THE COLONIAL MARKET.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 328, 29 November 1879, Page 2

THE COLONIAL MARKET.

(To the Editor of the Wauarapa Daily) Sir—ln one of your issues I notice an article drawing attention to the want of a market for our produce, over production, and the fact of railways not making mar-kets-being simply a' menus of getting produce to them. I aru glad that you should have drawn public attention to these matters,_ considering that they are questions of vital importance in whichare enveloped the present and future welfare

—. "m—M—— of this colony. If questions of this nature were more freely commented upon to the exclusion of party politics, I am inclined to think that New Zealand would not now be m the state of debt that it is. Had legislators and the public generally some years ago considered where was the market for our produce when it increased to a large extent, it is possible that (the country might not have been committed to a scheme which, before carried qiit completely, will stagnate this colony' through taxation. Small farm and village settlements being the "cry "just now, it is the duty of peraonß advocating their establishment to take into serious, consideration the question of markets and outlets, for upon this question rests the success or otherwise of the scheme. Markets for the produce of a countiy are undoubtedly one of its greatest necessities, and one without which no country can become great and rich. Look at England ! What made it great but its productions and markets 1 In New Zealand there is little or no market or of any consequence near at hand, our principal one being some 16,000 miles awaj s in En* land* and this liable to fluctuations" ancT competition, Upon this market, it be good or bad, we have to depend for our very existence (money); and so in-. timately are we connected with the old X country in this matter that it behoves ui all to watch with the greatest care the depressions and competitions to which it iB liable or likely to become liable in the future. For many years we must do this, we are not strong enough to go alone; we must have the old country's strong hand to lean upon to help us become a great and prosperous people., That the present depressed state of trade and all industries in England is detrimental to us here, is a fact only too painfully patent to all, and should it continue stagnation of all industries will be the result. This, coupled with heavy taxation, means very hard times for the inhabitants of the colony. Taking into consideration the manner in which foreign manufactures are driving English out of the markets of the world, the impoverished state of the farmers consequent on high rents and the introduction of com * and beef from America and elsewhere, there is reason to think that there may be a state of depression in England for some few years to come. Did the enunciate of the Public Works scheme look ahead and take these possible contingencies into account when launching that scheme? I should imagine not! For had they done so, we should not have seen the country in the state it is. With regard to the railways, they are of eminent utility in a country opened previously with roads, and where there is sufficient produce and markets to carry it to. Half-finished railways we have, ou? roads but indifferent, and no market but for a very limited amount of produce. In fact, a sort of cart before the horse policy js what the country is committed to, There are scores of people who tell you that immigration was to be the means of making the Public Works-, scheme a sue- ' v Possibly it might have done good had it not been a " pauper immigration." Men without money were brought to the colony to work out its salvation. Who ever heard of thousands of men without money or practical experience making a country rich ] Doubtless it made a few individuals richer from getting labor a little cheaper and giving a fictitious value to land, enabling a few speculators to sell their rabbit-devastated land and clear of the country like rats leaving a sinking ship. Have we not actually borrowed money to bring these immigrants out here and give them work-work which turning out unremunerative to the colony ill matiy instances 1 Are we not about to give them our land (money) to settle them as farmers ? Men without capital to start producing in a country where there is no nn l "^ 6 ' 1 ' Veril y> a w ' Be proceeding. What are they to produce, and where sell it ? If we are to have small farmers here, then let us induce men with capital to come amongst us; men, say, of the Eng. lish tenant farmer class, who would bring experience as well as money to help thera with the land. It is not, I trust, too late to induce men of this class to settle here, Many in England who through high rent and competition have been and will be obliged to givo up their farms, would no doubt gladly come if inducements wero offered. Give these men every facility for acquiring land if they only bring money enough to work it. We have in an indirect way been giving land to pauper immigrants by mortgaging the public estate to pet them here. Then why not encourage men trained to win their bread from the land, and who would help make the wilderness productive. We do not want a class of loafers here, men too lazy to work, who only hang about the towns or travel the country on the ' wallaby," ostensibly looking for work, but in reality praying for sunset a feed and shakedown at the first squatter s homestead; men who cry out about want of employment, cursing the country and the Government because they cannot obtain it: these can do a country no good. ■

I have no wish to run down small farmera, quite the reverse, and would gladly A see numbers of them prosperous; and with this end in view I consider that if we are to have small farm settlement it ii hopeless to tluuk of them being a success unless the individuals settling upon the land have capital in proportion to tha amount of land they acquire. If with an x i unstable market, heavy taxes, and other V drawbacks men with capital find the times hard, it will fare far worse with those who have to borrow money to work the land. Small landholders without 'capital, I take it, are a class of people who, from the outset, would simply be a prey for capitalists and usurers, who would sap the very life-blood of their existence. I seo little, or no essential difference between being ground down, in England by a landlord to being served the same in New Zealand by a money lender. , works to the same end, the rich get richmfiSi'i and the poor poorer. 7T !

France is held up, and no doubt justly so, as a bright example of what a country in the hands of small proprietors may become, I do not wish to doubt that Prance may owe gome of Her greatness to this source; but I say there is a very great difference between Frenchmen aud Eng. lishmeii, especially to the laboring classes of birth nations. It is pretty generally admitted that the former are a careful provident race 6f people, while, on the other hand, the English . laborers are the most improvident race of civilized peonle on the face of the earth. It does not naturally foil' w that because a provident face have a country, great thresh having small holdings that a like circumstance will of necessity take place with an improvident one. ,lask v are we.going to alter the natures of the English laborer in a few years by making them all care'ul money-saving people ? The task, I h a i gme, will bo a very difficult one, if not impossible. The Government of New Zealand, at any rate, judging from its own extravagance, iu not;: pre-eminently

calculated to inculcate habits of carefulness and thrift in a population livinir under its regime. Looking ahead, I can see 110 very bright prospect in score for tho grain producers of this colony. The large areas of land now under cultivation in California, and the Btill larger extent that at any time Way be 'utilised for agriculture in the Argentine Republic (River Plate), point to competition on a large scale. Our live stock, I think may be made of much greater value than they are at present if their rearing and breeding is united with agricultural pursuits, On this subject I purpose making a few remarks at a future date if. Mr Editor, you will kindly allow me space in your columns. lam,'&c,, ' A New Zealander. .