LECTURE ON THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE MONOPOLY OF WASTE LAND IN COLONIES.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 104, 14 May 1853, Page 3

LECTURE ON THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE MONOPOLY OF WASTE LAND IN COLONIES.

DELIVERED BY E. G. WAKEriELD AT "WrLLIXGTOX.

In the absence at present of mailer of greater interest, we have reprinted in full from the " Independent" the Lecture delivered by Mr. Wakefield on the monopoly of waste land, and would recommend it to the perusal of all. however much some may differ in opinion from Mr. Wakefield upon this subject. Jilt. ViCE-PiiEsnEvr, Ladies, ayd Glntlemen, — With regard to the whole subject upon a branch I am about to submit some observations to you — the entire subject, I mean, of the disposal by government of the waste land of colonies — I wish to remark, in the first place, that one thing is quite certain, not admitting of question or doubt ; so much so that there cannot be different opinions upon it. It is this — that there is no subject of equal importance to the people of a new colony ; none which so nearly and deeply affects the interests and feelings of every one as an individual, and the prosperity of the community at large ; none which moie intimately concerns the present happiness of families, and the future greatness of the nation which those families are engaged in founding. But, in the second place, this whole subject is so extensive, that it could not be properly examined in the brief space of time to which we are limited this evening. And, lastly, a due examination of it would involve the risk, at least, of allusions, to party politics, such as I am precluded from making. . . . But, in selecting that topic— the causes and effects of the monopoly of waste land in colonies — I was of course aware that it would be impossible for me to avoid political considerations. One might as well attempt to talk about making bread, without alluding to flour, and yeast, and water. For the topic is wholly of a poli-. tical or public nature. Every word that anybody could say with regard to it must necessarily relate to that part of politics which is called political economy. Neither would it be possible for the utmost ingenuity to examine this topic, in this country — where it is of vital and practical moment to everybody — without crossing other men's opinions and even feelings : but this is possible ; and at this I will carefully aim — to handle the topic in no party spirit, but in the spirit of scientific enquiry ; that is to say, without noticing either any specific measures which may at this time divide public opinion, or any party antagonism now existing in New Zealand, or, above all, anything of a nature personal to individuals, whether in official or private life.

The monopoly of waste land in colonies ! It will be well to begin by endeavouring to define clearly what is meant by those words. I mean by them that state of things in which, from some cause or other, the waste land of the colony is shut up against settlement; that state of things in which waste land is not attainable, or only attainable with great difficulty, by persons willing and able to settle

