SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 2 September 1880, Page 2

SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

Regarding a paragraph 'in the Times headed " Emigration to New Zealand" and drawing a very depressing picture of the state of that Colony, Sir Julius Vogel writes to that journal as follows The writer has very much exaggerated the depression existing in the Colony, and some of his statements are untrue, as, for example, that the'cost for the bare necessaries of life is exorbitant. His warning to " the small capitalists at home" not to oome to New Zealand is a mistaken one for never has the Colony offered a better chance to such persons. The severe depression which has prevailed in the Colony during the last twelve months arisen from various causes. Chief among these I may mention the withdrawal of much capital after the failure of the Glasgow Bank and the low price of 1 the contraction of the usual financial facilities, and the arrival in the Colony of many unsuitable colonists. Just is this depression was commencing a singularly severe depression prevailed in this country. Numbers of persona in New Zealand communicated to. their friends, accounts of the great success, they had met. with, and thus a strong impulse towards emigrating to the Colony arose. Under instructions, however,, from lay Government, I confined the selection of those emigrants to whom I gave assisted passages almost entirely to domestic servants, and to persons nominated by their friends in the Colony. The result was that a. large, unselected, and self-paying emigration took place last year of some 10,000- ; souls (whereas in previous years the* average of similar emigration was seldom over 3000 to 4000), an unusually larger number of whom were not exactly suitedl for, colonial life. Meanwhile the reduction in the price of wool and the diminished! financial facilities lessened the demand for labor, and hence arose the cry of the unemployed. From a colonial point of view, there has unquestionably been some distress. I use the words "colonial point of view," advisedly ; for the distress which the temporary excess «f labor occasions in a Colony, is no m*re>to> 1 be compared with the sufferings to which the working classes in this country sura too. : frequently subjected, than the extraction, of a tooth to be compared with thtf amputation of a limb. The one is temporary and more or less painful for the moment;; the other bears not unseldom life-long; consequences. Although , there may have been some privation, there has not bwa anything like prolonged distress on tWsnar on former occasions. The Gotoibw,! has provided work at something Heaa the normal rate of payment w jth some discontent, such wosk & accepted. But there are always colonies at the very brightest period* B'ome people unused to manu&V 'work* arid not suited colonial life, andl who therefore fared badly at tuj&c&ofi depress ion ; and as there are no vf©jjkljpu»es tnere, or, any organised system eft relief by /means of poor rateß, , eppjpiainta of such people are heard far ajidi wide. The so-called depressions which ocour from time to time in.nearly every Colony, while • they last are wry sharp, but equally so in the re-action. Wool has now risen in price ; the returns for the present season's clip will greatly exceed those of last year. The harvest has been moat bountiful. A friend lately wrote to me, " Forty, fifty, and even sixty bushels of wheat, are not uncommon, mill® acres of wheat) is estimated to ,gsve. me 45. to the acre; while of oats, aiftty, seventy,, eighty, and even-ninety l bushels, are by no means exceptional, lastly, money has become plentiful. When,, the- winter is over a sharp re-action is likely to occur; still for the present |pey»o®» without capital should not go to the_ Colony. It is folly to suppose that aro' excess of labor has more than 1 . | a temporary significance in a country 'like New Zealand. In the course «f | time it will support a population of ot*' 90,000,000. How absurd to think thd » overpopulated with less than half But the nice adjustment of Oft}** 8 ' an , labor is not an easy thing, andlat times is likely to fall out of gear. Aft the presen time labor requires capital to its aid, or might, perhaps, more. correc "?t capitalists j for, in the sense I wish use the term, a man of very small mea °. may be a capitalist. I can give no « • trary exposition of amount. To all " tents and purposes a young '' prudent, active, and not disinci' ine . "roughing it," may be practically,a gre I capitalist with LSOO in his P 08 ?? 88 ' 0^ than the father of a family, demanding the onset expensive luxuries, with LSOQQ. To a person of small content to live frugally, and P°® se3 ,^„? ; 9 knowledge of agriculture, New Ze»w _ a paradise compared with anything , hope for at Home. He may own i , of rent the land he farms ; he . in all the enjoyments of life j- and he may educate h ,s 0 ff j|i with a knowledge that bright ® are , t.,*. be within reach of his boys, and go bands forthcoming for his gitls. _