WAKEFIELD'S MEMORIAL.*

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 138, 17 July 1914, Page 6

WAKEFIELD'S MEMORIAL.*

"THE ART OF COLONISATION." j A century, and less than a century ago, it was not enough that men shouM dream Utopias, they must set out tv> j create them. And it was sot nn-' natural, lor though the ideals and aspirations of those .aristor/rats <>£ intellect who lit a torch <rf hope, and found to their . terror that they had touched off a hideous conflagration—although those ideals and aspirations; ended in the blood and boredom of the.French Revolution, yet the visions seen by the idealists were still glimpsed by fervent optimists to whom the madness of the revolution was but evidence of miscalculation. Coleridge projected his fantastic intellectual democracy in America, and, most virile of all dreamers of ideal States, Edward''Gibbon Wakefield planned a purged and perfected feudalism in* the untrammelled lands of Australia and New Zealand. Wak field's dream was most.fantastic of all, for who but an Englishman could have imagined a revived medievalism, an expurgated eighteenth eentnry Eng[faffiS mtft Ml &i ! Church,' gentry, eomnions, and labourers [left in, and all want, poverty, and crime | lett eafj S5 SS Mm! J?x»3 permanent V t wfcaAjeii Yet- tKat -was W&ke&ekl %.d*es.r4v \ rsatt ic must Ere* FemeatipePGfr tlfc&b ~it& W-£ landed is an age when PoHtie&l Meon- f amy was looked, upon as definite 'seienc&.) (THE PBE-ABBANCKED STATE." ur ' f j So Wakefield planned to transplant ■ ! ahd revivify a civilisation already outgrown,, a method of life even then in • deliquescence with, the shock .of the revolution, and to forward his ideal ihe wrote an "Art of Colonisation." In these years we have small faith in colonisation by art, in pre-arranged states vf judiciously compounded social ingredients, for we know that civilisation grows up on the tracks cut by the adventurers, and tha,t the peopling of the wilderness is not the outcome of an [art, but of a genius for adventure mated to necessity.,.-. Even in this country, which most closely followed the Wakefield; model, and m this province of Canterbury which still bears most strongly | (be Impress oi Wakens Ll'a idealism, we I see that it, was not. the carefutly plan-! Lxu3fL aoc UtR-caxexv-iiz seiSct- [ M€ tfie ftifvMtuFcrg, tMm €u.a mum* caring neither, for infidel staies nor regulations, but rather in the impulse of adventure, and for what their hands could make'or take. It is to be remembered that the l ' shagroons,'' those pasfeOralists who came with their cattle from Australia, had as much to do with the general development of Canterbury as the selected " gentry and , labourers," drawn here by the New Zealand Company. And it was the influx of "shagroons" that broke down Wakefield's plausible and logically contrived' land system at its first test. A DOUBLE PUBPOSE. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, an obstinate, fiery, vivid man, impetuous always, and somewhat given to quarreling, compiled his book partly as a means of putting in order his dreams and his argument, but also as a means of hitting back at the newly-founded Colonial Office, and more especially at the Colonial Secretary, Earl Grey, and the permanent Under-Secretary, Sir James Stephen. But Wakefield was an idealist, and a philanthropist—he could hardly help being so. with a Quaker ancestry that had founded people's savings banks, friendly- societies, and mechanics' institutes. It was in his blood to be a saviour, and it was in his nature to be an autocrat, and his autoeracy shows out in all the letters of the "Art of Colonisation," though it.is possible that he would have been the last to recognise it. The book has become a classic in its own field, even though no statesman, colonial or otherwise, would ever dream of going to it for guidance. - Though Wakefield himself spoke slightingly in after years of "tlie theorists of 1830," it is in the theories of the book that the ehief interest lies, in its historical value and its" revelation of the personality of its author. To the student interested in the *'.' The Art of Colonisation," by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. A new edition published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, February, 1914.

