AUCKLAND.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 176, 28 June 1859, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

A public meeting was held in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the 4th instant, for the purpose of taking into consideration the present position of the Native Land Question. The meeting is described as having been numerously and influentially attended by the principal settlers and merchants in the province. The chair was occupied by Captain Porter, and the following resolutions were adopted :—

That this meeting is of opinion that the present system of obtaining land from the natives is inefficient and objectionable on many grounds, and solemnly declares its conviction. that an entire change must be made in the mode of extinguishing native title to land, if the future colonisation of this province is to be successfully carried on.

That a deputation, consisting of the following genmen—The Chairman, Messrs. Gilfillan, Forsaith, D. Graham, Daldy, and Boylan, be appointed a deputation to present to his Excellency the Governor the resolutions adopted by this meeting, and respectfully request him to express his views on the questions involved in the same, and whether he wiU be pleased to countenance and sanction such alterations in the present mode of extinguishing the native title to land as may meet the requirements of this province. To report his Excellency's reply to a meeting to be convened on a future day. In reference to the above subject, the Southern Cross ofthe 14th instant remarks:—

" The stone has been set rolling, and every day it is gaining a fresh impetus. Something will have to be done, and shortly too, in the matter of acquisition of land from the natives; and the question only remains, who is to do. it. The pas been ceded to those who ought to take the lead in introducing a change so necessary to the province; but the pressure from behind still continues, and, whether these take the lead in the movement or not, an advance will be made by somebody. " It has been said, whether on good authority we know not, that somebody is authorised to lay out forty thousand pounds in the purchase of lands from the natives, so soon as direct purchase is permitted; and that other large, sums are in the hands of different persons for the same purpose. We are glad to hear tbis, and hope that it may be true. At the same time that it proves how little land there is at present whioh can tempt a man to purchase, it augurs well for the future prospects of Auckland. Such a sum would be a God-send to a bankrupt government, which, at present, can only raise a miserable revenue out of the sale of land in the finest provinceof New Zealand; but somehow, notwithstanding all the great induce ments offered by wonderful Land Regulations, notwithstanding the splendid nature of the land which our indefatigable Provincial Government has been carving out in portions of the exact size which they think men ought to be content with,—notwithstanding the zeal of their surveyors, who have been cutting lineß at seven pounds a mile through bush, where nobody wants t0" go, and pegging out roads through waist-deep swamps, where nobody bufc a surveyor would go,—notwithstanding the temptation held out to men of a sporting turn of mind by the cheap excitement of monthly lotteries at the land office, —notwithstanding all this, not a penny of this money seems likely to go into the provincial chest nuder the present system, for the simple reason that the owners of it do not believe in the land offered for purchase. This seems to us one of those large and patent facts which require no further comment. The purchase money is there, and the article required is there; but by our absurd land system the investment of capital in land is prohibited, and both Europeans and natives are losers in consequence.

"We have several times of late made use of the word ' capital,' and spoken of it as a something rather useful in a new colony; and we have expressed our wish to. see inducements held out to men of capital to come here, Our words have been takeu umbrage afc, and we are not surprised ; more particularly as, in the last article in which we used the term, we coupled it with ' intelligence.' Certes, tbe introduction of -capital and intelligence together, would be most dangerous to those who are eodeavoring to prop up the present tottering system.

"But in reference to capital per se we do pay homage to it, although we have no:golden calf erected in our editorial sanctum. We pay homage to it for the same reason that we pay homage to any stern, uncompromising, irresistible power. Whether we pay homage to it or not, it will make itself felt, and enforce obedience to its laws. You may pretend to ignore its power?- but you will still feel it. You may^ ridicule it iii words, but everyone pays homage to it in his own heart. ]We have always considered that anyone who says lie does not care for money is either a rogue or a fool; and we have generally found such men to be both. And when any man preaches, that a country is better without capital, he is either profoundly ignorant, or has some secret purpose of his own to serve.

