The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 77, 4 June 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1866.

A reduxdant population is no sign of prosperity, or would China bo the most prosperous country in the "world ; nor does the converse hold good, or would these colonies be poor : but for a country to be prosperous the great bulk of the population must receive adequate remuneration for their labor ; and be able to live with abundance aud comfort, and with perseverance to advance their position in the world. These facts are so self-evident that it is a wonder people can be so foolish as to speak with any degree of satisfaction (as some of the Auckland papers recently have done); that the price of labor had considerably fallen; what causes labor to be high is because its employment will bring large returns, because the natural wealth of the country is such that a very moderate expenditure of labor will produce considerable returns ; it being too precious to remain idle, it is by the inducement of good pay kept constantly employed — there are no idlers to be maintained at the expense-of the rest of the community, good wages act as such an inducement to labor that no one able to work can withstand them. If all classes of the community earn high wages, they will naturally live with much more comfort than if they earned just such a pittance as would keep body and soul together, they will be better customers to the tradespeople, as well from purchasing more largely as from being able to pay more promptly; and the tradesman, from doing more business, will better meet his engagements with the merchant — mechanics will reap the benefit of better houses and more furniture being required: and thus all classes will feel the beneficia impetus which a high remuneration for labor produces. We believe that the state of things we have I herejMescribed prevails very generally in this island, and is largely the result of the gold diggings, which have so much advanced its material interests. Although we do not hear hero the continual wail of the "want of population which we are favored with from Auckland, yet, on account of the inducements which offer themselves in the shape of ample remuneration for labor, it is rapidly becoming peopled by numerous thriving communities, There have been no attempts to force settlement, no paid emigration lecturers have been sent home; no offer of free passages has done the work. Those here have done well, and the intelligence thereof has been sufficient to attract to our shores colonists of the right sort. If we turn to the Auckland papers we can soon perceive what has brought about the state of things at which some of them are so pleased. When the Imperial expenditure was enriching the merchants aud others of that city, and many of the people were removed from their legitimate occupations to employments in connection with the war then raging, large numbers of emigrants from Euglaud were introduced at the public expense, and located on some of the conquered

lands, as also were many military settlers from Australia at the same time. These men had no capital, and were introduced largely in excess of the capital of the place to employ them. Since then the cessation of the Imperial expenditure has thrown others out of employment, so we hear of distress, work created by the provincial authorities to prevent starvation, and general distress and dearth of employment, with consequent low wages throughout the province, and dullness of trade, and stagnation of business among the traders, the purchasing power of the people being almost gone.