New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4286, 15 December 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1874.

In our issue of the 25th ultimo, commenting on the annual volume of New Zealand Statistics, compiled by the RegistrarGeneral, we made the following remarks : The excess of immigration over emigration during 1573, was 8811, against 4973 in 1572. The total increase to population during the past year, was therefore 10,383. But here we find a most significant fact, stated by the Registrar-General, without a word of comment illustrating "the causes." The excess of immigration over emigration, we are told, as above, was 8311; whereas, " the total immigration to New Zealand in 1873 amounted to 13,572 persons," of whom 8754 had their passages paid wholly or in part by the Government. In other words, while the colony paid heavily to introduce 8754 immigrants, without colonial experience of any kind, and of whom 1509 were children, it lost 4761 persons, a large proportion of whom were experienced colonists, being equal to 33 per cent, of the total number of immigrants. Surely, there is a cause for this ; and it would be worth finding out, for it concerns the colony much more nearly than the other aspect of the population question which the Registrar-General proposes to investigate for public information. Our own opinion is, that notwithstanding the actual increase of •population during the past year, the colony sustained a heavy money loss by the exodus of so many colonists. Doubtless, the unsatisfactory state of our land laws, which renders it difficult to obtain suitable land for settlement, and the grinding impositions on gold miners, were the principal causes for the departure of so many persons from the colony during 1573. Of course, a proportion of these were mere birds-of-passage ; others left the colony temporarily ; but even making allowance for these, we should not be far out, we think, in stating that something like 4000 persons emigrated for good during 1873. If we arc wrong, we shall be only be too happy to acknowledge our error.

Tile substance of this paragraph was telegraphed by the Press Agency, and a great many of oui contemporaries throughout the colony forthwith undertook the task of correcting us ;—a task, it will be observed, which we had invited. Generally, we have to acknowledge the courtesy of our contemporaries, who think that we have altogether failed to understand the paragraph in the Registrar - General's report referring to immigration and emigration for 1873; and it becomes our duty, therefore, to consider what has been thus written and published in good faith, and in the interest of the colony. At the outset, however, we desire to disclaim the imputation of our contemporary, the Qtago Guardian, (ivhich has gone into this question with much ability and care), that we arc amongst the "croakers." YVo have written nothing which could favor such a supposition. We have simply taken the Registrar-General's figures for 1873 as we find them, and endeavored to account for the loss of experioncedcolonistsby suggesting a cause —and we still believe the true cause—which might be removed by legislation, thereby ensuring to the colony in future the greatest possible gain from its expenditure on immigration. Our contemporaries, however, think that there is nothing moro to be desired, inasmuch as the statistics of immigration were more favorable to the colony in 1873, than in any previous year except 1805. For this we are told, in so many words, that our contemporaries, like Falstait, " could " sing psalms or any thing." Unhappily for ourselves we are not exactly in the same frame of mind. We admit at once, that owing to the introduction of 8,754 assisted Government immigrants in 1873, the balnnce of population has been largely in favor of .the colony, as contrasted with any years, except 1804 and 1805, in the decennial period embraced within the Registrar-General's returns. But that admission of a pregnant fact, disclosed by the statistics, does not in the least weaken the force of our argument, that notwithstanding the very large loan expenditure on public works during 1873, and notwithstanding the equally large expenditure on permanent improvements, manufacturing industries and the like, during the same period by private individuals and companies, consequent on the increase of capital caused by the high price of wool, grain, live stock, and other staple products of the colony, 4,7G1 persons emigrated from New Zealand, or within 1,501 of the total emigration in 1809, when New Zealand touched its lowest point after ten years of war and misgovernmont. Wo admit tho prosperity of 1873 ; but it is only comparative. If, on the other hand, there had been a different land administration throughout tho colony ; —if the policy of successive Governments had been to tie men to tho soil, we venture to think that tho prosperity of 3873 would have been in the superlative degree instead of in the comparative. But it has not been so; and hence it happens that men of capital coming here seeking land for settlement, as well as miners and othors seeking land for farming purposes in Otago and Westland, are forced to go elsewhere. This, we hold, is a matter of the foremost consequonce to New Zealand. Already we hear notes of alarm sounded in Otago. The Daily Times, on the 17th ultimo, hints that "on absentoo tax" may be