upon it and turn it to good account ; that state of things in which a small community, or several small communities, are surrounded by waste land of great natural fertility, are wishing to get possession of some of this land in order to use it beneficially for themselves and the colony at large, and are precluded from indulging this most natural and laudable desire; that state of things in which, if the waste land of the colony were open to occupation on easy terms, and on e*qual terms for all, thousands and thousands of people, with capital to be reckoned by tens and hundreds of thousands, would come j from the other country, and perhaps from neighbouring countries, and would settle in the colony, pouring wealth into the hands of preceding and experienced settlers, but in which (I mean the state of j things) the influx of people is checked, or even stopped, by the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining property in land. ' No colonial people know better than the colonists of New Zealand what that state of things is. I say nothing now about either its effects or its causes : but I ask you to reflect for a moment on the bare fact. Is it, or is it not. a fact, that from some cause or other (never mind what) the acquisition of waste land in New Zealand has, from the very outset of colonization — from the time when the idea of colonizing this magnificent country was first conceived, down to the present time — been a work of difficulty, and trouble, and expense, and risk ; a work, the attendant circumstances of which were such as to deter rather than to encourage. It happens that lam a good witnecs in this case ; for I can go back, with the clearest recollections, to the day when British subjects were not allowed even to , think practically about colonizing New Zealand; i when the vast and fertile wilderness was declared | to be foreign territory which Britons had m right to j think about inhabiting ; and when only the high spirit of the men who came out, in spite of most formidable obstacles, to found this Wellington Settlement, snatched New Zealand from the gripe of French comiet colonization. In order to lay hold of New Zealand at all for our race and nation, it was needful to exert vigorously the qualities for which our rare, whether in Europe or America, is most remmk.ible— the imagination to conceive great projects, with the invention, the boldness, the piudenoe, and the indefatigable patience, by which alone great projects can be accomplished through the process of forcing good out of evil. But what a venture and what a struggle ! Some of you remem- j ber it all, having been among the very founders of this our country — the first who dared to encounter those fearful di.'fioulties : difficulties fearful indeed in the contemplation, but which, instead of fearing, you bravely conquered, and conquered so far at least effectually, that by your courage in coming to Npw Zealand without knowing where, or whether at all, you would be able to put youi feet on the land, you made the French occupation ju-^t too late, , and the British colonization of the Islands possible. ! But only possible: not easy: you remember that also. Nor were the obstacles to settlement upon j the 1-iTid confined to those who originally disembark- ! ed in this harbour. The founders of Nelson were i not allowed to settle on the plains of Canterbury as they desired, but were compelled cither to go without land, or to put up vvith what they deemed a less , eligible position, where, again, difficulties about the , occupation of land proved hurtful to all, ruinous to man} r , and to some fatal. lias not the bair.e question tormented tho North ? Are not the settlers of New Plymouth still hemmed in by waste land which ' they cannot use ? It was not till after long delays that thp foundation of Otago became possible; and though facilities with regard to the occupation of land, vvith a good title and on terms of equality for i all, have occasioned in the Canterbury Settlement a ' degiee of progress, agricultural as well as pastoral, i which surprised as much as it gratified me when I i witnessed it the other d.iy, yet we must bear in , mind, that for ten long years the settlement of those j plains were hindered, and the inhabitants of Wei- j lington were deprived of the benefits which coloni- j zation in the Middle Island was sure to confer on j them, because the land could not be occupied vvith- | out difficulty, nor enjoyed vvith even a hope of se- j cure possession. All over New Zealand, until re- j cently, the possession of land has been insecure, be- j cause the title to possessed land was imperfect ; and the difficulty of obtaining fresh land has been so great, that beyond the original plantation of people at each Settlement, further colonization has been next to impossible. I blame nobody for this. The argument would not be affected by admitting that nobody has been to blame, but that the closing up against settlement of all but a very small portion of the country could not have been averted by human wisdom. Let us take it so ; still there is the fact, that nearly the whole country has been closed up against settlement. Ido not ask why. I only ask you whether there can be any worse state of things for a new colony than that state of monopoly with respect to waste land, in which ne.uly the whole country is closed up against settlement, and therefore condemned to remain in a waste state, even at the time when there are hundreds or thousands of actual colonists on the spot, and tens or hundreds of thousands of would-be colonists at home, and near by, who would gladly invest their capital and industry in reclaiming the wilderness, if that wilderness were laid fully and freely open to colonizing | enterprise. j

It is manifest that the state of monopoly with regard to waste land may be produced by a variety of ' causes. The cause which has operated most obviously and most effectually in New Zealand, is the same which on many occasions impeded the English colonization of North America. It is a cause which cannot exist in waste countries wholly destitute of aboriginal inhabitant?. Here, as in North America, tribes of uncivilized natives occupied the land in their own peculiar way ; and before emigrants from civilized countries could comfortably occupy it in their peculiar w,iy, it was necessary that the native title should be extinguished by some process or other Any process which is not based on the free consent of the native inhabitants should rather be termed confiscation than extinction, of native title. The gentler process may be carried on, in two different

