The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1888. N.Z. LOAN AND MERCANT LE AGENCY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1773, 7 August 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1888. N.Z. LOAN AND MERCANT LE AGENCY.

Tiuc New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company has paid a dividend of 15 per cent., and carried £15,300 to the reserve fund. In the face of the terrible depression this is good, and it gives us a clear indication of where the money goes. Almost the whole of the shareholders of this institution live in England, or in some other foreign country, and the immense sura which goes to pay this dividend annually leaves the colony for ever. So long as every penny we make is drained away in this manner we cannot have the prosperity which we ought to have, considering our extraordinary resources. The principal cause of Ireland’s poverty is absenteeism. Just as in New Zealand, those who have money invested in Ireland live in other countries, and her wealth is being continually drained away. There is this difference between the two, countries cannot help it, she is coerced into it, but New Zealand can. New Zealand can make her own laws, but Ireland cannot, and consequently the latter is not to blame. It appears to us that the prospects of Ireland are brighter than those of New Zealand. Irishmen are willing to sacrifice their lives and their liberties in the, cause of their country—New Zealanders are content to sit down as miserable slaves of foreign money-lenders. Irishmen are ready to bleed for their country —New Zealanders are willing to allow foreigners to bleed them. But it is useless to pursue the subject. In his speech the Chairman of the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company said the prosperity of the colony depended on “the extended occupation of the soil by placing practical farmers on our country lands, by a system of assisted immigration and money being advanced, as now in operation in America and Canada. Bail way log-rolling, opening up country of the same description as we already have millions of acres opened up and available for settlement, is simply a criminal waste of money, only adding to our existing burden of indebtedness, and not yielding any return to relieve us from it. That money expended in the manner I have named would speedily change the whole aspect of the colony. We may retrench here a little, and there a great deal, but after all the colony will only be a little less or a little more in debt; but it will have remained as to progress -in etatu, quo, and it will not have advanced in material prosperity, and I confidently assert that it cannot and wont advance until it has fallen back on the only true source of wealth to all nations—that which proceeds from the occupation and cultivation of the soil. We must have a greatly increased agricultural population or we most assuredly will retrograde.” This is worth looking into. The proposal is to bring out more immigrants; to settle these immigrants on the land, and to advance money to them to enable them to work it. All this of course is to be done by the Government. We agree with the proposal to settle farmers on the land, but if the State is to adopt a semi-charitable system iu pursuance of that object, by all means let the charity begin at home. Let us settle our own pjpula tiou on the land first, and then if we find it necessary we can extend our charity to other countries. But we wonder how many of those interested in the Loan and Mercantile Company share this newly-developed desire to extend land settlement, as suggested by the Chairman of it. It is a bright meteor—and only a meteor we fear — that has lighted up suddenly the darkened firmament of that institution’s latter-day history, and it is no wonder that we should like to know the why and wherefore of it. We know that for a positive fact the agents of the Loan and Mercantile Company will not sell the laud they bold, and consequently it looks strange

that the Chairman of the institution should advocate land settlement. It is stranger still that be should advocate that the State should advance money to people to enable them to settle on the land. Only last year Mr Ballanee was almost pilloried for having advanced a few pounds to settle on farms of their own the unemployed of the colony, but here we find the Chairman of the Loan and Mercantile Company advocating the adoption of the same system wholesale. This is indeed extraordinary ; it is enough to make people ask hare wo come to the end of the world, or reached the millenium, or has everything been turned upside down, that such a proposal should emanate from such a source. One thing we shall say, however, If the . Company shares the opinions of its Chairman they can do a great deal towards land' settlement. They can cut up into small farms their immense estates, and either sell or lease them on reasonable terms. But this they are not doing, though: largo numbers of people are at present looking out for farms; they will not sell, and consequently we must come to the conclusion that all this about land settlement is only a miserable,• canting, hypocritical. effort to throw dust in the eyes of the public, in the hope that we shall be persuaded that the Company is as anxious to settle people on the diners. Let the Loan and Mercantile Company practice what it preaches, and then we shall worship at its shrine.