INDUCEMENTS TO SETTLERS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4062, 29 August 1870, Page 3

INDUCEMENTS TO SETTLERS.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross. Sib,— -I should be sorry to see an exodus to any other part from Waipu ; and it must soon arrive at 'that if there is no block of land in the neighbourhood open for selection shortly. If, in domestic economy, "a penny . saved is worth two earned, " I can freely tell the Government that, in political economy, one experienced, practical colonist is worth two immigrants, for the period — 1 care not where they import them from. So, a wise Legislature will first look to retaining and employing settlers, and so opening up the country, to obtaining land for the fast-rising generation, and to educating those who are to represent the country, when we are unfit for service— sooner than briug the useless, surplus population of the old country here, by means of agents that care not a particle what class the immigrants are, so long as they are salaried, and receive capitation money for them. Now, once for all, I should say that it would be much better to employ any money intended for assisting immigrants in getting good land, and opening it up, than in paying for a single head. Good, liberal land - laws, and good land, will soon secure to us the right class of colonists. We may rely upon a certain amount of respectability and thrift in those who pay their passage hither ; but, if we once open a market at home, and pay for the material of colonists, we may just discover, when it is too late, that our very considerate mothei*, or step-mother rather, will retain all her best subjects, and employ our money and our colony as a sewer, to rid herself of some of her filth. We are laying the foundation of a new Commonwealth, and shall be responsible for the impetus that we shall give it. Would we prefer imitating Kew England, or Tasmania? Educating our young, as the first and chief end ot wise legislation, and making the colony attractive by its liberal colonising laws, will be immeasurably better for our future prestige than all the artificial-force-pump influx of population that can be brought to bear upon us. X. Waipu, August 22, IS7O.