THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9189, 19 October 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1888.

... » The letter; of Professor Aldis, which appears; in another column, is of that temperate and thoughtful kind that is most powerful, in persuasion ; and as there is much in the spirit of itjwith which we cordially agree, we should not criticise his contention but that there is an underlying principle in it which we regard , as pernicious. Stripped of the illustrations, that principle is that because we have madly plunged before, ; to our injury, we should therefore fold our arms and drift or drown. Let it not be supposed that we are, while ■ contesting Mr. Aldis' conclusions, intending to defend Mr. Bees' scheme as such ; but what we do maintain is that the i reckless madness of our past should be no reason for apathy now; or, in other ! words, the fact of our having^ in * ? the ' days of our ■ folly rushed :r.,to the squandering of borrowed luuth v> on what have proved to ; be. v.v-tiddly useless objects, should be no reason why we should not engage in the settlement of our > waste. lands by an industrious and; self-supporting population. Professor Aldis rightly says. "There are already numbers of persons v- ho have been induced byi the representations of emigration agents to come out and buy land in New Zealand, and who, having .»st ••»'(! or ne?. : iy all they ; had, eu a the cov atry and th a day they landed." '~;■, 1 he statement in>h?.t>piiv is

only too true ; but are we from this to < conclude that it is not a good country £ for the. settlement of farmers ?, and that 1 it would not be for the interest .of i farmers themselves, and for the interest c of New Zealand, that a farming popu- i lation- should be attracted to our shores ? i This' would seem to be 'the conclusion \ at which our correspondent arrives, and i to such a doctrine we raise our emphatic < protest. - We declare that on the face of ] this wide earth of ours there is no other i portion of unoccupied territory that is - 1 more fitted for occupation by tillers i of the soil; no other, with more i genial clime or more productive soil, i or one in which there are finer pros; i ; pects presented to men of energy and ] j determination with a little capital, i I who may desire to carve out homes, and 1 ! competence, and independence ! for 1 I themselves and their -families. • We ' I declare this in the face of the fact that ] .plenty of people in this pursuit have .- met with failure, and that there are i : hundreds of people who use the despair- " i ing words that " farming will not pay." , ' There may have been many causes cor. , tributing to this; there have fcvfcn. < those who, even though they )\id < i capital to back their efforts, were qmC-:. '• unfitted for the rough work of pionfv*'.r ;. ; ing in the wilderness ; there are those | who, under the administration of our 1 lands in the past, have encountered 1 i great difficulty in acquiring lands to . their taste for occupation ; there hove been those who have been deceived by wily speculators, and others who have taken up quantities of v land beyond their means, and have been ruined by mortgages there have been those .who had hoped by employing labour at -an ■; inflated . value, to make a rapid fortune from the cultivation of the ; soil; and over all there has in the past been the difficulty even of finding markets for their produce, These and various" other causes have contributed to fill the ranks of unsuccessful farmers, and to make them " curse the country and the day they landed." But are we to conclude from this that, the day of the ; calling of a farmer has passed away ? or if it has not, that a country, which in the production of" cereals- per acre, and other produce, outstrips, with one or two exceptions, every other country on earth, has ceased to be a country where the business of a.farmer can be successfully pursued? 'We! have it as a fact that the steamers trading with certain portions,of our ;country,' and those perhaps the best suited for agricultural pursuits, would -be almost empty on their trips, were it not that'they are filled with farm produce, chiefly! imported from ; over seas, which is being carried to the homes of our settlers in the country. Our farmers' children are nurtured on preserved milk brought all the way from Switzerland ; potatoes grown in Canterbury, and even in the sister colonies, are carried into our farmers' homes, and there : are hundreds of settlers' homesteads in which milk for their tea and butter for their bread would, be wanting were it not for the traders and ; shopkeepers who provide them with these and other necessaries of life. The indolent dependence of hundreds of our settlers has become a by-word, and what attention should we give -to the complainings of such when they curse. i . the country and the day they landed? "Isit wise to add Ito the;! number of such?", asks Mr. Aldis, and we unhesitatingly answer No 1 But if our correspondent from this concludes that our lands should be given .up to sterility, and that a country which might be described as par excellence,; the garden of the world, should not be filled with a population »of industrious settlers then if his conclusions are correct the star of New Zealand has indeed set in darkness. .