ways — either by the colonists, whose government first permits them as individuals to buyout native occupation, and then maintains by its authority private bargains with the natives ; or by the government itself, acting as trustee and agent for the public, In North America frequently, as in New Zealand continually down to a recent date, the government neither permitted private persons to deal with the natives for land, nor dealt with them itself. I do not intend to complain of the government, but only to notice a fact : the fact, which has been a principal cause of the monopoly of waste land in this country ; the fact which (it is only uttering a truism to say so) has made New Zealand colonization to be slow, halting, and altogether unsatisfactory when compared with that of South Australia or Victoria ; colonies which at the same distance from the mother country, opened to colonization at nearly the same time, and with, I believe, very inferior natural resources, had gone far a-head of us before the recent discoveries of gold which have placed them for the present out of reach of comparison with us. And let us note that in New Zealand, as sometimes happened in North America and South Africa, the non-extinction of native title has been, not merely the principal cause of the state of monopoly with regard to waste land, but almost the sole cause; and for a very simple reason This one cause of monopoly operated so generally that it prevented other causes from coming into play. In proceeding therefore to notice those other causes of waste-land monopoly, I cannot find in this colony apt illustrations of the subject, but mus-t draw them from other colonies with which you are less familiarly acquainted.

Of all those other causes, the most potent, and the one which has been the most generally mischievous, is the course which colonizing governments in various parts of the world have pursued, when they suddenly granted all the waste land of the colony, or the pick of it, to a small number of persons, who never possessed both the will and the means to occupy their ■vast possessions beneficially, who were often absentees utterly careless about there colonial property, who generally refused to part with any land except on terms which the bona fide would-be settler was unable to comply with, and who therefore kept the country often for long periods of time, in a state of wilderness; veritable dogs in the manger, which cannot eat the hay themselves, nor yet will let it be eaten by the hungry cow. In South Africa, to a large extent ; throughout the United States when they were dependent colonies, down to the time when their independent government established a system in the disposal of waste land which checked this soit of monopoh ; in the British Colonies of Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Upper Canada ; in Western Australia or Swan River, and in New South Wales down to the time (about 20 years ago) when the plan of granting land for nothing was abolished— this cause of monopoly was in full force. .Indeed,. 1 know of but four colonies which 1m c been more or less exempt from its operation ; first, New South Wales in some degree, and with respect only to some of the land which was not granted away twenty yens ago ; secondly, New Zealand, because another cause of monopoly prevented its introduction; lastly, Victoria and South Australia, wheie it never obtained any footing at all. Whereo\tr it is introduced, it is veiy apt to obtain a sure footing. It i& that v.eed of colonization which vegetates most luxuriantly, and spreads with the greatest rapidity.

But there are other weeds of a like character. Sometimes when there is no question about native title — when every acie of land in the colony is the unquestioned property of the government — the government itself, instead 'of acting as a trustee for the public and freely disposing of the land to the settlers, converts its trust iato a monopoly, by leserving land ; from settlement: by refusing to open this or that district to persons desirous of settling there ; by vh--tually saying to the would-be settler — '' We, the Government, know better than you can what is for ycur interest, and where you ought to settle. Your inclination to settle here is a blind fancy which we will not indulge : settle there, at the place which we, in our wisdom, prefer for you; or if you don't like our choice of a place of settlement for you, why go without land, or go away to another colony if }ou can." And then perhaps, after a time, it turns out that a district whore industrious men were not allowed to settle, Vas reserved (mark the word " reserved !") fur the purpobe of being granted for nothing, or sold at a nominal price, to some company or other set of monopolists, having influence with the government, who obtained the land without the slightest intention to use it themselves, or to do anything else with it but keep it in a stale of wilderness unlil, at some distaut day, they or their heirs, or the heirs of their assigns, might be able to exact a high price for it from the bonu fide settler wanting land for his own use. If there was time, I could cite scores, aye hundreds, of instances of this sort of monopoly, in a variety of colonies, such as New South Wales, wheie a great " leserve" by the government preceded the monopoly of the Newcastle coal-field by a London company ; in the old English colonies of America, in whose history we find perpetually recurring, as a grievance, the authoritative reservation o£waste land from settlement, succeeded by the private monopoly of vast districts ; and the British colonies in the same region, where government reserves (not appropriations for some public use, which is a totally different thing), and vast private monopolies succeeding as a matter of course, form one of the most prominent subjects of a Bepoit on the Affairs of British North America, by Lord Durham, whose nui denting exposure of abuses laid the foundation of all the improvement that has since taken place in the g<nernment of England's colonial empire. Ido not say that the motive of reserves by the government is always corrupt : but every reserve by the government is in itself a monopoly, great or small in proportion to the extent of Liiid reserv ed from settlement — a treatment of theland as the dog treated the hay in the manger; and thenaturaltendency of every such reserve, by keeping waste land unoccupied till settlement in the neighbourhood improves its value, is to result in private monopoly, through the temptation to jobbing between land monopolizers and the government which it necessarily creates. A third monopoly of similar character is occasioned by deficiency in the surveys. \r\ order that waste land should be freely open to all on equal terms, it is absolutely necessary that the land snould be surveyed And mapped vvith so much care and accuracy, at least, as will enable the intending settler to select his location with a real knowledge of what he is doing. If this is not done, two evils occur, both, of them partaking of the character of monopoly, la - the first place, settlement in the unsurveyed districts. • is impeded by the trouble, and expense, and risk of _ error, attendant upon work of selection, so that all classes are discouraged from settling in that looality,

