THE CAPABILITIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 783, 12 May 1860, Page 3

THE CAPABILITIES OF NEW ZEALAND.

(From the New, Zealand Examiner, No. 2.) The magnificent resources of New Zealand predict its, magnificent destiny; but this destiny is predicted with no less importance and emphasis by the enthusiastic testimony of emigrants in its favour. A few grumblers have, however, appeared. They have no substantial grievance, they have suffered no serious hardships; they seem'to have expected that on reaching the shores of New Zealand they should find sands of gold, and the trees bearing golden apples, and, because they haye therein :bee°n disappointed, they hayeset up a jhpwl of lamentation. Our sympathy with these querulous mortals is somewhat of the smallest. Showers of dumplings and sausages do hot fall in England, and probably in this respectthe clouds inNew Zealand will iiever be more bountiful and miraculous. There has lately been a controversy in the columns of the' ''Times' regarding the emigrant's chances of success in the noble colony. -Extracts from the-letters, of two unfortunate pilgrims were given, whose chief complaint is, that they did not obtain employment so promptly as they, expected; they have also a deal to say against the colony, and they evidently wish to convey the impression that the doom of the emigrant to New Zealand must invariably be hopeless and horrible exile. These misstatements have been elaborately refuted by the Messrs. Ridgway, the Government agents, and the 'Times' has added the weight of its colossal influence to the cause of good sense. Except where emigrants have been the victims of gross delusion, deliberate fraud, or intolerable injustice, we doubl whether it is wise to give publicity to their murmurings of anger. What is gained by learning that certain persons are,' by their own confession, unfit tor a i path demanding toil, persistency, and endurance ? Let them.quietly withdraw from the path, and let others stronger and more strenuous pursue it. Emigration must be undertaken in a cheerful and heroic spirit; it is a grand battle, in which few except the young and the bold should engage. Of no British Colony, at all events, may it be more confidently stated than of7New Zealand, that'it makes.failure impossible, except to men of singular imprudence or incapacity. It enables the "very poorest to become owners of the soil, so that ulti-r mately the bulk of the population will consist of a class how almost extinct in England—yeomen—at once proprietors and cultivators. Then, all who have to labour for others receive the very highest wages; and as most of the necessaries of life are as cheap as in England, or cheaper, the working man can save twice or three times as much as here. As, moreover, its boundless natural opulence is only beginning to be developed, New Zealand will every year grow a more glorious and attractive field for the frugal, the striving, and the industrious. It cannot be too often repeated, that it is agriculturists who are mainly wanted in New Zealand, and that the country must first be conquered by the spade and plough. New .Zealand must rapidly become a large exporter of agricultural produce. It is by New Zealand that the prices of agricultural produce in the Southern Pacific will be determined; and it is principally in the Southern Pacific that New Zealand's agricultural produce will be consumed. As fast as the Austalrian cities increase, will millions of customers be found'in Australia for everything which the New Zealand farmer can offer them; so that within a few days' sail, the New Zealand farmer will have one of the vastest markets in the world. From the facilities of transit by sea, the New Zealand farmer has an immense advantage over the farmer of the' United States and Canada. .How. far soever he may retreat into the interior, he is never many,miles from the ocean. And when towns cluster thickly round the shores of New Zealand-itself, the farmer will have some of his best customers, within sight of his own dwelling. _Let the croakers then say what they please, agriculturists cannot be poured too fast or too freely into New Zealand. It should be remembered that England was long a, merely agricultural kingdom. Thatit is to so great an. extent an agricultural kingdom still, lessens the ; evils connected with the expansion of its enormous manufacturing system. In New Zealand, as in England, commerce will follow agriculture, and manufactures, commerce. If is always unwise to stimulate manufactures and the United States are an example of the mischief flowing therefrom. If possible, let New Zealand for ever remain more agricultural than commercial, more commercial than manufacturing; and- this in view as much of its moral as,of its material interests; Now this result may^ infallibly be prepared by. so shaping legislation in regard to land that yeomen become the predominant class. It is deplorable alike tb.see the whole of the land; as in Britain, monopolised by the merest handful of the people, and as in France, broken: into paltriest morsels among an infinite multitude. Avoiding both extremes; let New Zealand have neither lordly monopolists nor a wretched peasant proprietary, but the brave yeomen, owning from 50 to 500: acres. And. with the yeomen would not the valuable andvenerable habit take root in New Zealand, which has vanished from England, of making solid articles,of clothing at home whfch would last for a whole generation, instead of, biiying flimsy,articles which go to pieces almost before.the fickle fashions change?. For instance, flax,'which asserts, for itself a,place so conspicuous in New Zealand's wealth, would furnish occupation to the female members of the household; simply for household. purposes. This is-not the place to propound doctrinesion social subjects; but, l'°r the perennial prosperity, of nations, there is no axiom ; more, incontrovertible ,than that th,e more numerous the direct possessors of land, the. more patriotic the temper, the more Grod-feariri'o' and Valiant the character of the people. ' - ' Thus, then j though we do hot' despise the other capabilities of New Zealand, we deem it a duty to picture the yeomen as the central fact of its future civilization. A country, whichiSirich in minerals, a country which ;can boast of gold, and copper, and' iron and coal—a country whose naval prosperity is prophesied by its timber, its rivers, its harbours, its living contact at every point with the sea,—will draw to'its shores hosts of energetic adventure^ rough, wildpioneers, who animate, renew,1 transform, and impel. But no inducements need be offered to adyenturers.. It has been, the misfortune of Australia, as well as the United States, to have had adventurers in too large proportion. Hence recklessness, unscrupulousness, instability, and a low moral tone. Those who would have been useful as an element, have been dangerous and detrimental as a predominant force. Let us save New, Zealand from the same curse, if we can.' A formidable objection to emigration is the dread of encouhterv"'™** col6ny coarse, lawless/ unprincipled meiu, But if ltwere known that such nien had'ho influence in NewJZealand, instead of; being; as in the

United States, the leaders of political opinion and political action, —if it were known that New Zeaijandhadall England's solid, sterling merits, without any of its defects,—-thousands of refined, edu-cated,'high-minded individuals who are struggling and pining in England, but who hesitate to abandon it, would not shrink from-a pilgrimage across the waves. Emigration by groups, with gentlemen of this stamp at the head,' is what is most desirable. Such groups it would not be difficult to form in many of the ; English rural districts. What more beautiful vocation could many a younger son enter on than gathering together and conducting bands of husbandmen to this vineyard P Is there a parish in England in which a group, however small, could not be created ? Thus, group following after group, many a creek, many a glen of New Zealand would be glad with England's ancient, hereditary virtues. There would be the exalting1 effect of chieftainship; there would be; the cohesiveness 6f a clan ; and between^ clan and clan there would be the rivalry of honourable deeds. «