■....' It may be that Mr. Uees will draw, as our correspondent says, pictures that will differ widely from those which many a settler could give of the stern reality; he is of a sanguine temperament as we all know. a But we declare that a truthful picture of a land like ours, with its almost unparalleled productiveness of soil,', where three crops in the year can often be taken from the same plot of ground ; with resources undeveloped that are only awaiting industry and capital to make them teem with wealth, should be such as'would justly.incite & would-be emigrant intending to make a home for himself in the country to prefer New, Zealand, not only to England, but to any colony or sparsely-populated country in the world. We hold that it is the duty, of every New Zealander to maintain this character for his country J against the world, and any misfortunes that have come to us, whether socially, commercially, or politically, have not ; been? the fault ,of the country, but of the people who are in it. We have the finest country under the blue canopy of heaven, but it has been blighted and cursed, as no other country has been by the incapacity of those who have been "running" it. There is not, nor has there ever been, a doubt among thinking, colonists that what is j wanted to give.our country greatness is j the*turning of its wilderness into fruit- ; ful fields, though we may have differed and blundered in the past as to the way ,of doing it / but .while'-it -is our ! duty ; to* afford ;; all possible facilities ! to those who are already in the colony for going on the land, and while we should endeavour to convert as , many as we can of the dwellers in , and : hangers -on to our ' inflated towns ' and cities into practical and indus- , trious settlers » and - producers, it ;is obvious that, for : any ;> substantial achievement in the occupation of our lands, we must turn to the overcrowded population of the United , Kingdom. Is ! there "anyone that . doubts that it "would be a happy i deliverance to hundreds of thousands ; of these .if they were transferred from , the oppressive: atmosphere of English . life and given the freedom and " elbowj room" of such a colony as ours ; and j especially if in their transference they were placed in the way of industrial '. occupation, .with independence in. pros- ! pent as the reward of thrift, of energy, '\ and Perseverance. And if these benefits } toV-them, ix) us, are worthy , of : being : wot in what way can we best 1 effect the transference 'if Should we '7 tax skives, should, v,.-. increase '} our public debt, for tea purpose? i f However reproductive sue'- an.enter--1 prise might be, neither: tlv ■■ temper; of r the ' public mind nor our tor respondent r himself would favour it: and, if the s thing is to be achieved, ".'3 ne;.u.?.-..■*

course, if not & should come from the side rfL effo « '■ ' be emigrants themselves. Tf!| sai °- the money, well;' if they. can tain |: the help of th wt»"- • it is hardly less well. it - practically amounts to*"* 5 * various proposals for trau s f e £ industrial population from n? ** the colony—of which Rees appears to be one. Itl money should be lent to &% | whether on the guarantee of t r T - V rial Government or otherwise. -'-v the men, when,plac^"i a maintaining themselves, /sfia **? it by instalments , from ; their y / produce. What drain can th:« i!? 55 • the colony 1 What parallelism § between this and the parent 7* ' I terest for our unproductive 5?" I works % The men, it is 'assume! produce those products bVtIJJ-?• •vidual industry ;if they w ere not V 4 those products would be - non Z > being here, and having retained ' cimt for their maintenance. tW - If ox the surplus wealth of ' their creation, to repay the money J?? enabled them to produce, and »y ■" . ong can tins be to anyone, 0 r l;ff• * . - - ony at large 1 — ' Our correspondent s,-,ys: "AffaJ are groaning under the weiSK** enormous debt. Mr. »»»,£«» in 3 to induce.the British to guarantee 3 per cent, on a miHia of " money. It is quite ccrtain that 5," ■' would never be conceded unless the were some distinct understanding!! New. Zealand should be.iltiy ' responsible." This is an entirl gratuitous assumption. Holding Si colony liable has never entered'intoth" ~ calculations, so far as we know c .