CAPITAL AND COLONISATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 91, 19 April 1893, Page 2

CAPITAL AND COLONISATION.

(To tho Editor.)

Su.,— Lately you wero pood enough to allow mo space whon I tool; exception to certain statement, contained in two of your leaders. Will you now give me an opportunity of expressing the gratification with which 1 read many of the statements and expressions of opinion contained in your leader of the 3rd instant, dealing: with the Colonising Company reported to have been formed in London. So valuable do 1 consider some of these statements that I should like, if possible, to emphasise them. In the course of the article you point out that not lone ago tho lives oi our farmers were hard and their labours profitless; that tbe demand for their products was confined to a very limited population, and thab to supply the local demand was a difficulty, from the scarcity of good roads and from bhe absence of railways. You then show that the agricultural and pastoral exports were almost confined to wheab, wool, and tallow, and even these staple articles were greatly diminished in value by the cost and length of time occupied in their transit by infrequent sailing vessels. Then you depict the change which has taken place through the making of roads and building of railways. Following on this are several sentences embodying several admissions of fact, which 1 am cerbain cannot bub mcc. with the most emphatic approval of your intelligent readers, and the reflective portion of tho community. These aro your word., and I should like to quote them io full:-" Bub roads and railways were of little comparative value until tho in brod uc tion of the invention of freezing meat, the development of creameries, bubter and chocso factories, and the establishment ot 'rrcab lines of woekly steamers running direct to London, wibh tbe necessary coo! chambers for the conveyance m excellent condibion of meat, bubter, cheeso and fruit. These appliances have revolutionised the whole export trade. The variety or our exports was thus greatly extended, and bheir profitable handling has resulted m extraordinary benefit, to farmers, m the preat increase of land settlement, and in the solid progress of the colony. Under such advantageous conditions, there is nothing surprising in the steady and growin" demand t.r land for settlement. 'What a tribute is this to the benefits of capital! And whab an answer bo the agitator whose occupation is to foment discord bebween capital and labour! Whon, however Mr Rolle-bor. and Mr Bruce ridiculed the claims of the Ballance Government to the credit of whab you have so clearly shown to be due to other and totally different causes, the admirers of tho present Government would have none of it. Toward, the end of the article you applaud a plan for tho disposal of the proposed Lompany■» lands in "larger farms lor men of larger capital, intermingled with etna let lioldwne for men of small moans, who* nrplu* labour would be available .or the larger fanners io the la*/U of both." Die wisdom of this scheme is at once apparent, and your proposal is a repetition, ID another form, of the tribute referred to above, and yet I have heard similar suggestions howled at by politica lunatics in the City Hull. Finally, I should like to refer to tho indirect tribute you pay to papitul, and to the pioneer Bottler, when you =ay " the land is already under cultiva tion, producing meat, wool, butter etc., thus avoiding mark of the ml and hardship, and all the lot* of lime in bringing wild land under cultivation." And yet, sir tho people who are incurring this cosb and hardship, and havo to submit to this loss of time, and loss of interest on money expended, are Ind Led with a graduated tax. On this t question, I differ from the remark, contained it) your article bearing upon lb.

but already I have trespassed on your space sufficiently.—l am, ebc, W, Read Bloomfield. [No sensible man objects to capital receiving a fair and equitable return from its investment; and if big land-owning companies would do whab one of them is »°w ; reported to be doing—cut up their estates ! and open them up for agricultural settlement., such corporations would be regarded with very different feelings from those which are cherished towards bhem. Ib is ! only when capibal makes oxorbibanb claims and land monopoly blocks settlement, that they exercise a malign influence on the progress of a country, With regard to the apportionment of credit for the increased prosperity of tho country, there can be no question about this that tho active colonising policy of the Ballance Government and their fiscal policy, which restored public confidence here and in London, ... contributed very materially towards tho better state of things which now prevails. Produce was nover lower than ib has been lately, so thab the Government has reaped nothing from a fortuitous prevalence o high prices tor the exports of tho colony. Mr R,olleston and the leading members of hia party predicted disaster as the inevitable outcome of the financial proposals of the Governmenb; with a lack of pabriobism, some of bhem — we acquit Mr Rolloebon of this—did their beab, either wilfully or by reckless partisanship, to bring about the catastrophe which they predicted. In spita of everything, however, Mr Ballaqce and his colleagues have come oub triumphant; it is idle now for those false prophets to attempt to cover their own ignominious failure, and detract from the credib due to bhe Governmenb by saying bhab obher causes bhan the Ministerial measures contributed to the rosuib. Of course, obher causes were at work, bub if they had been statesmen they would have foreseen what was coming ; as it is, bhey bave shown themselves utterly desbibubo of political prescience in bhe pasb, and are therefore unsafe guides either for the present or tho future,—Ed. E.S.j