which therefore often continues for years in a state of wilderness ; unproductive because unsettled ; unsettled because, through the want of proper survey, practically reserved from settlement, like the districts before mentioned which a government declares t in so many words, to be closed for the present against settlement. Secondly, the want of proper survey gives to the man whose trade is monopoly in waste land, immense advantages over the hard-worker whose desire is, not to possess waste land without using it, but to use it by means of possessing it. For the appropriation of large tracts of country by individuals is not selection in the usual sense of that word : it more resembles taking the whole, when, of course, there is no choosing, but only a taking and have done with it : but the working settler — the true colonist — the man who intends to till or stock the land himself, and in particular the man vfho intends to cultivate land, — requires a small extent comparatively : and it is necessary for him to be very careful, most desirable that he should be very successful, in his endeavour to choose the spot best suited for his wants and inclinations. This man, who for the good of the colony is worth twenty monopolists, cannot chuse easily, can hardly chuse safely, may chuse wrong altogether, if he has not the aid of a survey. In competing with the monopolist about chusing, he labours under such a burthen of disad. vantages, that his wish and intention are almost sore to be frustrated. He carries so'much weight in the race, that he is almost sure to lose it. His whole class is in the same predicament.. But his poison is the monopolists' meat. The working settler being discouraged from attempting to chuse, the rich, lazy, speculating monopolist has it all his own way, and snaps up the land while the other is about going to the Land Office to look at a map of a district which perhaps is not there, or which, if there, is not a real map, the product of accurate survey, but a misleading sketch, the examination of which will only puzzle and confound him, though the monopolist, whose trade is" to find his way through the labyrinths of the Land Office, will be able to use it for his own grand operation as a landjobber. Therefore the want of survey, or survey which is not complete and accurate, and represented by a map open to the use of all, operates as an impediment to real settlement, and, in the same degree, as a cause of monopoly. There is no time Jiow for further notice of the subject of survey ; but it is a matter of such great importance, and particularly of importance to the working classes, in colonies, where "making war upon the wilderness" is the proper business of nine-tenths of the people, that, having given pains-taking attention to the Bubject my-self, I should be happy to go into it at length on some other occasion, if such an inquiry were agreeable to you.

