CAPITAL THE GREAT WANT OF THE COLONY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 54, 5 May 1868, Page 2

CAPITAL THE GREAT WANT OF THE COLONY.

[From ilie Nelson Examiner, April 18.] People who read of the great and varied natural sources of wealth possessed by New Zealand, and learn how little has been attempted towards their development, are apt to question the fact of their existence, or at all events to the extent that has been represented. How is it, they naturally ask, with your colony abounding in every kind of mineral, that beyond the occupation of gold digging, nothing is being done to turn this natural wealth to account? "We read of your vast coal-fields, surpassing in quality any coal in the Southern hemisphere, and equal to the best coal in England, yet your coal beds are unworked, while you suffer little less than a quarter of a million of money to leave your colony annually for the purchase of fuel. You speak of your copper, iron, silver, and other metals, and yet you have found no one willing to utilise these hidden riches. You grow large quantities of wool, and although, in addition to your coal, you possess unequalled waterpower suitable for machinery, you have neglected woollen manufactures, notwithstanding the local demand must be large. Your indigenous flax, of which so much has been said and written, and which might be turned to so many useful purposes— the manufacture of paper notably — is still suffered to grow to waste. In lesser products the country is said not to be wanting— sulphur, fire-clay, pipe-clay, excellent building-stone, marble — yet the same remark applies to all : Nothing is being done to turn the wealth of the country to account. An answer to all these questions is easily found. While money seeking investment can be disposed of on mortgages, and will bring from ten to fifteen per cent, interest, capital- j ists will not engage in speculative concerns, j When capital has accumulated in the colony, and is in excess of the demand from present modes of investmenfc,itwillflowinto other channels, and then, here as elsewhere, speculations that give reasonable hopes of remuneration Avill not flag for want of money to carry them through. To attempt to force an industry, is almost as hopeless a business as to seek to induce water to flow up hill. The laws that govern political ecouonry are as inflexible as those which govern physical science, and will a3 little submit to violence. What is really wanted, then, for the colony, is more capital. But then by our legislation we have taken the most effective measures to keep that capital away. Our costly government has laid such heavy imposts on the colony, that capitalists turn from it in alarm. A young colony is generally supposed to be a spot where the cost of living is cheap, and where men of small or moderate means can reside in comfort on their income. New Zealand is certainly not a place of this kind, and men of moderate incomes are accordingly not attracted hither. A small population of 210,000 souls, we have plunged ourselves into debt by undertakings which should have been postponed till our numbers were four times greater than they are. Then immigration of capital and labour to the colony would have continued, and our necessary burdens been every year lightened; now the millstone we have hung round our necks, despite all our struggle*', drags us mercilessly to the bottom, and we see no way of getting rid of it and regaining our former buoyancy. The pressure of taxation acts upon the colony in two ways. It tends to impoverish all who reside in it, and it keeps away those who, but for it, would share aud lessen our burdens. Augment the 210,000 inhabitants of New Zealand to 420.000, and you lighten our imposts by one-half. But how catch this or any other considerable number of immigrants? The notable Mrs. Glasse admitted the necessity of first catching your hare before you could cook it, and we must find means to catch immigrants and bring them to the country before we can calculate on any benefits to be derived from them. As to promoting immigration iv the old legitimate way, by defraying the cost out of land sales, it is not to be thought of just now, for where are the land sales that will furnish the money? Otago may have some funds for the purpose, but there is no other province that has means to defray the cost of immigration were it desirable at present to bring out more labour, which, without a corres-

ponding introduction of capital, we think is not the case. Are we, then, to sit down with folded hands, and resign ourselves to our unhappy lot ? This does not seem to be the temper of the colony, judging from what we read in the papers from nearly all the provinces. We are glad to see this, and we shall show in an early issue the views that are put forth by men who are directing their attention to the subject.