Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER & ADVERTISER A SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1873. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 304, 15 November 1873, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER & ADVERTISER A SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1873. " MEASURES, NOT MEN."

We suspect that both the Colonial and London Immigration Departments are far from being effective. They started without enthusiasm. At first they were merely departments which looked very well on official returns. Of late, the ! press, and the Parliament, and the inex- > orable logic of events have inspired both departments with some enthusiasm ! Mr. Yogel has drawn his attention away from other matters which were m-<re catch-vote measures, and he has wisely put his shoulder to the immigration wheel, for he knows that railways, without population, are an enormous expense, uncompensated by commensurate extensive advantages. Hut enthusiasm may be wasted. It may " overflow " and wander where it is not wanted. The feverish enthusiasm which succeeds unjustifiable apathy is usually slightly superfluous in its energies. We now hear of a book on immigration written by New Zealand Superintendents, and edited by Mr. Yogel. We fear much that a blue book is forthcoming. Now, we don't want a blue book. Probably hosts of New Zealand blue b«»oks could be already picked up in any bookshop in Paternoster Row. What we want is a plain, attractive, showy advertisement. We want colored paper, and nneolored facts. We want big type, small type, and plain Anglo-Saxon vernacular. We wnn r special addresses to the navvy, the assistant farmer, the master farmer, the miner, and to the capitalist. We should not forget the capitalist. The hewer of wood, and the drawer of water is a prime necessity , but without capital we cannot build the necessary superstructure on his primitive efforts. Special addresses should be circulated, amongst every class ,

of artizans, who might be required for making or working the machinery used in manufactures. The food we eat, the drink we absorb, the clothes we wear, should all be manufactured in New Zealand. We have coal and water power — the two great agencies of manufactures. And our rulers should do all in their power to create a just balance between all the producing interests of the colony. A statesman would not burthen either his conacienceor the colonist by alienating, for ever, enormous acreage of land, which should be the heritage of communities yet unborn. We doubt much, the propriety of the State parting for ever with enormous quantities of land at all. But our immediate object is to secure population. We are of opinion that the means' used are not sufficiently democratic, and are not sufficiently various. We want, as agents, men who will do for immigration what Holloway has done for his pills, what Warren has done for his blacking, what Moses and Son hare done for their ready-made garments. Grand suites of offices in the most fashionable part of London may do as a part of the great scheme, but as nothing more. Our advertising should be familiar, popular, plain, and demonstrative. We should copy religious people "in one respect. We should allocate one division of the department into a factory for tracts. One tract might be written as follows : — "To England's Agricultural Peasantry. — i You can get' acres of good land in New Zealand for little expense. There you have a fine climate, good schools and churches, creeks and rivers, and political equality and no oppressive aristocracy. Apply, &c." Of course this is only one style of tract. Literally, thousands of tracts might be written, and a clever tractarian would embody in his tracts apt references to social grievances already existing in England. It is a literal fact that Mr. Joseph Arch, the chief delegate of the Leamington Agricultural Laborers Union, wrote to Dr. Featherstone, bringing the claims of his emigrant movement under tlw Agent-Oeneral's notice. What was the result ? Did the great political doctor reciprocratethe cry of distress from England's agricultural districts ? The The result tells its own tale. Not one farmer's laborer has ever been sent out to New Zealand by Mr. Arch ; and that gentleman is now on his way to America to .arrange for tbe wholesale immigration i of the people whose able representative [he is. Self — self — self — this is the "carriage" that stops the way in New Zealand. "I'll feather my own nest, and let the devil take the hindmost," this is the political w«t*hword of the hour. Our late Assembly was merely an auction j mart, in which votes were knocked down to the highest bidder ; bat we know that, in some cases, high bids were offered for subsequently accepted partyservices, for which, however, no pay was given, for Mr. Yogel is a great adept at '* Keeping the word of promise to the ear, And breaking it to the hope," Let it be borno in mind that our children's children will be well able to pay the interest of our loans ; but it must also be laid to heart, that if we do not compete more successfxilly with other countries in the work of securing population, we will not have sufficient "children's children " to wipe off the national liabilities. Population is the basis of all prosperity, and any ministry which substitutes political trickery for mere official self preservative purposes, for that kind of government which really builds up the colony, should receive merely temporary toleration, for the go* vernment was made for the taxpayers, not the taxpayers for the government. Wb interviewed the Goldfield» Secretary on Thursday last, as he passed through Lawrence, on the subject of the leasing of certain portions of the commonage. From our conversation with Mr. Bastings, we iind that there is not quite so much cause for anxiety as we had imagine 1. Ail the country the Government propose leasing in tbe Tuapeka District is situated beyond the Tuapeka Basin, and will only include land 1200 feet above the sea level. Bow Bells Flat and the country in that direction will not be included. The conditions of lease are that the land must be fenced in, and the boundary well defined. Every miner or business license holder on or in the neighborhood of the ground, will he allowed to run three head of cattle. When tills land is leased, all sheep on other portions of the commonage will then require to be removed . The Government, we are informed, are adopting this course for the purpose of raising more revenue from the commonage, and also for the purpose of settling the many disputes that arise between the sheep owners and the cattle owners ; but we think it will leave tbe question in a very unsatisfactory position. The lease of the land referred to will be offered for sale in January next, and we feel confident that* the right to the whole of it will be purchased by two or three individuals ; whereas, were it under the management of a Board of Wardens, who would appoiut a boundary for sheep, the grazing rights might be enjoyed by all who preferred depasturing sheep to great cattle. By the proposed leasing system, many of the sheep owners will be obliged to clear away their sheep, and be left out in' the cold — a course which is manifestly unjust towards them. We have done our best to induce the settlers and stock owners of the district to agitate 'for a Board of Wardenß, and if they will not act for themselves, they must be con tent to submit to what the Government provides for them.

The "OtagoTimos" possesses a curiosity, in tbe shape, of a comical law reporter, who lately reported as follows : — Witness here produced a large pair of shears, which ho held in a threatening manner, but as he could give no reason why they were produced, tboy in ere not taken in evidence.