THE Daily Southern Cross. Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXX, Issue 5115, 14 January 1874, Page 4

THE Daily Southern Cross. Daily Southern Cross.

IA'CfcO, NON I' HO If I lit\o bueu extinguished, >tl Ilitie ilk* A tho\iM»iid ijLutom lioni tliu sj.Rik 1 bcro

WBDy/iSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1874.

Thk groat want of the colonies is labor. This has beon the cry heretofore for many a day. and it continues to bo the cry still. On no previous occasion hat the demand for labor been nearly so urgent in New Zealand as it now is. Every induitry in the colony ii crying out for a freah mpply, and no one seemia able to point out how thii ia to be met, or where the necessary hands are to be found. By the latest advices from the South it U reportod to be the intention of the Provincial Crovernments of Canter-

bury nnd ("Hugo to memorialise the colonial authorities to communicate with the whole of the provinces in an agreement to suspend public works throughout the colony for a short time, until the crops are gathered in ami the harvest Rccurod. But however nore^nry for some interests this course might be, it would in general prove exceedingly inconvenient ; and it h to (jo hoped it will not really be necessary to resort to such an expedient. These Btraitened circumstances of our labour market will at least be partially relieved , by the arrival of immigrant ships now on their way from England, several of which are shortly expected in Auckland, and others in Southern port*!. Still the supply of labour throughout the colony must remain short of actual requirements fflr a considerable time to come At i present the watfefl rate is advancing very perceptibly, especially in thr Middle Island, where many industrial, and, notably, agriculture, are being seriously crippled in consequence. This state of nflaira, though offering blooming prospects to the immigrant, n scarcely desirable for the community, and it is to be hoped it will not be permitted to continue, an it delays necessary works. It behoves the Colonial Government to use every available means for bringing the wants of the colony in this respect before the attention of the emigrating classes in the United Kingdom. New Zealand at this moment presents a wide and promising Geld, and holds out the highest inducements to healthy, and industrious, and well-conducted emigrants from Great Britain desirous of bettering their circumstances iu a new country. We have climate, soil, and resources, unsurpassed by anything to be met with in the most favsured colony. Of course, bb yet tho chief sources of our wealth have been barely touched upon. The raw material which is to promote our manufactures, and sustain our permanent exports, it may be said, are well nigh inexhaustible. These consist of coal, iron, gold, copper, flax, oil, timber, gum, as also wool, hides, preserved meats, and agricultural products of every description. The scheme of public works now in process of being carried out, by which ronda and railways, by trunk lines and otherwise, shall bo made to penetrate every dNhict and province of the colony, will yreaily facilitate the introduction of po| illation and their satisfactory settleincut, uhilo inducements of a very •iMiuHnr order are being held out to intending emigrants to take up land and e ill li vat r il for their own use and that of tlicir families. Besides the more local inducements from the roRpoctivo provinces, a general Act was passed last session, by the Colonial Parliament, for giving Innd grants to immigrants. By this Act every person arriving in this colony from the United Kingdom, or from any of the Australian colonies, paying lus or her o\ui passage money, br-ponies entitled to land to the »\iluo of £'20, nnd the sime for each member of it family above fourteen yours of nge ; wlulo members under that nge are entitled \f> land ind'vidu-illy to the value of £10. We mentioned lately some of the conditions on which these land grants were based ; and, as the particulars may bo serviceable to some of our home readers, we recapitulate the principal points here. Tho phrase, " members of a family," includes wife, child, grandchild," and nephew and niece of tho head of the family. Thus a family, consisting of husband, wife, and say five children, three of whom may be fourteen yonra of •»£<>, vrouM ho entitled to a block of land worth £120. This, to a family possessed of a little capital, and who havo paid their own passage, presents an opportunity for making a start in life in a new country by no means to be despised. After the expiration of two years, the immigrant who has fulfilled the conditions of occupancy in accordance with the Act. and obtained tne registration of his claim, is by the regulations entitled to a free grant of tho property. It is required that one-fifth of the laud shall have been cultivated. What constitutes cultivation is thus described : — " Laid down with artificial ' grass, or ploughed, or sown with root or cereal crops, or planted as a vineyard or orchard, or with forest trees." If one-fifth of the land is cultivated in any or all of these methods, the whole of the land, of which this fifth ia a portion, becomes tho freehold property of tho immigrants. In the event of the death of any immigrant prior to tho expiration of the specified term of occupancy (two years), the Act provides that " any devise of such land made by him to nay of the members of tho family who emigrated with him shall be valid and tako effect as if such immigrant had received a Crotrn grant thereof before his death." But these are not the only land benefits which the laws of the colony provide for immigrants arriving in New Zealand. As observed already, there are various Provincial Acts bearing upon the same subject, holding out special inducements to new icttlers. The land laws of this province, in particular, hold out the most liberal provision! for immediate settlement. The Auckland Homestead Act, 1870, provides for free selection over the waste lands of the province, subject as before to a term of occupation and a limited extent of cultivation. Any person desirous of occupying land may, under the provisions of tbo Auckland Act, for each adult select 40 acres ; and a family whose members are 18 years old and upwards, may select to the extent of 200 acres at the rate of 40 acres to each individual. This boon applies to all persons intending to occupy the land, and can be taken advantage of by assisted immigrants who come out from home, whether they have paid their pasiage or not. These Auckland Provincial Land Regulations can be taken advantage of conjointly with the Colonial Act, under which we havo shown that a family can secure £120 worth of land. Here, then, are inducements for skill and capital which ought to attract intending emigrants to our shores, if only tho full extent of the advantages held out were more generally made known at home and elsewhere. It is for our Immigration Agents in England to look well to this. If greater and more accurate publicity were given to the special adaptability of this colony as a field for British emigration, we should not, we are persuaded, havo to lament much longer the dearth of labour and lack of population which are now so severely felt.

