The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1886. SUCCESSFUL COLONISTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2481, 20 December 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1886. SUCCESSFUL COLONISTS.

Our contemporary in a recent article Ims put fnirly enough the question of protective industries from the point of view whifh hi; advocates, taking as his text the speech delivered by Sir 13u ciianan at the recent Mayoral banquet. Perhaps the only unfair inuendo in the article to whii h we refer is one where lie obviously alludes to Mr Bnchnnmi us a man yraduating for a wealthy absentee 1 .millord, No doubt Mr Biuihwiidn if lie chose couM at once take his. degree as a landlord of tbia

class, but hs hubs -chosen instiad it) dovotu his limo itni) to ml wine in» tho interests ot' tlio culonv generally, and of'this district in pai'iicular, iis.hu lihs elected 10 fill tho bonorabhbut laborious post of a-public servant, it is unjust as well us ungenerous to ascribe' to him ut desire to be mi excolonial Lotos-cater in London. If tlieie is out) thing more than another which is calculated to drive our best public men from following n colonial earner mid doing their duty as New Zealaud colonists, it is imputing to them sordid and unworthy aims, and abusing them for tho benefits which tliey in good faith and with an honest intention seek to confer on the colony. Wo take the following oxtract from the article of our contemporary Between the valuo to tho colony of tho grower of woo] and meat ami tho grower of cereals it is not ovr intention to draw.invidious distinctions, Tho farmer and grazier are .of importance in their respective plaeos, and;' hb ia Mr Buchanan's own case, tho two pUrsuitß are gradually booominp combined, liut since this question of combination and 00-operation has been raised wo may submit that ifchas more ' sidei than one, and that it is quite' possible to push a good thing to a bad eitrome, To not a ■faw thoughtful colonists it raustocour that, after all, tlie best work in the way of developing and improving tlio colonies is not performed by the exporter to the antipodes. He may be building up the London nwrset, and'by .good-management and watohing the foreign markets, and making the best possible arrangement with the carriers and commission egonts, he may bo. accumulating wealth for himself. But unless that wealth iB utilised in •inothor way than simply on the purohase of land and the extension of pastoral domains tho colony will not be a very material gaiuer. Tho true friend of the oolony is not the man who is graduating for the wealthy absentee owner, but the fanner or mechanic 'who spends his money where, he'earns it, aud who helps the market at his door. These are tboiuon that are building the colony on a solid baso and kecpiuj* it together, What ndvautagc is it to New Zealaud to have owners of largo estates Bonding Homo to London heavy shiploads of wool and frozen me.it and tallow and hides, and imputing in return, direct from the British capital, the food they consume, the machinery they employ, the clothing.they wear, and .the very rations for tho few hands they employ 1 ■ Will that sort of tiling enrich tlie culony or develop its mineral or industrial resources ? Will it make our towns, promote our trado and ctminerce, or assist our young manufacturing industries ? We need hurdly ask the question, it is absurd to expect that mere exporting and importing will push the colony ahc.id and attract population to our shores. Tlie true friends of New Zedland are those who assist our local markets and spending their money on the spot. Their wealth, confined to locJ channels, is building our tjwua and helping to make the manufucturer'and the tradesmen prosperous, With all due deference to the views of the member for Wairarapa South our strong advice to tiie farmer* and othor settlers of \Vairarapiv North is" stick to the ladder by which you liavo risen, and don't despise the bridge that carries youover," Dou't keep your'nose pointed to London. If you can git your food prepared, yonrolotkiug and boots made by the consumers m your neighborhood, do net pass over the operative and tradesman boc.iuse an apparently cheaper article it produced iu London. Charity begins at home, and so docs business. By patronising'local trade and helping local industries all that Mr Buchanan suggests will be effectually achieved j for markets will bo. established within the colony, popuhti.m will be attracted, and the produocr and consumer will be brought together in a way that will ronder the intrigues of shipping rings and refrigerator manufacturers impossible.

Our contemporary holds that tho colony is not a material gainer by the operations of men who, like Mr Buchanan, accumulate wealth by the purchase and improvement .ot' land." On' this point we differ, from him. About n dozen years ago Mr Buchanan invested in a block of land near Gladstone, and by bis industry and enwiprise he has made it yield ten fold what it produced when it came into his possession. Ho lias distributed tens of thousands of pounds in the Wairarapa among working.men and tradesmen, and if our contemporary were to make enquiries ut Carterton he would find that Mr Buchanan has been regarded for a considerable number of years as a benefactor to the community iu which he resides, and tliafc he lias materially benefitted this district by, as our contemporary piits it, "spending his money where he earns it and helping the market at his door." Our contemporary surely must be rhapsodizing wlitn lie asks what advantage is it sending homo shiploads of wool, meat and tallow 1 If these tilings were not sent home half of the good people of Masterton who now enjoy an income would bo penniless. The draper, the storekeeper and even tho newspaper proprietor would have lo shutim shop, and the significant ticket " to let" would be in every other window in Queen street. It is the wool nnd meat and tallow which have made our towns as tar as tl'.ey are madf, but our con .temporary evidently means that local industries can carry them « stase further-that a manufacturing com nuinity can be established which will perhaps change Masterton-from its present position of a fairly healthy mid prosperous country town of some four thousand inhabitants into a city of.! ten thousand souls, ilia greater part of whom will be engaged from Mmdiv morning till Satinday nigh;, in f'ifltonVs and workshops, This is tho develop men l whi:h will attract population to our shores, but heaven save us from itIt- is this development which Ins lii America wrought untold misery and destitution and made men like H-rnrv Gecfffl write under I be terrible titlo of ■' Progress and Poverty." We maintain that people come out to New Z'-hlhwl with the object of escaping the din and unhealthy-toil of numifsictnrin* centre?... Their ambition is to possess and. occupy land, and eo long as New Zealand can find ro)m for thi'in we contend that agricultural and pastoral pursuits are onr brflt industry. Tim tradesman ■may-think that if Mastertoii had it popuiat'o.i of ten th uisand ho could do a Mogul' business, but let hitn inflect that as population increases business competition increases and profits diminish. If any .man in Masterton'thinks ho has capacity and energy for a larger •business than this district under its present conditions will yield, we would say to him "don't wait for tho town to grow under a possible but uncertain protective policy, but start at-ionce in Wellington or Auckland nr Dunedin. Our contemporary endeavors'to enlist the sympathy of farmers on the side of protection by pointing out that with a larger town population there would be more local consumers. No doubt this would he the case, but railways and steamers have brought the.farmers in this neigliboibood in toueli; with the world's market, and a protective tariff would be ot'litfle use to them unless it was carried to the extent of establishing a custom house 011 the Rinmtaka and collecting duties there on all corn and produce brought into the district, Our advice to farmers is to imitate Mr Buchanan, to follow the example of the man who has found out how to Iraki? a profit off land, who litis practically demonstrated that money uiay

'in niiuli. l from l.hi! soil. We could point to hundreds of men who have doue well of! I'oMiims varying from forty acres to forty ihouumd by the exercise of thrift, industry, and intelligence. The goldmine of .the colony is tlie soil, and while we have millions of acres uncultivated, it is absurd to resort to artificial expedients to build up our prospcri'y. Even the workers in the woollen factory at Wellington, we hear, earn Ipsh money per hour than (he men who wield the hxh in the busli dr. trick The white slaves who toil ten hours a day amid the whirr 'of machinery for a miserable pittance are not our idea! of what a colonial should be ov ought to be. Physical degeneration characterise,! the maniifacting communities of the old world, and we would lam keep this foe alarms length in our Britain of th« South.