THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1872.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 173, 29 April 1872, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. MONDAY, APRIL 29, 1872.

Emigrants about to leave tlie old country to try tlieir fortunes in the colonies do not seem to look upon New Zealand with particular favour. Yet the climate and resources of the country are second to none under the British Flag ! What then is the reason that people are not attracted here from England, Ireland, and Scotland in larger numbers, and that agents are being sent to bring out pauper Scandinavians, and the “ scrapings ” of Holland and the low countries, many of whom will find it a hard matter to live when they get here, and will, in all probability, take themselves off to Australia, America, or some of the Polynesian Islands, before they have been here any length of time ? The “ native difficulty,” of which all who read the current news of the day must have heard, has no doubt reached the ears of a large majority of British readers, and the astounding amount of taxation which every colonist here has to pay is doubtless not unknown to the more intelligent, and if there be any sight which is repugnant to a “ Britisher ” it is that of the tax-gatherer, of whom they see plenty at home, and don’t want to see him still oftener in the colonies. It must also strike those who hear of agents going about “ touting ” for immigrants that if the colony were really what they represent it to be there would be no need to keep constantly singing its praises. “ Good wine needs no bush,” and a good colony should in itself be able to attract population to its shores without adventitious aid. We who are on the spot know what a fine country New Zealand is naturally,and we know also how she is being misgoverned, but people at home must draw the conclusion that it must be a wretched place to require all these paid agents to go spouting about from place to place to induce people to come here. Moreover, with the exception of Dr Featherstone the agents chosen are not, in our opinion, the right sort of men to send for the purpose. They are mere political place-hunters, and wind-bags, through whose shallow speechifying the strong common sense of the working man in England will easily see. Were the native difficulty at an end, and the lands thrown open, and were ajudicious and economical administration in power here, who would lessen taxation, we believe that the colony would soon advertise herself without having to resort to the expensive “ mediums ” now in vogue. .Responsible Government has been a dear gift to New Zealand. Having got it, and it ought to be a great boon, it will not do to revert to the old nominee system, but the system in which the public funds are now administered, but must be altered greatly before the country can be prosperous enough to command a steady stream of immigration. Does anyone suppose the eloquence of the member for the Bay—such as it is—will induce any large amount of immigration from Nova Beotia? Is the Government aware that there are a good many people here already who came from that colony, and who no doubt correspond with tlieir friends and tell how things are going on in New Zealand. Nova Scotia is a tolerably prosperous colony, with an income of about one hundred thousand pounds a year, and light taxation. New Zealand

is a colony with an income of a million a year, is over head and ears in debt, living on borrowed money, and is the most heavily taxed portion of the British dominions, and does anybody suppose people don’t know this, or if they do not, that it is the duty of the press to point it out? We don’t want to see money wasted in sending agents to Europe to humbug people, and we don’t believe they will succeed, nor should we desire them to do so, if they endeavour to start on false pretences. We do hope that when Parliament meets a stop will be put to these useless appointments which are, we believe, being made chiefly as rewards for venal support in the Assembly. But the country cannot afford these expensive luxuries, and therefore they must be put a stop to. We have no doubt of the future of New Zealand being a prosperous one, but it must be left to the result of time and the natural course of events. An artificial system of forcing immigration from Holland and Sweden, and Nova Scotia, and perhaps China and elsewhere, will never succeed. Wc shall not get the right class of persons here by this means. The sort of immigration that will do the country and the immigrants any good must be strong, able-bodied men, able to do a day’s work, and people of capital. What we shall get under the forcing system will be a class of half-starved, diseased paupers, who will introduce poverty and misery to the Colony, instead of adding to its wealth and prosperity. The British, Irish, and Scotch working men will never be attracted here in large numbers unless taxation is lightened, and the settlement on the lands made more easy and lucrative. The imperative duty of the Government is to curtail expenditure, to reduce the Civil List by one half, at least, and to have no useless agents at home to deal out stipendiary eloquence—if eloquence it can be called —in praise of a Colony which, in spite of its great natural advantages, is, as almost everybody knows, the worst governed and most heavily burdened country in the world.