Following rapidly on the ceremony of turning the first sod of the Ngaruawahia and Mercer Itailway, came a sale of public landi situated in the former township and neighbourhood, and further up the interior of the Waikato country, as well as elsewhere in what were formerly disturbed districts. Tho demand for these allotments in tho small townships and suburbs of the same, has been something surprising, and the prices paid in consequence of the great competition not less so. In another column appear the reiulti of the iilei, with, for the

sake of comparison, (he upset prices of iho various suctions sold. The prices obtained range from 200 to oOO per cent, above those at which the lands were oflbred by the acting auctioneer. The advnnco of the railwav policy, which menus " peace and progress," and th« carrying of the railway into tho heart of the country where mementoes of past conflicts— past, <vo believe, never to return — is unquestionably the UJain cause of thin remarkable but not unexpected confidence displayed by the compel! tors, who are chiefly Waikato iettlers. Thee* are who for years have lived in the district ; aome of them have Been the troubles of the past, and have unabated confidence in the future. At Hamilton, only a distance from the spot where a native killed a workman some nine months ago, the competition for allotments was such that four and five times the upset price was realised in gome cases. Capital and confidence go together,' and the policy of the railway system, in conjunction with the preparedness for any contingency that may arise, and to which we refer in our " Summary" notes in another page, has established undoubting confidenco in the minds of the people of the district, and indeed throughout the colony. Some nine months ago a panic, not warranted by the circumstances, and a war spirit on the part of a section of the Europeans rose high in the* Waikato. Had that panic swayed the Government to seek the arbitrament of the jiword, and had that war spirit been gratified, the result would have been disastrous and costly not only in money, to be lavished in n needless War, but it would have driven back the march of settlement in the Waikato, checked our public works and immigration throughout the colony, destroyed for a time confidence at homr, and damaged the credit of New Zetland, which now is steadily improving with the capitalists of England, because that, as the Superintendent of thi3 province said the other day at Ngaruawahia, our ways are the railways " of pleasantness, and our paths tho paths of peace," and ho might linve added, of profit, for that is dear to the <oul and pocket of the British investor. When people in the Waikato were crying out for warlike dispositions, and advocating a raid against the natives, we had all these calamitous results in view, and this journal then advocated patience and temporising. That counsel fortunately prevailed, and tiie happy results we perceive to-day. Kad it been otherwise, no should have witnessed neither the satisfactory ceremony which jtfgaruawahia saw on Saturday, nor the profitable* and promising competition for the Waikato allotments displayed at the Lund Office yesterday The pence of the country will be maintained, and tho great pacificator is tho ra Iway and the men who arc making it, together with the Bittlcjs. who look fornarJ to long and profitable year.4 of posscaa'on of the hind, incrensp.1 popu'at'on, and inoro ample production- i>s ihs rcBuK of their labour and i nte rprise.