"Capital, must be recognised. Its effects may be regulated and the evils consequent on the. abuse of its power may be remedied by legislation, but it can never be directly legislated against, without loss, if not ruin, being entailed on all concerned; though the capitalist himself is generally the one to suffer least. No country of freemen has ever existed which was able to enact laws against the amassing of riches—and remain great. The Spartans tried it, but from a social and politico-economical point of view they were not a nation of freemen. The Spartan state consisted of a bonded league of masters and of a race of slaves; and those who had not to work for their bread could affect to despise money; and even there it failed. Amongst freemen capital is the accumulated fruits of, bygone labors, and those who seek to deprive it of its rights, are aiming a blow at the rights of labor. Nowhere is- this mom evident than i» a colony. There are mm at th#

present moment in New Zealand, who in the little Pedlington to which some mon would fain reduce the province of Auckland would be considered capitalists, the commencement of whose fortunes was the earning by the sweat of their brow enough money to purchase a heifer or a filly-foal. . " When capital began to be employed in the manufacturing districts in England, there was an outcry. Capital was going to ruin the poor man, and so the hand loom weaver smashed the power looms. He waß ruined : but why ? Because iv consequence of his obstinacy, the capital, which might have benefitted him, was sent elsewhere to benefit others. When millions were being spent upon railroads there was an outcry ? It would ruin everybody conuected with horses in the country. What was the real result ? More horses, more carts and carriages were soon required than had ever been dreamed of in the old plodding days. " Thus it is too in a colony like New Zealand, It is all claptrap and stump-oratory talking of the rights of the poor man and ofthe new-comer, and of the fearful evil of some thousands of acres falling into one man's hands; but if it has the effect of keeping men with money out ofthe country, such claptrap does great and irremediable injury to the poor man himself. Send a lot of poor men alone down to their forty acres, and after some yeai's* privation they may get their farms into something like shape and be beyond the reach of starvation and may make some money—if there is a market for their produce ; but send them down into the neighborhood of a property which a capitalist is improving, and with twenty aores, which a few weeks work would enable them to purchase, they will soon be rich. Some of the finest farms in tbe neighborhood of Nelson have been bought, cleared, and stocked by men who made every farthing of their money by working for the sheepfarmers in the Wairau. They were in the habit during a few months every year of shearing and shepherding for others, and during the remainder of cultivating their own land.

" The claptrap about new-comers is no less absurd. We do not wish to discourage any of them, on the contrary, we can encourage them to look forward to a change which will be for their more particular benefit, but we pay them the compliment of telling them the truth. It has been objected that it is not right to give men who have been long in the country, who have local information and possibly possess iufluence amongst the natives, any advantage over new arrivals. The answer to such an objection is very easy; the proposed change will not give them any such advantages, for tho simple reason, that they possess them already. There are pieces of land at present open for selection, which it would be ruin for a new-comer to go upon, but which an old hand might find it profitable to occupy. There are places in which an old settler might be able to employ native labor on reasonable terms and make money, where a new-comer would only find the natives willing to assist him in taking care of his pigs, an officiousness which he would probably not appreciate very highly. An old hand may go on the East Coast and carry on a very profitable business there; but we should not recommend our new arrivals to go rashly into that trade.

," Only in one way can all men in the country be put upon the same footing, and the natural working of capital and knowledge be counteracted. It can only be done by the whole community consenting to forego all chance of drawing the prizes which are obtainable by energy and enterprise. When we are all reduced to a state of listless apathy, all men will he equal: the new-comer will have the raiserable satisfaction of seeing that knowledge and experience are of no use to those who possess it, and will be of no use to him, when he has acquired it; and the laboring man while eking out a bare existence by a few ill paid days' work in a week, will be able to console himself by chuckling over the idea, that those who possess means, should they remain in the country, will soon be in as bad a position as himself.

" Such a state of things however can never arise; our new-comers look forward to gaining experience and to turning it to good account; and our laboring men are working in the hopes of becoming in their turn the employers of labor."