The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1890. IMMIGRATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2002, 1 February 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1890. IMMIGRATION.

G. G, Stead, Esq., champion political reformer, Christchurch, and importer of Californian wheat, by which he destroyed our farmers’ chances in the Sydney market, has been airing his superior knowledge at a conference of Chambers of Commerce in Dunedin. There is nothing, he says, for this colony but immigration on a large scale. He urges that there are 36,000,000 of acres suitable for settlement in this colony which are still in the hands of the Crown, that our coal fields are extensive, and our industries capable of great expansion, and we want nothing but a Home population, so as to provide a Home market. We know that what we want is population ; we know that our mineral wealth is much more than is stated by Mr Stead, and we know that a Home market is the best. All this we know full well, but we know too that Mr Stead and those who agree with him stand at the gateway to these sources of wealth and bar the way. 'i here is where the difficulty comes in:—We cannot get the land to settle on, and. we cannot | getProteetion to develop our resources,) for Mr Stead and his friends, while making fine speeches, push us back wheneyer we attempt to move forward. We are told that there are 36,000,000 of acres capable of cultivation still in the hands of the Crown in this colouv, in the development of which Mr Stead would employ new chums. Three j years ago Mr Ballance tried to settle the old chums of this colony on | this land, but Mr Stead and others formed a Political Reform Association to hurl him from power. How mark the gulf between Mr Stead’s utterances and his actions. A few years ago, he, with others, condemned Mr Ballance for spending a few pounds on settling the unemployed of the colony on the land ; now he wants us to import new chums to settle on it. This is about the most extraordinary conception of political economy we have come across in all our experience. It is a crime to spend a few pound s in settling on the land the unemployed of the colony; it is a virtue to spend thousands on immigration and settling new chums there. There can be no doubt that it would be a good thing if some class were settled on the land, and if the Stout-Yogel Government had not been turned out of office we should have a great many more on it than we have. The Stout-Vogel Government were doing exactly the best thing that could possibly have been: done towards that end. They were bringing into the colony men with capital and settling them on land, and they were clearing the streets of the unemployed under their special settlement scheme. If they had been allowed to continue this policy, and also their scheme of land acquisition, there would have been thousands more settled on the land now, and the wealth of the colony would have been increased. Unfortunately, however, the evil counsels of Mr Stead and his friends prevailed, with the result that the people left the colony by thousands. And now we ask; What good could possibly accrue from resuming the immigration policv and pouring penniless people into this colony ? How could such people hew down forests and bring them under cultivation ? How could they dig down into the bowels of the earth and bring up the mineral wealth which lies concealed there f How could they expand industries if they have no money to invest P Population industriously and profitably employed is a blessing; population standing at street corners without anything to do is a burden to a country. There is only one result which could accrue from resuming immigration, and that is the lowering of wages to starvation point, the increasing of the number of dependents for existence on charitable aid, and the consequent increase of taxation. We should, first of all, have to pay taxation on the money which would be invested in immigration, and we should hare to pay rates for maintaining the immigrants on charitable aid. Talk of„ indiscnmate immigration in the face of the fact that it has been found necessary to appoint a commissioner for the purpose of inquiring into and finding a remedy for the sweating system, and while only for the flax industry thousands would have been unemployed I To resume immigration under existing conditions would be disastrous, and though our legislators are capable of great folly we hope they will not reach that degree of madness wheich would induce them to resort to such a policy.