Oun worst fenra regarding the recklesiness and wielud d for duty wlndi sacrificed the ship ' Surat,' bound for ])unedia with passengers, are realised. So we discover by the telegraphic intelligence received last night of the inquirf into tlio wreck which look place off Catlin Hirer, a place where the vessel had no right to bo in making for Port Chalmers. The ' Surut' was laden with iiilltt.iy lion, and had suiuu SOO puaseu^ertf for Otugo. The conduct of the captain and mate in preventing signalling to a passing steamer, and threatening to shoot men and women who sought to obtain its assistance, can now be understood in the light of the evidence which is telegraphed. " The captain was drunk, the first mate was drunk, the second mate was drunk, the steward was drunk, the sailmaker was the worse for liquor!" Wo gather from this that the last mentioned officer was a little less drunk than the four others. Is there any wonder that the crew were disorgauised ? In such a floating pandemoniun as the ship was, how wretchad must hare been the condition of the passengers ! And at the time of the wrecic, what utter neglect prevailed and produced the disaster, with a drunken steward who d'J not know " port" from " starboard " at the wheel ! It is scarcely credible that such thing* could occur. In the face of these disclosures we are induced to repeat bere the following sentences, which we uied in a leading article yesterday, suggested by the Plimsoll Commissioners' enquiry as bearing on our colonial passenger Bhips. We then said, and we repeat it, that our home readers and representatives in England may know the opinion that exists here:— "Not only muit it be iusisted on by our representative in England, and by every representative of every colony there, that nothing but well-found, properly manned, and in every way seaworthy vessels shall convoy our immigrant! and material, but also that competent and every-way trustworthy officers shall be selected to command the ships. We have had instances where a tendency to drink on the part of the officers hat made the voyage out a scene of misrule ; and and where, if evidenoa can be trusted, the curse of drunkenness has destroyed vessel! and their freights, and seriously endangered the Urea of mil tli© p«»»enger« on board." The case of the " Surat " ai now divulged it a case in point : and if the evidence is unrebutted, too severe punishment can hardly be awarded to the persons who so disgracefully conducted themselves. Had any passengers been drowned, those wretched men would morully have been their murderers.

In our advertising columns vrill be found the financial statement of the Harbour Board for the year ending the jllst December last. The statement is divided into two sections, " The Permanent Works Account," and "The General Account.' The receipts of the permanent works' account from all sources, during last year, amounted to £17,8:18 15s. 2d., including a balance of £2,741 Si. 2d, carried forward from the former year'a transactions under this head. The expenditure amounted to almost the same sura, there being a credit balanoe of £1,800 11s. lOd. on the close of the year a operations. The general account shows the income from the ordinary sources of revenue, such as tho rents of endowments, wharf tolls, shipping, wharfage, harbour master's feei, Sec. The income from all these source* for the year amounted to £14,067 10s. 6d., which, together with the balance of £451 Od. 3d. from the former year's account, made a total available revenue of £14,518 10s. Od. Amongst tho enumerated items of disbursement there are a few which show that the officers of the Harbour Board are keenly alive to the Board'i interest. For instance, we find that £983 10s. 7d. wit paid for tho purchase of piles during the year, and that they n ere Bold to the contractor under the Board for £1,092, thuu, apparently netting £108 3i. 5d. upon the

transaction. Of course moro piles may nave been told than were purchased during the year, but the inferenco is that the above profit was made upon the transaction allluded to. This action on the part of the Board is rather commendable than otherwise for by purchasing piles in small quantities from outlying settlers, they aro likely not only to get them at a reasonable price but of good quality, and it may readily be conceircd that contractors would not take them at the price put upon them by the Board, if they could obtain them of the same quality elsewhere at less cost. In these transactions thero is, however, m liability to abuse. TVero tho member* and officers of the Board less honournble men than they are, it )■ quite possible for a system obtaining, under which piles of a quality supplied by the Board would be passed as suitable, which might be condemned if supplied by a contractor in terms of specification. Tt will also be ■eon that large sums have been spent upon permanent improvements and reclamation works, and it will also be seen by the report of yesterday's meeting of the Board, that the present rentals from reclaimed allotments leased pay six per cent, interest upon the whole outlay ; and it is expected, when all tho unleased allotments are taken up, the rentals will amount to such a sum as would hi equal to eight per cent, interest upon outlay. These are satisfactory statements, and thete is no 4oubt thiil a large sized graving dock, occupying a proper position, would pay well. 'There u, however, one thing shown in tho published accounts which many may not considor quite satisfactory. We refer to the large cost of maintaining the establishment. Oflice rent, salaries, and departmental expenses, amount to an aggregate of £3,122 5s. 10d., out of a totnl ordinary revenue of fcM.Oli? l(»s. (5d. The expenses, therefore, would be about 22 per cent, of the ordinnry revenue. This is certainly more expensive than an ordinary business establishment would b», and might afford room for the exorcise of economy. Of courso nllowuuce must be made for the supervision of the additional expenditure under tho perma nent works account ; but still borrow cd money or lucky windfalls are not legili* mate items of revenue, and when such moneys are expended tho utmost economy should be exercised. It is satisfactory to see that the Board has so well kept clear of litigation, for in tho account published, the item " law expenses " amounts only to £32 17s. Upon the whole, the Board is to be congratulated upon their satisfactory balance BUeel, and a sum of' £1,005 Is. r>d. is carried forward to tho new General accouut.