The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1884. THE DEPRESSION AND ITS REMEDY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1171, 29 April 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1884. THE DEPRESSION AND ITS REMEDY.

Major Atkinson is admittedly au able man, and a very forcible speaker, and when so intelligent an audience as that at Dunedin eTince impatience at listening to him it is a true indication that he and bis Ministry do not possess either the respect or the confidence of the people. The .Premier delivered a very able speech, but we venture to think that very few people will agree with many of tha conclusions he arrived at. He attributed the depression in trade to the fact that whtreas the Government had been spending two millions per annum until recently, they were now only spending one million, and also to the fact that there were too many engaged in trade, or, ai he put it, “ too many distributors and too few producers.” There is no doubt but that there is a great deal in that—no one could find fault with this explanation of the cause - of the depression so far as it went, but i it did not go far enough. He ought to 1 have added Mr Rolleston’s explanation, namely, monopoly in land, and he would t have divined the true cause as well as c the contributory causes. It is not with c this omission on the Premier’s part, ] however, that we find fault, although | jt is most remarkable that he scarcely t

referred to the land question at all. It is liie means of remedying our depressed condition that is erroneous. His remedy is further borrowing and more immigration. We know the arguments in favor of immigration. We know that population alone can develope the resources of a country and make it rich and prosperous ; but this does not hold good as regards this colony, for the very reason that the labor market is overstocked already, while the field for labor is narrowing almost daily. The cry of the unemployed, and the frequency with which the Government have felt constrained to procure employment for thousands of men who were on the verge of starvation during the past few years, ought by this time to have convinced Major Atkinson that further immigration was not only unnecessary but mischievous. If the unemployed cry failed to reach his ears, the fact that soup kitchens had to be established in some of our principal cities and that able-bodied men availed themselves of them, ought to have forced the Premier to realise the absolute cruelty of delud--1 ing men away from their homes to this colony where starvation was stating a large number of men in the face. Such are the experiences of the past few year*, and what are the prospects of the future? Simply that the labor market is getting narrower, and that the look- ■ out for the laborer is getting worse. Publ'c works, which have hitherto , absorbed a large number of men, are pretty nearly at a standstill. It is true that railways are being now constructed in Otago and the North Island, but only to a small extent compared with times gone by. Our Road Boards have most of their highways made, and the employment they now give is not onetenth what it used to be. Several largo estates, which a few years ago were let in allotments for cropping, are now laid dcwu in English grass, and the men > their cultivation employed must look out for something else. Two or three bad harvests in succession and low prices have had the effect of making farmers timid of launching out to any , great extent in cropping, especially now, when refrigeration has increased the value of stock and is likely to render pastoral pursuits highly profitable. ■ These, and many other reasons which might be adduced, are cogent arguments against the continuance of immigration. 3 The field of labor that existed in this 3 colony has been pretty well worked ont, P and no means of employment has been , started to absorb the surplus labor. With these facts staring in the face of 3 the Premier, can we have any confidence in him or his Ministry when further borrowing and more immigration, combined with strict economy, are the remedies he proposes to remove a depression which has been growing worse , and worse for the last five years. Our population is certainly not a quarter of 5 what our colony is capable of supporting, f nor is it one half of what it ought to be , considering the amount of money we have spent. The colony’s prospects were cruelly destroyed when the immigration and Public Works policy was inaugurated in 1870. In the first place, no effort was made to select : suitable immigrants, all classes being 1 accepted indiscriminately ; and in the second, no steps were taken to settle them on the land. If in 1870 the Government had taken the precaution of leasing instead of sel ing the land, we should have no depression now, and all the people we have in the colony would have been settled in comfortable homes. Or, if they had limited the area which any person should possess, and sold the land, things would not have been so bad. But, instead of that, they allowed companies, absentees and speculators to acquire a monopoly of it and derive immense benefit from the expenditure of borrowed money. About the year 1877 these speculators began selling their land. As the colony was then prosperous owing to the expenditure of borrowed money, and as no good Government land could be got, people rushed madly to the sales, and in their desire to secure homesteads for themselves began to bid against each other till they raised the price to a ruinous degree. The result was that land was bought far too dear, and as the people had not sufficient capital they find it now as much as they can do to pay the interest on the mortgage money. We dare say most people will remember the stereotyped phrase in all the advertisements of those days, namely, ten per cent on the fall of the hammer, t- n per cent in one or three months, the balance can remain on mortgage at seven per cent per annum. That balance is in many instances remaining still, and it is it that is the principal cause of the depression. In other cases the parlies were not able to pay the interest on it and they were ruined, while the land fell hack into the hands of the speculators. If the Government had retained the land in their own possession until the public works had given value to them and then sold them in small allotments for bona fide settlement, we should not be, as we are at present, groaning under a very severe commercial depression, and our population would be twice as large as it is.