CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1772, 28 August 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

MR G. PHARAZYN; ON' THE STATE m THE COtiGNY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l have just read with' very great pleasure your reports of- Mr , Buchanan's pre-sessional speeches., T ( do not write for the purpose of paying him a compliment, but to congratulate : the district on being represented by one who takes such a clear, biisinessJike view of the position of matters. Thg, compliment T woiild pay is one to the electors, who had the good sense to. appreciate and accept his views, This fact shews a great advance in political education and the times when Mr Buuny's very different ideas were popular, and ; when I was declared to be " a croaker'"'because I ventured to foretell the Hlatey/rf thing's which all borrowing and lavish expenditure would end in. The point, wliich pleases me most of all in Mr Buchanan's views is that he declared himself quite opposed to the parrot-like cry which has been repeated from end to end-.of the colony that " trunk lines of railway must- be completed." So far as I have'read the various speeches made, he is the only member who had declared this opinion. He is undoubtedly right. It is most extraordinary that anyone can fail to see that, till the population is largely increased and. there is a real demand for land for settlement, it is useless to open fresh country, and that every mile of trunk line constructed will simply be so much dead weight to be borne by existing lines, with the'certainty of reducing the average returns, per mile on the whole, I have contended from the very beginning of Yogel's policy that bis fundamental error was in the idea of constructing trunk lines, and all experience has con firmed this. What New Zealand really required was, first of all, to connect all , its best districts with the ports, the lines being, as far as possible, so located that they might be pushed on with the advance of settlement and connect ports with each other. While most cordially agreeing with Mr Buchanan so far, I

differ from him entirely in his idea that • the present depression of the colony is not so serious as represented, and that it arises from temporary causes. I wish it were so, and hope I may prove wrong; but I feel sure in saying this he is doing harm, by inducing people to go on in the belief that" something will turn up," It. will no doubt be said that I am taking a personal view,

but 1 ask those who think so to face fads, and they will see that unless we have some great discovery of gold there is nothing before the colony but difficulties. Still, they are difficulties which can be overcome if faced at onx. The danger is in going on blindly—trusting to chance.

From a variety of causes, which I need not go into, the value of produce all over the world has fallen enormously. Wo think the fall in the value of wool very serious, but it

is nothing to what lias taken place in such articles as., sugar, tea, coffee, and wheat. I happen to know a numbar

of formerly wealthy people who have

been all but ruined by the fall in value of these articles. New Zealand

is so far fortunate thut her main exports are animal products, as wool, tallow, meat, etc., and the fall in these has been so much li-ss serious than in vegetable ones. That the averago range of values is likely to continue on a very much lower basis than for the ten years 1870-80, all authorities are agreed, and the idea that " prices must rise" must be abandoned—that is to say that no great rise can be expected. We have probably reached about the lowest point for animal products, though vegetable ones will probably still continue to fall, particularly wheat, which is likely to sink to a level which will almost entirely shut out any from New Zealand out ot European markets. As it is clear that we must export largely in order to meet the demands on the colony for interest, etc., it appears to me that the one thing to do is to develop its resources in the way of increased animal produci tions. To make even these pay, the cost of production must be decreased, and this is where, as I pointed out years back, the full evil of our reckless borrowing will be felt. The producer, as a result of this, is more heavily weighted all round, first by direct taxation of all kinds, then by increased rates of interest of money in consequence of property tax at present and the uncertainty as to its future amount, and the general tendency to frighten capital away ; he has to pay high wages betausc, by taxation, etc., the country has been made an expensive one to live in; and last, but not least,

he finds a constant competitor in the labor market in the Government, who can, of course, afford to pay high rates out of borrowed money, and when this is squandered the unfortunate settler who has been able to survive all this is heavily taxed again to pay the interest on loans.

Things have come to this state, the " last straw" has been lifted, ready to place on the back of the colony, by Mr Waterhouse in his advocacy of protection. This is now the great fight which the colony has to go through, and country settlers must not blind themselves to the fact that it is a matter ot life or death to them, If beaten in this they will soon find, as the farmers in the Western States of America have long since done, that they only exist to support the large cities, and that the load once placed on them will be almost impossible to remove, I appeal to every settler in the Wairarapa, and to Messrs Beetbam and Buchanan in particular, to fight this out to the last and risk ail party questions as of infinitely small importance as compared with it. Fortunately the district has in its two members men who can, from their own personal experience, give the most emphatic denial to the following extreme statement made by Mr Waterhouse:—" As regards this Northern Island, it may confidently be said that it will no longer pay to clear and cultivate unimproved land, covered as it is with bush, fern, and ti-tree, even if the freehold could be obtained for nothing." If this were really the case, the colony must indeed be ruined. But one of the best answers which «w be given'

' ' '• ' " ft to such a statement is that Mr Bee^ir

tham, when in England, became a director of a company formed for the ••■ purpose, amongßt other things, of buying and improving land in this despised North Island I will undertake to say that both Messrs Beetharo and Buchanan, and many .other practical men I could name, would have no difficulty in finding land in the. North Island on which, not only thousands but some few millions of money might be invested on improvements with highly profitable results, even on the basis of present low prices. In doing this, loo,Uifiy would employ M universal amount ot labor at gooc? .steady -* wages, but, o£ course, could not compute in the labor market" with the Government it-,they began the reckless expenditure of a few more millions. If the position is, placed as I have said, and. if the colony will recognise the fact (which you so.well pointed out in alleading article iri one of your papers just received) that the'question isnoi' who is to pay the taxes, but how mii» they can be reduced, taxation in itself being the evil and not its incidence,then the colony will in a few years be able to laugh at its present difficulties and take the really sound position to which it is entitled. ,Hk I am, etc,, 1 * ~0. Pharazyn. France; July lltli,il 884.