The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1885.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5251, 16 November 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1885.

Oxe of the chief sources of the depression wbieb. now ejcigts all over the colony is very palpably the insecarity and uncertainty caused by our e?er changing laws affecting the rights of capital and the tenure of land. These are formidable obstacles to the creation and the iaire&s* injjof wealth, as they drive many oat of the colony after they hare mnde their^money, fearing tbeif jpoj-jessioß of it would be

apordized by exceptional or excessive ixation. If more capital were available, lore land could be utilised, and fresh idustries developed and fostered. To btain this capital, we should by all the leans in our power encourage its acamulation and retention in our colony, istead of frightening it away as wo are ow doing, by establishing a,want of con < dence in the future moderation of the sgislature of New Zealand. It is not so moh the capitalists who suffer as the orrowers of money and the laboring lasses. We bear the cry of the nnemrtoyed in all our large cities and towns, nd of falling wages, but wages are educed owing to paucity of capital, and a rue remedy for an over abundance of abor is to promote the growth of capital. Pherefore any legislation which has the ffect of restricting this is prejudicial to he interest of the indostrial classes. iVealth, as we all know, is the product of i judicious partnership between capital md labor; without labor capital can do lothing, but without capital there is no und to pay labor. What we want in SW Zealand is more capital, not bor•owed money, the interests of which goes o be spent in England, but bonm fide lettlers with .capital. Yet this class re cannot hope to attract to our ibores so long as the legislation regarding taxation is ever changing. For it is not so much the present amount >f taxation which deters capitalits, as the incertainty for the future. We should take steps to attract to this colony part of the immense stream of immigrant farmers who possess capital of their own, which is innually flowing out of Great Britain, but which now in a great measure finds its way into (he United States, and Canada, and only %. very small portion inieed reaches our shores. We do not (Fonder at it when we consider the restrictions of our land laws in comparison with the very favorable terms offered by Canada. For instance, there, small farms sf 160 acres are practically given away, with the light to purchase other land at 3s to 10s per sere, and with very easy conditions as to improvements and conditions. There are thousands of small practical farmers with moderate capital who would gladly come to Kew Zealand, where the climatic advantages are so greatly superior, if we would only assist them towards the cost of their passage, and allow them to take up land, without stipulating that it should be Crown lands What does it matter to Government whose land is occupied so long as it is occupied ? An immense area of land, fit for settlement and cultivation, has been acquired on speculation, and it lies waste and useless, while all the land that can be offered to induce immigrant farmers to come out is poor land, without means of communication, and at a distance from markets.