Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, SEPT. 22, 1902 THE NEED OF THE COLONIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9540, 22 September 1902, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, SEPT. 22, 1902 THE NEED OF THE COLONIES.

A rema/rkable sUiilemenfc was m;ide by Sir Edmund Burton in.his speech at Torunto, when he predicted thail in 20 years the population of the autonomous colonies would equal Unit of the Motherland. The statement has been challenged by several of our Australian contemporaries, who regard it as altogether 'too sanguine an estimate, ami so far as New Zealand is concerned we also may add our disapproval, for the statement raises a subject on which we have always felt strongly—namely, that the crying need Utr lhi.s colony is more population, and that the present rate of increase is not nearly' sufficient 'to develop our enormous resources. It is pointed out by a, Sydney paper that of late years the whole tendency in Australasia has been towards a marked contraction in the rate of increase in our people, and while that feature hits been more prominent here than in other parts of the Empire, because, prior to 1891, our increase had been exceptionally marked, and there was thus more room for contraction, it is also apparent that in Canada likewise development is slow. In South Africa only, among.* the autonomous colonies, was there, anything approaching rapid, expansion in the last decade, and ithat was due to special conditions. Were the existing rates of inorease to be continuous throughout the Empire, even a century hence there would not be an equality. Yet in England the population is becoming more and more crowded, while in other British posses--sioiis there is a.v abundance of room, if only it could be rendered sufficiently attractive. But for one British and Irish emigrant who nowadays finds his way to Australasia a hundred go to the United yUites, and (o a large extent 'that in not the fault of the emigrant, but of the conditions! in Australia. The whole aim of legislation in Australia and New Zealand, continues our contemporary, lias been,

and is, to render 'these countries the paradise of the working man and woman. In "advanced" enactments we are ahead of all the rest of the world. Our rulers have decreed a higher minimum wage than exists as an average in any other country. We have established courts for the special protection of the worker. We have rendered trades unionism practically compulsory, and sustained by law. We have old age pensions, upon a scale which, in other lands, would be regarded as beyond the dreams of possibility. The Governments of Austa-alaisia themselves provide high wages for fourfold the number of men officially catered for by any other Government, and for ihe purpose we borrow nioney upon an equally lavish scale. Every man lias his vote to use for the member who will do -the most for him; and as for our Minister for Public Works, his life is devoted to (the struggle to find occupation for anyone and everyone who applies, and the- average colonial is by no means slow at making application. What more can be needed to make these colonies a paradise for ihe working man? Why are there more attractions for him in 'oither countries? The records point to employment being steadier and more permanent elsewhere. Can it be Riid that the bolstering up of labor is operating directly against 'the interests of labor? We believe iit. to be so. The position, as 'the 'Sydney paper points out, seems fairly clear of definition. The emigration reports published regularly in the United Kingdom tell the people month after monlth, and year after year, that there are millions upon millions of acres fchaifc could be cropped and depastured if there were capital available and hands set to work them. But the immigrant, if he came here, could not go upon the land, because there ane no surveyed areas awaiting his arrival, and the purchase price is beyond him. If the immigrant tried to enter any trade, he would find it closed against, him, because the trades unions could not maintain wages scales if they were subject to any influx. At present levels there is not enough for existing hands. We have been extensive exporters of products we caimot consume, and have hiltherto been large importers -of goods which can be produced or manufactured cheaper efeewhere. For our exported products we can only secure the world's average prices, whilst here our markets are protected from the world's average, and we need high prices for our products. The result is that- the cost of living is so materially advanced that even higher wages purchase leiss than 'they did before, and our market, being much more restricted, there is less work to do. The w;iy to raise wages is ,to remove all artificial restrictions from industry, but the policy here is to puit more and more on. Borrowing may appear to stave off the evil effects of this for a time, but the longer the inevitable awakening is delayed the ruder it will be when it comes.