SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1272, 24 August 1880, Page 3

SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

Regarding a paragraph in the Times headed "Emigration to New Zealand," and drawing a very depressing picture of the state of that colony, Sir Julius Vogel writes to that journal as follows : — The writer has very much exaggerated the depression existing in the colony, and some of his statements are untrue, as, for example, that the cost of the bare necessaries of life is exorbitant. His warning to " the small capitalists at home not to come to New Zealand is a mistaken one, for never has the colony offered a better chance to such persons. The severe depression which has prevailed in the colony during the last twelve months arises from various causes. Chief among these I may mention the .withdrawal of much capital after the failure of the Glasgow Bank, the low price of wool, the contraction of the usual financial facilities, and the arrival in the colony of many unsuitable colonists. Just as this depression was commencing a singularly severe depression prevailed in this country. Numbers of persons in New Zealand communicated to their friends accounts of the great success they had met with, and thus a strong impulse towards emigrating to the colony arose. Under instructions, however, from my Government, I confined the selection of those emigrants to whom I gave assisted passages almost entirely to domestic servants, and to persons nominated by their friends in the colony. The result was that a large, unselected, and self-paying emigration took place last year of some 10,000 souls (whereas in previous years the average of sirailiar emigration was seldom over 3000 to 4000) an unusually large number of whom were not exactly suited for colonial life. Meanwhile the reduction in the price of wool and the diminished financial facilities lessened the demand for labor, and hence arose the cry of theunem ployed. From a colonial point of view, there has unquestionably been some distress. I use the words " colonial point of view," advisedly ; for the distress which the temporary excess of labor occasions in a colony, is no more to be compared with the suffering to which the working classes in this country are tog fre.-

quently subjected, than the extraction of a tooth is to be compared with the amputation of a limb. The one is temporary and more or less painful for the moment, the other beara not unseldom life-long consequences. Although there may have been some privation, there has not been anything like prolonged distress on this, or on former occasions. The Government have provided work at something less than the normal rate of payment, and with some discontent, such work is accepted. But there are always in the colonies at the very brightest periods some people unused to manual work, and not suited for colonial life, and i who therefore, fared badly at the times of depression ; and as there are no workhouses there, or any organised system of relief by means of poor rates, the complaints of such people are heard far and wide. The so-called depressions which occur from time to time in nearly every colony, while they last are very sharp, but equally so in the reaction. Wool has now risen in price; the returns for the present season's clip will greatly exceed those of last year, harvest has been more bountiful. A friend lately wrote to me, "40, 50, and even 60 bushels of wheat per acre are not uncommon, mine (500 acres of wheat), is estimated to give me 45 to the acre ; while of oats 60, 70, 80, and even 90 bushels are by no means exceptional." Lastly, money has become plentiful. When the winter is over a sharp reaction is likely to occur ; still for the present, persons without capital should not go to the colony. It is folly to suppose that an excess of labor has more than a temporary significance in a country like New Zealand. In the course of time it will support a population of. over 20,000,000. How absurd to think that it is overpopulated with less than half a million. But the nice adjustment of capital and labor is not an easy thing, and at times is likely to fall out of gear. At the present time labor requires capital to its aid, or I might, perhaps, more correctly say capitalists ; for, in the sense I wish to use the term, a man of very small means may be a capitalist. I can give no arbitrary exposition of amount. To all intents and purposes a young man, frugal, prudent, active, and not disinclined to " roughing it," may be practically a greater capitalist with £500 in his possession than the father of a family, demanding at the onset expensive luxuries, would be with £5000. To a person of small means, content to live frugally, and possed with a knowledge of agri* culture, New Zealand is a paradise compared with anything he can hope for at home. He may own instead of rent the land he farms ; he may revel in all the enjoyments of English country life ; and he may educate his children with a knowledge that bright careers will be within reach of his boys and good husbands forthcoming for his girls.