IMMIGRATION, No. IV.

Southland Times, Issue 1025, 21 September 1868, Page 3

IMMIGRATION, No. IV.

'•'" (io ika Ebiroß oi? the southiand tike 3). Sic, — In my proceeding letters on this ( subject,! have propounded two schemes < for furthering immigration to this i portion ; of Hew Zealand,* both of which might, 1 with advantage to the^colony .at large, j as well as ourselves, be adopted, and be < in active operation before the close of 1 another year. The first depends -on the ] disposition of r a few; capitalists, who, i having already, invested largely in the ] ~ Province, have intimated the"ir'wilungness ; to purchase to the extent of some fifty j thousand acres more, in order that the i Government might be placed in funds to i bring out immigrants; stipulating that r such funds should be set apart inalienably £ for this' purposes Their object being, j i presume, to increase the value of the land g they have already acquired, by the in- c troduction of population, without which ( it would be comparatively valueless, j The immigrants to repay the passage < money advanced by the Government. 1 The" second, the importation of Borne i .. hundreds of German farmers and laborers ; through the- ; instrumentality of i •a German firm, which would j advance 'the money, and not re- * require its defrayment until such times i as the Government could recoupe ] itself from the immigrants. There are 1 two features common to both proposi- < tions— that the General Government < must acquiesce, and that it is virtually , selling land pii deferred payments ; with ■- this difference, that as to the first scheme we are dependent on the will of others, as regards the ; latter, on our own. It is confessedly easy to suggest plans, the difficulty is to carry them out. I , will ; .endeavor to show that with energy and determination, the latter at any rate,. •■ inasmuch as it depends on our ourselves, is "perfectly practicable,' as I cannot conceive the possibility of objection on the part of the local Government to my proposal. I will not waste time in arguing the advantages which would accrue to the province by the introduction of a large and constant supply of immigrants, but will turn my attention ; to theprobability of the General Government agreeing; to the alienation of our landed estate from its ordinary channel, for- ¥uch -' a purpose. Nor will ' it be :;r difficulty «*I think, to . "prove- that it is the^ ■.rr . wisest£cqurse to pursue, the besfe investment that can be made of our waste lands. As I said months ago in the Frovincia}. Council, the "Consolidation of Loans

i Act " put the last spoke in the wheel of Provincialism. It matters not what are the sections into which the colony is , divided, the interest and sinking fund of ' the colonial debt must be met by it as a ' whole. Whatever the allocation of the >■ burden to each province or county may be to-day, to-morrow the demand must; L be liquidated from a common purse. To .say that for instance Nelson shall contribute so much yearly, because in 1868 ■ she obtains a certain revenue from the Grey River Goldfields, is absurd. Two ; years hence her diggers may be located at the Longwood Ranges, Southland, and she be left , with a revenue, totally inadequate to meet her proportion. While in six years time the entire digging population of New Zealand may be , camped in South Africa. To lessen the j heavy burden of taxation, to meet ifc with any degree of certainty, the General Government must at once, before the nomadic digging population flits, take j einergeiic measures to introduce a settled population, which being fixed to the soil, and taking that interest in the welfare of the, colony permanence can alone ensure, will build up a country that will prove not merely equal to the present emergency, but also worthy of its parent source. To talk of paying off the interest and Sinking Fund of the New .Zealand debt froiii the land sales is simply absurd. Every acre sold lessens the probability, except it be converted into a medium for the introduction of a stable population. And if, on the other hand, the crown lands do not sell, owing to the cessation of immigration ; where is the money to come from to pay the debt ? It is not merely, therefore, the interest of the General Goverhmeiit; acting on behalf of the Colony, to turn the landed estate of eaclfportion of ifc to the best advantage — it is its duty. If the financial propositions recently introduced into the Assembly by the Colonial Treasurer are accepted, no Province in New Zealand can carry out a scheme of immigration sufficiently comprehensive to practically reduce the pressure of taxation ; the onus devolves on the Generel Government, and judging from an article in the London ' Money Market Review,', on the consolidation of the New Zealand Loans, such would appear to be the impression at Home.— Tours &c, WH.TEB H. PEABSOS-. Invercargill, 18th September 1868.