I come now to the most important and noticeable of the causes of monopoly. It is so at the present time, because that which was once the most powerful cause of monopoly — I mean the system of free grant, under which the bulk of available land in every colony became the property of leviathan monopolists — has been abolished throughout the colonies of England, and is not likely ever to be revived either by the Imperial Parliament, or by any colony legislating for itself on the subject of the disposal of waste lands. Instead of the grant for nothing, we sec now everywhere the plan of selling. But under this plan it is quite possible either that monopoly should be established by the government, or that it should establish itself. All depends upon the price required for land. If the price is so high as to deter would-be settlers from purchasing, the government closes the waste lands against settlement as effectually as in the case of " reserves'' before alluded to : the land is in fact monopolised by the government. But, on the other hand, if the price is so low as not to deter the speculating landjobber from purchasing, then monopoly establishes itself by a process which is so obvious that it scarcely needs to be described. The class of speculators, not being deterred by the price, either lay hold of entire districts, so as absolutely to possess every acre ; or, what is more common, because more easy without being less effectual to the object of the speculators, they pick out and appropriate all the best spots in a district, so as to deter others from buying in that district at all ; so as, in point of fact, to monopolize the district as effectually as if they purchased the whole of it. It has actually happened, too, and in numerous instances, that these vast monopolizing appropriations, whether of entire districts, or of all the best parts of a district, selected in such a manner as to spoil the remainder for the public, have taken place more easily under the plan of selling than under that of free grants. This happened to some extent in New South Wales when the plan of selling was first adopted, and when the cost of land, at os. per acre, was sometimes less than the amount of fees and other expenses which would have been paid for free grants of the same land It happened on a still more extensive scale in Canada, where, for the same reason, land has at times been cheaper under the selling than under the granting plan. I can speak on this point as an eye-witness. In North- America I have travelled for days together through districts of great natural fertility, but entirely waste or wild, where either all the land, or all the better-most parts, had, by means of purchase from the government, become the property of speculators, generally absentees from the districts, very often from the country, vfho never intended to use the land, and who deliberately kept it in a wild state, neither using it nor letting others use it, like the dog with the hay in the manger ; biding their time, until the increase of people from births and immigration should create a demand for land, and should enable the said speculators to sell to bona fide settlers at prices sufficient to cover the original investment, with accumulated interest, and a good profit into the bargain. I am not going into the great question of cheap or dear land, though really it might be done in this town and neighbourhood without breach of your rule against discussing party questions ; since, of course, when all, or nearly all, are on one side, there is no party question to discuss. Recurring, however, to the point from which I have digressed for an instant, I would say that it

may be considered without examining the great question of cheap or dear land, which involves numerous considerations wide apart from it, and even foreign to it. When I shall use the words " cheap" and "dear," it will be solely with reference to the question of monopoly. I say, then, that if we judge by an experience so extensive as to be not improperly termed universal, we may state it to be a rule without exceptions, that, as there is a dearness of waste land which establishes monopoly by the government itself, so there rs* a cheapness of waste land which as certainly permits and encourages a private monopoly by speculators. Which kind of monopoly is the worst for the colony, will be asked presently, when we come to the effects of monopoly. Among its causes I know of none more sure to produce it, than the plan of selling freely at a price so low as to encourage merely speculative appropriation. And it is only because* our time is limited that I abstain from laying before you a multitude of facts, drawn from colonies in various parts of the world, some of them not distant from New Zealand, which establish beyond a question, that by this cause, and by it alone, private monopoly to an immense extent has been produced ; and monopoly, too, which it is very difficult to destroy. For observe, that when a government creates monopoly either by means of failing to extinguish native title, or by reserves which forbid settlement, the evil is not incurable, but may be remedied sooner or later. By extinguishing the native title, or by abolishing the reserves, the monopoly is extinguished or abolished, and the land may be laid open for appropriation and use by the industrious settler. Whereas, in the ease of private monopoly, coveiing a large extent, the public property in the land is parted with for ever, and the industrious settler is precluded from obtaining any, unless he is both able and willing to pay for it whatever price the monopolist in possession may choose to ask. Almost invariably, the monopolist asks a higher price than any government, and more especially any government responsible to the people, would think of requiring. In truth, therefore, as respects the class whom it is the first duty of a colonizing government to encourage and aid in acquiring landed property, the land is dear in proportion as the mere speculator is able to obtain it cheap. Cheap land for the monopolist becomes dear land for the mass of the people. In hundreds, I might almost say in thousands, of cases, I have witnessed this operation of a very low price as the price required by government. It was described by Lord Durham as one of the main grievances under which the people of Canada laboured before their rebellion. Of that rebellion, I believe (and have often said so before now) that it was one of the principal causes. A monopoly of w aste land, by whatever means produced, when it shuts up land from settlement by the working classes, is the worst evil that can be inflicted on a colony ; and it is so most conspicuously and most irremediably, when it is produced by means of bO low a piice lequircd by the government, as lets the lich speculator iuto easy possession, with the instant and sure result of making waste land dear for every other class.

