The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887. SELF RELIANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume I, Issue 2731, 22 October 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887. SELF RELIANCE.

[s the spectre of'Vogelism always to daunt us, are we always to be taking i hair from the dog that bit us, and is the grand policy of honest selfreliance upon which we are supposed to have entered, only a delusion and a 3nare ? The Wellington Evening Post writing upon the question of immigration says : We have no hesitation in saying that the expenditure of say £IOO,OOO within the next year or bo in assisting to pay the passaeo to this colony of suitable immigrants would do more to relieve the existing depression and restore general prosperity than any other means that oan poßsibly be devised, If the money had to be bonowed lt.would involve say an annual charge of £4,600. Probably a grant of something between L 7 and L 8 a head towards passage would suffice to enable this colony to compoto on comparatively equal terms with Canada and the United States for the best class, of immigrants. We should thus, leaving a margin for other expensos, gotbotween 12,000 and 14,000. souls added to our population, If these were of the claßi we believe might be iuduoed to emigrate to New. Zealand, they would bring with them between a million aiid a million and a half capital at least; for ho one ought to be brought out who has not a capital' of lay £IOO for each member of his family, Ist our storekeepers, meohanics, farmers, 'manufacturers,' &o-, consider, what an immense impetus would be given to trade of all sorts,by an influx of such iramigrauU-T all necebsartly (consumers for a time, and even when settled on the laftd and ranking as , producers, adding to the national woalth, without in any way competing with those already in the Colony. Business would soon present a very different aspect all over New Zealand if every d'rect steamer brought its load of small capitalist fmmi' grants to occupy the Crown lands of the Colony. Not only would trado of all olaßßes benefit, but the revenue would bo'largely augriiented. The immigrants would at onco begin to contribute" thoir quota-of taxation equal to any £3 -per head per annum, so that the colony would receive at least £3(1,000 a year of revenue in return for its expenditure in the way of interest of £4500 a year—surely an ample margin to supply a sinking fund which would quickly extinguish the capital debt. If a system of this sort of immigration wore inaugurated, of course facilities would have to be given the new immigrants to acquiro land ipn which to sottle. We believe the best class of immigrants-would prefer a freehold tenure to any other, and'we are inclined to think thatta revival of the old Otago land regulations, or, Borne niodificatiou thereof, would prove eminently satisfactory and workable. Allow the immigrants ;to select any surveyed lands of the Crown. 'at a-raoderate price, say even as low a's ; 10s an aere,;b : ut withhold the Crown grant unfilasum equal to another ,30s shall, within 'a given poriod, have been expended in improvements, Such a system 'ivould prove attractive, and lead to permanont and successful settlement.

The expenditure of £IOO,OOO on immi- j gration or on anything else at the': present time would undoubtedly tend to relieve tho existing dipreaaion, but is it honest wheu men now in New Zealand cannot make both ends meet, to bring 12,000 or 14,000 more, outr It might suit colonists to relieve the strangers of the million and a 'half of capital which the Post estimates they wonld bring with them, but is it quite the square thing to bring them across the seas to be.dispoiled of what, little, means they may possess. If experienced colonists with small'capitals now settled on the land cannot make a living off it, what chance' has a' stranger to thrive ? An immigration uoom has been part and parcel of our mad gambling policy in the past. Immigration enterprise is pure Vogelism, and'\ye have had pretty well enough of it fourteen' .or 'fifteen r years ago, when we were, toldthe story- that is now:'sungby the 1 Post,, It is a spec : iilation : up things'for : a time but which; ends in additional taxation and a bigger poor rate.' The- only right policy for New Zealand, is. one of self reliance, The duty of pur statesmen is to rnake the half' million people no\y in the colony happy and contented. That .half a million of people can thrive in this colony and pay its debts no one will doubt, but - then the disciples of Vogel want to force the growth of the colony by leaps and bounds. The line requires to be drawn with respect to borrowed money! If New Zealand settlers were prosperous, desirable immigrants—men with small capital —would come out to us at their own expense, Lot us make the colony go ahead by honest government, let us be self-reliant, and we shall not have to hunt for. immigrants, they will come hero fast enough if,the colony is worth coming to. Just now it is not, and we are not likely to make it so by deceiving and hoodwinking the English farmer; We do not say that the policy advocated by the Post could not be carried out successfully, but it is a

gambling policy, avid it lakes a smart man to gamble and win. Vogel is not smart enough to cany through such a policy, and who else can we trust with such an undertaking. ' ■. .