«-\' 9 'v of these various projects that ha*f'vj[ * put forward for the tensive colonisation. ,It is 'a matter'" between the lenders and the individual borrowed; and if the commercial Impaction proves an unprofitable one, the loss will be between < them.. To the colony' and the revenue the gain will bo eight or ten pounds per head per annum on every man, woman, and child so introduced, and if— sis contemplated as a primary condition in every one 0 { these schemes of colonisation— settlers are placed in a position of impendence and .self-support; then the v gain to the colony will ibe unqualified As wo have said, it is ; not in support of : Mr. Rees' particular scheme we are contending, . but against the despairing conclusions of our correspondent thai 1 • the settlement of our waste lands is useless, hopeless, and to be deprecated in view of the failures that have taken;. place in the past, and that because we have plunged recklessly 1 and madly in the past in. some particular ways, wb should now make no effort to stem the : current, but dropping our arms nemless by our sides, we should passively drift and drown.* '-"J V:, | We are told by our cable message, that the United States Government' have decided not to agree to the proposal ol the English Government to prohibit the.sale of arms and alcohol to • ibs natives of . the Pacific Islamic. In > recent telegram we learned that England had made this proposal to tie other Powers, and .that Spain hadgiven;. in its adherence, on; condition that all , the other Powers interested in tin r Pacific did the same ; and here ire have the way. blocked, by the great and * Christian republic of America. "Who) > we consider the results which the tratns in these two articles of commerce con- p fessedly brings to all the inferior races. we can hardly conceive of the extent 0} moral degradation involved in refusing concerted action for arresting such ; ; wanton destruction. , v The. war.to forca the opium . trade on . China _ has left; ; a stain on the British nation thai time • will . never remove. .In .that'«s»; as in this it was .the dominance ol j; selfish interests that perpetrated' tM dishonour in spite of the conscience m * 1 the; nation j and there is no dtfobt. thai ' it has brought national punishment I? . casting general suspicion :on the pnv r fessions .of ; British > policy?in?. fowo : - of philanthropy and civilisation aid? i justice.' A. national _ crime so bImM looms up so • strikingly -in r hngiw 1 history that it is no wonder the p#f ->. : of Continental Europe are so P WD ?J . speak of British policy as 01* ■ . hypocrisy. . This conduct .of thei.u® H States if persisted t in—and;if 4 it f 5 - means of arresting this humaneatw ii to save the South Sea Islanders from r• 1 : struction may . well prompt the *0 i to say that the ■ daughter-is v/o |~ - following the mother iiutilwM.-jv. , blatant national Pharisaism.' >' 8 . seen the. other >: day that, ;• by a , ' rity of the Supreme Court, , • is the exponent "of the constitutiOcJ • principles of the Republic ; that Go ■ rneht is confirmed ill 'its detengg. h to,-confiscate the property ot tie . : mon Church, and -to supprg ' church .because forsooth ,v* - fc lity of polygamy—while the whole J ■ system of theStatesis sodden^g f device, and invention j » the indulgence of :i prormseuous^ : The intolerance that refuse. £r^ , the exercise .of ■ their religio"^. ; 5 tions, to a people who wok p. . according to their eonscienc > _■- E more of a reflection on -a ] .comfg i who prate of perfect civil bbjWJj - is this insistence in demoraliang , } %, and defenceless race, a s their profession of high Chns, 5 ciple. - England with her• o^m i and America with her L firearms, and : more deadly 9 j ■ present •' a , picture to .the n ~e , . is not very .edifying, and vplunrf , think that' both of th '• themselves on being actua . l| { 3by the 'noblest principles in . - 3 policy, we cannot wonder tli j f{3 3 trast in profession and p , , -! occasion to'the enemy to • If the-United States, under t^^, nance of commercial selfish j x s blat : power of the rings, that ar s on their fair fame, becomeL . to ' spare .1 stopping this concerted e r these unhappy islanders .fro , llie ly .] to which they, seem on. - 1 doomed, .the disgrace o:t . ..^- as tion' will cling to America fc much infamy as attaches q( r over the cruel and shamefu P / 3 with China. 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