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New Zealand Mail, Issue 765, 29 October 1886, Page 22

Whatevek opinion may ultimately be formed as to the merits of the present Ministry, there will, we believe,.be but one view as to the ability and earnestness with which the Minister of Lands has pressed forward the all-important work of land settlement. This is a subject which cannot be too often or too forcibly brought under the notice of the public- If we can attract a suitable industrial population tb our shores and settle them permanently on our land, there is no fear for our Colony’s future. If we cannot do this,, then we may bid good-bye to all the bright hopes which have been cherished of seeing New Zealand worthy of the proud title she has long claimed—that of « the Britain of the South.” While a considerable proportion of our population is to a large extent of a floating character, and while the population is but sparingly recruited from outside, it is vain to look for any rapid or substantial progress. A constant influx of fresh population is as the very lifeblood of a new country, and it is no less important to keep them than receive them. Failing these essentials we should soon be in poor ease. Trade would become worse and worse, wages would fall, and ultimately stagnation and depression would reigu supreme. Such dulness as now exists is due more to the sluggishness of the immigration current than to anything else. Yet the greatest difficulty is always experienced in inducing Parliament to give any assistance in this important matter. Men who know much better have weakly given into the mistaken idea that increasedpopulation means reduced wages, in stead of the reverse. We should be glad to see a far larger sum voted next session for immigration. But apart from this, the favourable prospects exhibited by tbe village-settle-ment system, as promoted by Mr Ballance, will assuredly prove more and more an attraction to that numerous aud valuable class of men who once formed tbe matchless yeomen of England, and who now, despairing of a revival of agricultural prosperity iu the Mother Country, would be only too glad to create a new home in the “ Britain of the South,” if only this were placed within their power. It is true that to turn indiscriminate droves of people ou the bush land would be simply an act of cruelty and absurdity. Every man is not a born farmer, and even if he were, the first settlement ou rough, uncleared land is a formidable affair. Some time must elapse before the new settler can make his land do . anything at all toward supporting him and his family, and without the exercise of judgment in the method of settlement there would be a danger that while the crops were growing the settler would starve. But under the plan pursued by Mr Ballance in tbe north of this province, the settler finds employment at wages in the neighbourhoo*d while Ins-family improve the section, start a garden and poultry farm, and perhaps a cow when there is any food for her. In this way an active and careful family can by degrees work up to a position of fair comfort and prosperity. The time has gone by for New Zealand farmers to trust ' only to one source of income. They must not rely alone on their cattle or sheep, or wheat, or oats, or potatoes, but must be prepared to “ turn their hands to anything.” What with supplying milk to towns or to cheese factories, making butter, poultry farming, growing corn and vegetables, pig-herding, bee-keeping, fruit-growing, and other bucolic Industries, there are plenty of ways in which a small farmer may first maintain himself and his family, and then begin to save money, if only the condition of an increasing population be present. Immigration and land settlement may not seem at first sight so attractive a panacea as the “leaps and bounds ” progress temporarily in-

duced by wholesale borrowing, but if slower it is infinitely sounder, safer, more substantial, and more permanent.