Turning from causes to effects, I request your attention to some points which show by particulars, that the public monopoly of waste land is a less evil for colonies than the piivate monopoly. In the former case, there is a remedy at hand : lay open to settlement, at a price which will give the speculator no adv antage over the worker, all the land which has been closed up against settlement. This the government always can do when it has the will : and it always must when it is responsible to the people ; for in this case, remember, there is no class interested in preserving the monopoly. But in the other case, when a very low price has enabled the speculative class to obtain extensive possession, there is a powerful class of resident land-owners, and agents of absentee land-owners, deeply interested in preserving the monopoly, and banded together for that purpose, with great means of influence at their disposal. These form what may be termed a waste-land aristocracy. In New South "Wales they are called the aristocracy of squatters. In that colony, they have obtained present possession of an extent of land equal to twice the extent of the whole area of the three Islands of New Zealand — that is, more than 150,000,000 acres— not indeed by purchase at a very low price, but through leases for fourteen years at a very low rent. It was the leases which gave them a monopoly hold of the land . a tenure widely different from that security of occupation for pastoral purposes only, which the pastoral occupier justly requires, and which, for the sake of every interest in the colony, it seems most desirable to afford him as the pioneer of colonization. The leases did all the mischief. From the moment when the pastoral occupiers obtained those leases, they have been banded together, as one man, for the purpose of converting their tenure into freehold by means of buying at the lowest possible price. It is they, In New South Wales, who demand cheap land. There is not a working man amongst them ; and scarcely one of the middle class. With the exception of their immediate dependants, and of persons whom they can influence through their possession of this immense monopoly, they are opposed by the working and middle classes, especially in the towns, where their influence is comparatively small : naturally opposed by those classes, who have the interest in preventing the aristocracy of squatters from permanently establishing their fourteen years' monopoly of 150,000,000 acres. I am assured that this opposition to the monopolists by the middle and working classes of the towns is likely to be defeated ; that by means of their superior wealth, union, and organization, the monopolists are now getting into the hands of their party all the powers of government in New South Wales, and that there is every prospect of their being able, ere long, to put what price they please upon such land as they may chuse to sell to the working and middle classes. A landed aristocracy, when once established, is sure to become powerful, and not less sure, if we draw our conclusions from all hi&tory, to aim at dominion over the other classes. In Upper Canada, that party which was called the Family Compact— a small minority which long ruled the colony till their

mis-government brought about the rebellion (I am stating admitted historical facts), consisted of a band of waste land monopolists : and the historical document to which I have before referred — Lord Durham's celebrated Report — leaves no manner of doubt that the contest between this ruling class and the bulk of the people, including the working classes almost to a man, turned principally upon the Monopoly question. The object of the people was to destroy the private monopoly of waste land ; that of the monopolists was to preserve it. The popular party sought the imposition of a wildland tax — that is, a tax upon appropriated land not used by the proprietors; the aim of this tax being to make the monopolists disgorge some, at least, of the land for the use of the people. But the monopolists were so much stronger than the people, though there was a constitution on paper giving representation with almost universal suffrage, that the struggle only ended with the rebellion ; and then only for a time, since at this moment the taxation of wild land in Canada fails to accomplish its object thoroughly,- and the monopoly of the unused wilderness is still a grievance. I believe, myself, taking all experience as a guide, that when once a large private monopoly in waste land is established, it cannot by any means be thoroughly destroyed: but, howe\er that may be, the struggle which it produces between two adverse interests is an effect of monopoly full of e\il for the colony, over and above the dearness of land for the bulk of the people.