origin and development of . the colonies of New Zealand and South Australia, the book is invaluable, for in it are the aspirations and the logical reasoning of one who had more to do : with those origins than anyone. Here, also, is shown the difficulties and discouragements wilielip the comparative hantlf ui of eoUmisiiag enthusiasts .had ,ta overcame— the stuTdy opposition of ' those in office, the sneers of comfortable .<< Little with fcroM acres, 1 the fear of degradation which the texm ■" colonist" -then. impli<i<L It eeeraS strange now that to adventure on Jife in' a new country should earn contempt, but in Wakefield's the younger son' might be d failure in his own country and a burden *>n his father, but to take himself to a new country with wider opportunities) was not only to make open confession of failure, but to take rank with the rejected. To be an "emigrant "in Wakefield's day was to become one of a class somehow akin to those forced emigrants, the transported. Indeed, to be compelled to emigrate in order to retain at least' some shadow of status was regarded ,by the genteel world of that day as 'being almost equivalent to transportation, and it was this feeling that so largely hampered the success of Wakefield's schemes. AN IMPBOVED FEUDALISM. Wakefield planned an improved feudalism. He wanted '' gentry,'' younger sons, landowners, and clergy, ftrst of all, for ; according to his conception oi yre-ye* «>*v».vs&*ie»&> r -ifc mas. y necessary for the emigrants to. hna in their B<5W homfi much the same social orgaufeatiw & s they had left. The Ghsrsli must i»P esfcabyiehea moral fend spiritual upholding ot :fhe) to lOOlt Up tO »s*»i "to-lean tlie f \ capitalist wa.s needed:', ia: organise the) cultivation of the fa&d, and farmers and ' labourers were needed to do the work of cultivation- It: may seenx , ? an im- ' practicable ideal now, but it naturally belonged to* Wakefield's period and •to Wakefield's te.mperament. A DABK PICTXJEE: '

His .opinion of the manners and commercial morality of the settlers in new colonies is of the darkest, and he paints rather crude pictures of the type of demagogue that held the, high offices in the more mature colonies. Probably the pictures are true enough, but "Wakefield's' preference for aristocratic rule was responsible for some exaggeration. The people were dominated * by. the more virile members of* their own class, and gentlemen who might have improved the method of government could Jiot compete against these /'ruffians.,.' as he calls some of them } 1 HBSCropnspßS»eß» 1»»«V csml& aiw<i ?om- | I bat th& unscrupulous. So the gentry ) rsluiajafc. ifxem iiato *Ke'' SXttCitiJf { desigsed his system at land Aistrilmtioii with the object of making the gentry the' largest land-owners, :' ' ; ' To the student the main of the "Art of Colonisation" is in the chapters dealing with the land system, and with the effects of colonisation on the ' home country. Indiscriminate grants of waste land he deplored. Such a course .made land comparatively valueless because, where almost every labourer could become a land-owner, there would be no labourers to work the: land, or, if-there were the price of labour would be disproportionate. Speaking of the system of granting land in New Zealand and South' Australia, he says: "In none of these cases did the plan of profusion precede that of selling, but in ; none of them did the price required 1 prevent the cheapest land from being cheap enough to inflict on the colony all the, evils of an extreme scarcity of labour for hire." INGENIOUS LAN© SCHEME. To. maintain a sufficiency of labour and to prevent any but those already possessed of means (which implied the ability to govern) from obtaining large areas, Wakefield proposed his "sufficient price." His ingenious brain is displayed in his searching out of the many "causes operating to make that price variable in different eolonies, and he proposed that colonial governments should determine that sufficient price according to the conditions of the colony. Labourers must not be allowed to "become land-owners '' too soon,'' and there is a ..wealth of intricate theory in his discussion of the effects and causes which would define exactly what f too soon" might mean. His-system was sound in theory, but, in Canterbury, it broke down with the advent of the Australian squatters with their herds and flocks. They claimed the right of land on which to depasture their stock according to the Australian custom, and Godley, then general manager for the Canterbury Association, was faced by a difficulty. If he adhered to Wakefield's system, by which only land-owners were "allowed the privilege of leasing more land, the country would lose valuable settlers which it badly needed. He therefore decide to abrogate the rules of the association, and devised * system which was approved by the new settlers. It meant the breaking down of Wakefield's idea, but it saved the settlement. STIMULATING IDEAS.

But the book was -written before this test was made, and it is the theory that is of interest to the student. The "Art of Colonisation" presents a view of public opinion of the time on colonisation thatv few other books «ap. ;show, and apart from its historical interest it has autobiographical value, showing the author's ideals and aspirations, his enmities and his energies. It is a student's book, invaluable to the student of colonial development, and a book that has had the greatest influence on England's colonial policy. Its ideals and theories, some of them since outgrown, but many still, debated, are stimulating whether one agrees or not. First published 64 years ago, it caused much contentious discussion, but now that time has smoothed asperities this new edition, published by the Oxford Press, is for the contemplative reading of the political philosopher, and the appendix, being a speech on '' Sj'stematie Colonisation," delivered by Sir Charles Buller in the House, of Commons, is not less interesting than the body of the book. Without doubt Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a great statesman and an Energetic dreamer of noble dreams., If many of his aspirations failed it was because of time, which changes all values. Though not his in achievement, • the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand are his in conception, and the true monuments of this impetuous man, the justification of his life. Edward Gibbon Wakefield lies buried in ah obscure corner of the old Sydney Street Cemetery in Wellington, and a forgetful generation which erects monuments to mediocrity leaves his grave unmarked; but his name is his enduring record,' and Gibbon Wakefield lives in tli'6 Work that he inspired. P.H.