DEAR LAND AND CHEAP LABOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 740, 6 October 1870, Page 3

DEAR LAND AND CHEAP LABOUR.

(By Marcus Clarke.) I have neither the inclination nor the ability to give in this place an exhaustive article upon the immigration question, still less to comment at length upon the system of Mr Gibbon Wakefield, but a slight sketch of the scheme laid down by that ingenious theorist may not be altogether unacceptable. The *• Letter from Sydney" produced, as it deserved to do, a profound sensation upon speculators in England. Its author was a man of ability, and wrote with taste and elegance. Placing the most audacious mis-t-itements side by side with the most brilliant sketches of place and people, he covered the fallacy of his argument by the brilliance of his wit. The catherine-wheels flashed so dazzlingly that one could not see how slender was the stick on which they turned. The " Letter from Sydney " was written with a purpose. It purported to be from the pen of a gentleman of taste and fortune, who, emigrating to Australia — under the impression that his easily purchased land" would prove remunerative, found himself poor for want of the means to develop his rich as — for want of men to hew down his magnificent forests of timber, tenants to rent his fat and fertile farm land, and miners to bring to the surface his wealth of iron, coal, and copper. Interspersed with exquisite descriptions of scenery and humourous sketches of colonial discomfort, and colonial society, he draws a succession of pictures of the misery which would befall the landowners whenever the cessation of convict-shipping should leave them dependent on free labour. Having thus prepared the mind of his reader for some sweeping reform, Mr Wakefield proposes hi 3 modest remedy — to raise the price of land. Cheap land makes dear labour, for the working-man who by economy and industry accumulates enough money to purchase a " house and home," will decline to hire himself to reap those fruits which he shall not enjoy. Cheap land makes cheap independence, and cheap independence is fatal to individual wealth. The author of a " Letter from Sydney " pointed out with dismay that in a country where " common " labourers could maintain themselves without seeking hired service, the " gentleman " who desired to sell timber, grain, or coals, must hew, reap, and dig for himself, and such proceedings have been disdained by "gentlemen "in all ages. In this wretched country of Australia Mr Wakefield found that " intellect and refinement " — that is to say the reading of purposeless novels and the lettered leisure of the idle wealthy — was altogether at a discount, and that the " common " folk, such as mechanics, farm labourers, and men who ought to be dying by inches in factories, or starving unmurmuringly in the overpopulatcd agricultural districts of England, were the only people who could enjoy colonial life. Dear labour meant independence to the labourer, cheap labour meant wealth to the capitalist, and the author of "A letter from Sydney" being a capitalist, desired to increase his capital. He longed for parks and palaces, for gardens, fountains, picture galleries, and preserves — not that the labourers who were to help him to obtain all these fine things might share in the enjoyment of them, but that he himself might become in Australia the monopolist he was too poor to become in England. The method he advised for the accomplishment of the monstrous design was ingenious in his speciousness. Land was to be made so dear that labourers " could not obtain it too soon ;" that ia to say, a wealthy man could purchase by main force of his wealth, and compel the poor man to hire himself in order to till and reap. A portion of the money thus invested in land by the rich man was to go into a fund for the bringing out of emigrants, who might " further benefit the capitalists," by lowering the price of labour, and who were to consist of healthy young married couples. Thus the rich man would be spared the pain of contributing a moiety of his wealth to support the aged and the sick. A succession of " common " young men and women arriving by a succession of ships would compete with each other for the honour of hewing his trees and drawing his water, and to such young men and women was held out the delightful prospect of earning by an artificially enforced servitude the right to settle on the land which they could obtain now for the mere trouble of tilling it. This system was termed the " sufficient price" system, and as such has been partially adopted in New South Wales and New Zealand.