necessary to reach the numerous class who amass fortunes in Otago and leave the colony for good ; and the Guardian, in its issue of the 7th instant, has a leading article on the same subject, from which we make the following extract, because it is pertinent to the question in hand, and also because strongly confirmatory of the general proposition set out in our leader of the 25th November, which the Guardian has more especially traversed. Our Dunedin contemporary remarks : There is an absentee system here in New Zealand. The evils are, happily for us, not so glaring as those that have been sketched above [in Ireland]; but they are evils nevertheless, and it will soon be time to apply a remedy to them. The absentees consist partly of private individuals and partly of joint-stock companies, who own vast tracts of land, roamed over by sheep and cattle, and employing a wretched handful of men, presided over by a head shepherd. Some of these absentees made a great merit of the farming operations they originated, and claimed to have given an impetus to agriculture. The benefit was a benefit, no doubt, as long as it lasted. The farming is done now, and there are vast deserts of grass paddocks occasionally overlooked by a solitary horseman, travelling with a binocular. Another class of absentees are the merchants and foreign bankers, to whom properties of a similar character are hypothecated, and who, in common with the other class, take every care that no more of their money than is absolutely necessary for the purpose of " draining" remains in the country. Svhilst this unrequited drain is going on, and vast tracts of land are monopolised, the colony is improving itself. The State—that is, the people of the country—is making itself liable for vast sums spent upon developing its resources. As things are at present, the taxes are paid by the inhabitants alone. Thus the foreign merchants and bankers will come to enjoy an increased prosperity which has been paid for by other poople; and territorial absentees will become the owners of an unearned increment earned for them by. somebody else. This state of things, though not so glaringly evil as the system that prevailed in Ireland, is bad enough. It is simply monstrous that it should ever come to pass. Kvcry year the Colonial Treasurer finds it harder to meet the growing calls on the Treasury. He has tried every means of indirect taxation ; and the day is coming when he will be able to raise no more in that way. Direct taxation is not far off. As it is the only thing to-touch the absentees, we hail itsapproach with delight. Now, we ask, could anything more vividly portray the evils at which we hinted on the 25th ultimo, than the foregoing 1 The article from which we quote appeared in the Otago Guardian of the 7th instant, yet on the following day that same journal published a long and carefully written article in reply to us, to show that the conditions of residence in New Zealand are such as to induce a disproportionate amount of ~ immigration to emigration, the converse of the proposition being erroneously attributed to the New Zealand Times. But the argument of our contemporary, based upon the comparative statistics of emigration and immigration, since 1864, are fallacious, and a like fallacy underlies all that we have seen on the subject in our contemporaries. The comparison, to be of any value, ought to be made with those years in which free and assisted Government immigration do not come into play; and to test the relative prosperity of the periods selected for comparison, we should also take into account the purchasing power of the population as indicated by the Customs revenue and imports and exports, modified as these figures must necessarily be by the price of wool, flax, and gum —the three great New Zealand staples liable to fluctuations in price. And for the same reason, the comparison made by the Guardian with New South Wales and Yictoria, is valueless, inasmuch as neither colony had undertaken a colonising policy during 1873. Another element in such a calculation is the amount of money expended, during the years selected for comparison, by the General and Provincial Governments on public works : the first class of expenditure being made out of money borrowed on colonial security ; and the second, in great part, being derived from a fund raised by selling the public estate. If we find, as undoubtedly we shall do on an examination of the statistics, that there were years in the last decennial period in which voluntary immigration exceeded assisted and voluntary immigration together taking an average of the years in which Government immigration has been at work, and that the population in the former case found its own employers without State help, it follows that the former were years of more solid prosperity than the latter. Wo think this cannot be gainsaid. The Registrar-General's statistics show this result conclusively. They do not show, however, in the table of emigration and immigration the works and immigration expenditure for ]873, which is essential to a correct understanding of the point at issue. We extract the figures illustrating this point from another tablo. Thus :

1573, ExrENDIIUBE ON Immigration .. .... .. £H2,G4G Railways, &a 530.945 North Island roads 132,525 Telegraph extension .. .. .. 33.251 "Water supply .. .. ' .. .. 13,442 Development of coal mines .. .. 2,094 ' Grants to Road Boards .. .. 00,C66 Now, this expenditure undoubtedly was effective in retaining a large population in profitable employment, as well as instrumental in introducing several thousand persons who would not otherwise have come here ; but while we admit this, as well as the stimulating influence of the expenditure of £1,205,788 of land revenue in 1873, (chiefly derived from the sale of the public estate,) we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the floating population is not taking root in the soil. The Government immigrants are not becoming attached to the soil in any part of the colony that we know except Wellington and Hawke's Bay, and even in these provinces, not to such an extent as we should wish. The " vast deserts of grass pad- " docks occasionally overlooked by a soli- " tary horseman, travelling with a " binocular," which the Otago Guardian so truthfully describes as the condition of many parts of Otago and Southland, and the tenant-farmers of Canterbury who are rapidly exhausting the soil, surely do not meet the requirements of settlement in a country which is spending millions of borrowed money annually to increase its population, and construct roads, railways, and bridges 1 . Were it so, our Dunedin contemporaries would not suggest an absentee tax. We refer to this subject at such length, because we are convinced that it is only by its full and honest discussion in the Press that tho Colony will be able to see its way to cause the vast expenditure now going on to fructify to tho utmost possible extent. We have no object to serve but the public good, and wc set that above all Party considerations. Nothing will be gained by glossing over unploasant truths. That the Colony is progressing rapidly no one denies ; that 'it may continue prosperous, every one should earnestly desiro ; but that its policy is at present calculated to make the most of the loan expenditure, and the capital raised by the alienation of Crown lands, we defy any one who honestly considers the subject in all its boarings to maintain for a moment.