) Another sure effect of private monopoly is to deI prive the colony of the great and numerous benefits which it must enjoy through the possession of a public rev enue arising from the sale of waste land ; benefits which some colonies, not far from us, enjoy in some degree, but which, I feel sure, that it is in the power of New Zealand to obtain in a measure sui passing what has ever hitherto occurred. When the waste land is monopolised, the proceeds of its sales to bonufide settlers at a high price go into the pockets of the monopolists ; when it is not monopolised, the proceeds of its sales, at whatever price, go to the public for public purposes. We have in New Zealand not less than 40,000,000 acres of waste land available for settlement. If we sell it for such a price as will keep off the monopolists, as will hold the land open for settlement by persons intending to settle upon it, we shall have a prospective revenue of very large amount. This revenue, which it would be impossible to obtain all at once, would form a security upon which large sums might be raised in j the mother-countiy, where capital is superabundant. I speak on this point with a personal knowledge of the facts. Just before leaving England, I had much communication with persons of weight in what is 1 called the monej -market ; with persons who unques- ! tionably have the power to piovide large funds for ! public u«es in New Zealand, aud who will not fail to 1 do so if we give them the inclination. Indeed, i l may say with confidence, that they aheady ha\e the i inclination, though they have doubts as to the \alue of the security. The security that would be most agreeable to them is a prospective revenue to be de1 rived from the sale of waste lands: for they are , among the shrewdest of mankind, those inhabitants

lof Lombard-street ; and they see plainly that loans ( raised upon that security, and expended upon all ' sorts of useful objects in the colony, would increase the value of the security in exact pioportion to their 1 amount; that the \ery money advanced by them being expended here in making wharves and roads, ! in securing vallies against floods, and in promoting steam communication amongst the settlements (which for New Zealand is tantamount to making great lines of road) — that all this money would go j into the pockets of the working classes, and the ! small farmeis, and the storekeepers, and the merchants ; and that a large portion of it would be exI pended in buying waste land, and would so go back i into the pockets of the lenders in the form of interest, 1 and, ultimately, repayment of the principal. For ; reasons into which theie is no time for me to enter, New Zealand is in England the most popular of colonies, and the one whose prosperity and greatness is most desired and expected. lam sure that we should get the money, if we offered a security agreeable to the lenders : and besides the money which each Province and the General Government would raise for the public purposes before indicated, we might adopt the principle of the Trust and Loan Companies which are of such great service to Canada and the State of New York, borrow ing sums at a low rate of interest in the glutted money-market of England, and lending them out here at a colonial rate of interest on mortgage of landed property, so that, supposing the interest obtained here to be twice as much as that paid to the English lender, the industrious classes in New Zealand would obtain the capital for use without any burthen on the land revenue, though such revenue should be a security, without which, in addition to the general revemie, the capitalists at home would not advance the money. Let us take as an example the case of Wellington, when this Province shall have a representative legislature capable of raising money on loan for public purposes. I will mention sums and rates of interest by way of illustration merely, not intending to speak of such sums and rates with any practical view at this moment. Suppose that the Province borrows in England, at the rate of 5 per cent., the sum of £200,000. The interest would be £10,000 a-year. Now suppose that half of this sum, or £100,000, is expended on roads and other public objects, going, as before observed, into the pockets of the industrious classes of every rank ; and that the other half, the second £100,000, is lent out on mortgage within the Province at an interest of 10 per cent. The income derived from this latter sum will be, at 10 per cent., £10,000 a-year, which is exactly the amount required for paying interest, at the rate of 5 per cent., on the whole sum of £200,000 borrowed in England. Interest on -the whole loan would be paid by the fructification, in private hands, of that half of the loan which should be lent out on mortgage. Consequently, the use of the first £100,000, with all its attendant benefits for the industrious classes, would cost the Province nothing : it would be all pure gain. And we may be sure that no harm, but much good, would come of the

