The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1891.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 143, 18 June 1891, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1891.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For tho wrong that needs reuictancß, JFor the future in tho distance, And tho good that yre can do.

A special interest attaches to that part of the Colonial Treasurer's Financia 1 Statement in which reference is made to the exodus of population from the colony. The announcement that last month the departures from our shores were in excess of the arrivals by more than 1,300 souls, demands serious attention; and the fact that precisely during the last few years, when our increased wealth - producing power is shown by the rapid increase of exports, large numbers of the artisan and labouring classes should leave us to seek their fortunes in Australia, appears at first sight phenomenal. Everyone finds it easier to admit the fact than to indicate the cause or discover the remedy. It is not satisfactory, as Mr Ballance reminds us, merely to repeat the cry that the cessation of public-works is the cause of the exhaustive emigration which is depleting our population. Possibly not. Popular cries are not always to be trusted, although sometimes the people divine the truth as by a passionate instinct when it is hidden from the eyes of politicians. The opinions even of members of Parliament and of capitalists who have presumably given some attention to the subject differ widely as to the causes of depression. Leaving secondary causes, there are, however, a few broad facts respecting which all are agreed, and a contemplation of which shows clearly that the present emigration is mainly a natural effect of the cessation of borrowing.joinedto thefactthat precisely atthe time when the money we could devote to public works was shrinking, the neighbouring colonies were merrily scattering their borrowed millions and offering a rate of wages which had an irresistible attraction for people who began to experience difficulty in obtaining remunerative employment in our own colony. The pass at which we have arrived was predicted by a few far-seeing men when, a score of years ago, we inaugurated a policy of extensive borrowing, unaccompanied by any far-reaching scheme for settling the immigrants we proposed to introduce upon the lands, so as to secure their becoming bona fide settlers, instead of forming a floating town population, which would take wing directly expenditure of borrowed money ceased. In iB7o our public debt was quoted at something over seven millions, with a population under a quarter of a million. A glance at the following figures shows the rapid growth of the public debt for the period extending from December, 1870, to De[cember, 188S :—

The figures quoted show an increase in the public debt for eighteen years of more than 29 millions, while the amount of net indebtedness per bead of the population rose from 14s 7d in 1870 to ;£6o 17s 6d m tBBB. From this enormous annual expenditure, distributed among a population which in 1870 numbered less than 250,000 souls, the outlay upon public works has been suddenly contracted, owing to the stoppage of borrowing, until last year the total amount spent by the Colonial Government out of loans was only During the borrowing period we introduced 112,000 immigrants at the expense of the colony. The bulk of the people brought in by our scheme of assisted immigration settled in the towns. They were influenced by various reasons. One very substantial one was that they found the prime lands of the coiony already largely in the hands of monopolists: In some places the land offered for settlement was far re-

moved from centres of population, while the intervening country was held in vast estates for sheep runs, under the pretence that it was not suited for agricultural purposes. This exploded fiction served its' day in the neighbouring colonies as well as our own, and has always been a potent hindrance to legitimate settlement. New arrivals found little inducement to take up land at a great distance from markets, when a high rate of wages was to be obtained even for unskilled labour on public works. They naturally sought fortune in the towns, and their children have grown up with tastes which lead them to value city life above rural pursuits. With cheap fares to Australia, and with the inducements held out to working men by the lavish public expenditure there during the last few years, we cease to wonder that when work fails in our towns our young men seek to share in the excitement of the monetary scramble in Melbourne or Sydney, rather than endure the hard life of settlers iv the remote districts of New ; Zealand.

The Premier's reference to the wonderful expansion of our exports goes far to prove that the colony is sound at the core, and that the wealthproducing classes have not withdrawn themselves to any appreciable extent. We do not say that this view of the case causes us to view our shrinking numbers with equanimity, but it is a proof of steadily-increasing national wealth, and where is the case an inflow of population is only a matter of waiting for the turn of the tide. In ISBB our exports amounted to 2 5» in l 8 to and in 1890 to Thus, during the years when Mr Ballance says " the steamers to Australia were greatly crowded," we gave the clearest evidence of our recuperative pewers. Our staple products of wool and frozen meat both showed a great advance last year over the preceding ods. The returns .for frozen meat in IS9O show an increase of 10,000, or nearly 40 per cent., upon the previous year, while the wool returns show an improvement of

In a colony where we already produce four times the amount nee jssary for our own consumption, it is evident that for many years to come our productive powers will only be limited to the extent to which we eire hampered in finding suitable markets, Our exports to Australia were abnormally large in 1889, owing to the disastrous drought experienced in that country. It was only natural, therefore, that in the following year they should show a falling off of over half a million, and we had simply to fall back upon the London market again, our exports to which for IS9O show an increase of over The comparative value of our export trade even in our time of deepest depression is shown by the fact that during the last three years our excess of exports over imports amounted to ,£8,391,125 ; for the same period the figures tor New South Wales stand at while Victoria shows an excess of imports over exports amounting to

For some time to come each colony will be thrown largely upon its own resources. Signs are not wanting that the inducements which have led so many of our artisans and labourers to crowd to Australia are already ceasing to exist. The state of trade in the Australian capitals will soon cause our working men to fully realise this. The high rate of wages offered at Broken Hill is no doubt an incentive to our miners, and the prospect of cheap land in Western Australia to our agriculturists, but the majority of those who have left are not miners nor farmers. They are men who want to find work in the towns. For the present the Australian colonies have played out the borrowing game. They ate face to face with the difficulty of providing work for their own overgrown populations. With the practice that has grown up of an undue proportion of colonial population massing itself in towns, there will always be a tendency on the part of a large floating population to abandon one colony for another where public money is being lavishly squandered, and the colony which has borrowed millions to scatter will be for the time being the centra of attraction.

If the view we have taken is correct, we need not look far afield for the main cause of the exodus. We were ceasing to spend borrowed money while Australia presented itself as the Et Dorado of the working man. The borrowed millions there are quickly vanishing, while the crowd of unemployed in Sydney and Melbourne is increasing. It remains to be seen whether the liberal land policy of the Ballance Government will prove sufficiently attractive to stop the exodus and to invite back population to our shores.

Date. Not t Indebtedness1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 187S 1879 1880 1S81 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1883 ... ... £7,384,547 ... 8,397,447 ... 9,328,322 ... 10,109,301 ... 12,408,935 ... 16,299,912 ... 17,388,155 ... 19,252.273 ... 20,930,184 ... 22,153,079 ... 26,582,911 ... 27,455,218 ... 27,773,215 ... 28,670,317 ... 29,877,579 ... 32,572,492 ... 34,138,512 ... 34,954,035 ... 35,971,771