OUR LOSS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1731, 1 May 1888, Page 2

OUR LOSS.

Me Dowhie Stewart, M.H.R, in his speech in Dunedin last Wednesday evening, sard that every man who left New Zealand was a loss of £250 to the colony. This is considerably over our estimate of the loss. We stated that every immigrant brought into this colony cost us £2O, and that every one who left took away at least £lO, making in all £3O. Of course, it is obvious that such an estimate is entirely below the mark, but we did not wish to raise an alarm, or exaggerate the evil. The value of a man’s labor, the interest we have to pay on the money wo borrowed to bring him into the colony, and many other considerations, ought to be taken into account, and, if this is done, we fancy Mr Stewart will not be far wrong. If so, what will our loss be this year? Three persons took away £SOOO between them from Invercargill the other day, and doubtless many others have left with la'ge sums of money to their credit. Our loss this year will be enormous; at the lowest calculations it must exceed a million pounds. IE people continue to leave the colony at the rate they have been doing for the last three months, we shall lose about 10,000 persons this year, and, if each of these is worth, as Mr Stewart says, £250, it means that we shall lose two and a-half millions. Supposing the calculation exaggerated by one aud a half millions, we shall still lose one million pounds. In a country where depression is the result of all the money we can beg, steal, or borrow, having to be sent out of the colony, such an unexpected drain as this must intensify the misery. The natural conclusion anyone must come to, therefore, is that things must get even worse than they are at present. This is a sad look out, but it is only what we richly deserve. We have the best country on the face of the earth, and our brainlessness has ruined it. Perhaps the crushing effect of the next three years will have taught some of us a lesson by the next election, and induce us to vote for the rights of.man instead of the rights of moneyrings. If Protection had been adopted, factories would be springing up now, and men would have a good deal of work to do in erecting them. If, also, the Land Acquisition Bill had passed, and the Government were cutting up large estates, there would have been a great deal of work in making fences and building houses for the settlers. Instead of the people leaving the colony the population would have been increasing; there would have beeu more to purchase and consume the products of the soil and to share in the burden of taxation. As it is, our debts are increasing, our population is lessening, and wo are going daily from bad to worse.