Our land once offered, as in the Auckland pi'Ovince, of as has been contemplated both here and in Wellington on a well guarded and statesmanlike credit plan, to emigrants and others as bona fide occupiers, the attention of Europe will be more fully won. The minds of industrial classes will be drawn to our congenial latitudes. By -giving-land, as repayment for expense of passage, we shall divert attention from less promising but hearer localities, and gain it by our superior benefits. The currents of emigration : wilt iiSet in southward, and towards Nelson'iri particular; as here the Maoris are fewest, and. the country best suits the English and the German people. Some will come with agricultural and others with auriferous aims; butj in the end, the different pursuits will promote each other, and the dormant energies of our business will become lively and mend apace; A few hundreds of new comers will inspire by their hopeful glances the tameness into which we have subsided.

Let our rrien of Business think over these subjects. Let our farmers too study then! and their bearing on the welfare of their families. Let our more reflective men of education, in tlieir quiet hours of thought, when disenthralled from the serfdom- of lesser interests, contemplate the aspects in which, we have placed the whole subject. Let our flock owners, more directly apply their astute and vigorous intellects to the views which we have taken the liberty of pointing but. Let all parties be pleased to forget and forego every minor matter for a short interval, to careful review ,the ground we have so rapidly passed over, and then we may presume to hope,'if prejudice be kept underfoot, and candour be umpire in then* minds, we shall not have written these too hasty and imperfect lines in vain. We honestly believe our main scope of thought is/correct.

In eohcliisi6n, if for a time land was given in Canada to facilitate immigration to its remoter parts; how desirable to offer a similar benefit in these remote seas, where more entire success may be expected, if prompt measures be employed. To stimulate emigration hither let the most stirring inducements be offered, such particularly as will best co-act with gold discovery, and give increased value at once to all our existing interests. If flock owners themselves of all men, being generally large land proprietors, are most interested i n improving their estates by emigration which will rai&e the value/ of the soil and multiply laborers, let them lend their powerful'aid in furtherance of more general occupancy of'lhe land so tributary to this result. In a word, as men, as lovers of the common welfare of these provinces, let us at this evident crisis in our colonial affairs, bestir ourselves to give a character by liberal measures to this country. Nearly twenty years have passed since its colonial formation; young modern nations are mostly made or marred in a generation.