use of the second £100,000 as fructifying capital : for who can doubt that, in this country, private capital may be safely employed so as to yield a profit much exceeding 10 per cent. ? But it may" be said, what, would you have the colony, both public and individuals, get into debt ? I answer, that an extensive experience has led me to believe that a colony only prospers largely when it gets into debt. Is not the advance of capital bj r those who possess it to those who do not, but whose industry can make it fructify, — is not this, I ask, the common principle of colonial industry and business ? I saw Canada when she could not get into debt— when nobody would lend her a shilling — when the idea of a. Loan and Trust Company for that colony would have been scouted in the London money-market. I saw that colony then, poor, stagnant, and distracted. I took a very active part in the measures by which Canada was enabled to get into debt, both publicly and privately. With the great bulk of her land monopolised, she could not borrow a shilling on local security ; but the Imperial Parliament was induced to guarantee the interest of a Canadian loan for £1,500,000; and so Canada got the money. Great public works were undertaken ; all the money went into the pockets of the industrious classes ; and the public works, by facilitating communication— by opening up those parts of the country which were not monopolized— enabled those classes to use that money very profitably. Canada went a-head, as the Americans say, at a great rate. In a few years, without any new taxes, her public revenue was multiplied several fold. Everybody prospered : farmer, mechanic, labourer, storekeeper, builder, merchant, and landowner— aye, even the doctors and lawyers, and milliners and dancing-masters— by reason of the general increase of pecuniary means. I saw the miserable stagnation, and witnessed the gratifying progress ; and I have ever since longed to see New Zealand get into debt, in order that she may go ahead with advantage to all classes. But lam afraid that we have no chance of getting the interest of loans for public purposes guaranteed by the Imperial Parliament. Therefore I say that, in this country, monopoly of waste land would have, among other bad effects, that of making it difficult, if not impos-, sible, to raise money in England, either to be expended on public purposes, or to be lent out, at interest, as capital advanced to assist private enterprise.

There are some other ill-effects of the monopoly of waste land, but they are of less magnitude than those already noticed; and my own strength is much exhausted, if not your patience. I thank you very sincerely for the indulgent attention with which you have listened to me, and will now bring the subject to a closer Taking a view, for one instant, of the effects and causes of monopoly in connection with each other, we see that the colony suffers evil, and is deprived of good, in proportion as its waste land is not laid open, and kept open, for real settlement ; that by bjing the land open for speculathe investment, the government closes it up against useful settlement; that theie is no unconquerable difficulty about laying it open, but that the difficulty of keeping it open for the industrious classes isalwajs great, because the speculative class, whose trade is speculation in land, is constantly on the look out for ways of getting into permanent possession, whilst the industrious classes, being otherwise engaged, and not making a trade of dealing in Lmd, but merely intending to buy land for use by themselves, labour under great disadvantages in competing with the speculators; and, finally, that as the surest and easiest way of getting the land speeulatively monopolised, is the plan of selling by the government at a price low enough to tempt the speculator, so, as a natural consequence, the only way of preventing monopoly — the only way of keeping open for settlement the land which has been laid open for private appropriation — is the maintenance by government of a price sufficient to deter speculators from acquiring land without intending to use it. Look at the subject in every point of view, turn it over and over again in every direction ; try, as I have done for years with the largest practical experience, to devise a real, efficient check upon speculative monopoly, other than a de- , terring price required by the government as against mere speculators ; and the result, I cannot help thinking, will be a conclusion formed in your own minds, that the \iews which I have submitted to you, are founded in truth and reason.

In conclusion, however, permit me to say, that I expect no man to agree with me in consequence of what he may have heard this evening. As truth is not discovered, but only expounded, in the pulpit, so disquisition by a lecturer at his desk is rather suited for the elucidation of doctrines generally admitted to be true, than for enquiry about questions on which opinion is much divided. Discussion is the proper road to truth with regard to opposite or differing opinions. The rules of your Society properly forbid discussion here, where the lecturer of course puts his own views in the most favourable light, without being subject to those contradictions and enquiries which are the surest test of the truth of doctrine. It would be a real satisfaction to me to be questioned on this matter in a t. <! f h-seelring spirit ; and if any of those who now- hear me, or any other members of your Society, would meet me elsewhere for that purpose, I t-hdiild feel honoured by their confidence in my disposition to investigate with temper and candour this or any other branch of the great subject, in comparison with which none is at present of equal importance to the colonists of New Zealand. I hope ' you will be of opinion that I have here confined myself to the single branch of it, to which on this occasion I was limited by an engagement most binding in honour.

* At this place Mr. Wakefleld was interrupted by exhaustion, arising from the crowded and heated state of the Hall; but he has favoured us with the notes of what he intended to say in addition, whereby we are enabled to print the Lecture entire.