THE RUSH TO NEW ZEALAND

Wellington Independent, Volume 1671, Issue 1671, 1 October 1861, Page 4

THE RUSH TO NEW ZEALAND

[From the Sydney Empiae, Sept. 16.] The reports of the gold discoveries in New Zealand seem to be producing the usual effects of exaggerated rumours of that description upon the mining population. Unsettled not so much from disposition as from necessity, not so much from the peculiar nature of their employment, as from the impossibility hitherto experienced, of making a home for themselves in Australia, the gold diggers have no local ties to bind them to this colony. No opportunity has been presented, no prospect has been held out to them to become fixed denizens of the country bound to it by the possession of a freehold. If they now quit us therefore to proceed to New Zealand, they leave us in all probability for ever. Now it is not unlikely should the accounts from the neighbouring colouy continue favorable* so as to admit of being magnified by distance, and coloured by the imagination, that such an exodus from the Australian diggings will take place as may prove seriously aud permanently detrimental to the interests of every class in the community. But few persons amongst those who have recently assumed au antagonistic attitude towards the diggers, and perhaps the squatters least of all, are fully aware in how great a degree their daily receipts and annual incomes are dependent upon the presence and labors ofthe mining population. But few are endowed with sufficient foresight to discern the financial and oommercial collapse that must be occasioned by the contingency referred to. Only let ten thousand able bodied diggers emigrate to New Zealand and the loss of the hundred thousand pounds a mouth now created by their industry, would be, ere long, felt calamitously in every brauch of business. In such an event, insolvency, it is to be feared, would leap through the community like a skittle ball, and the prostration, not resembling that proceeding from other causes, would be continuous, if not irremediable.

Let us, whilst hoping for better things, cast about us for a preventive. This there may be at present, although should the worst happen, there would scarcely be any cure. For, as we said before, there would be little hope that the stalwart men who might depart from New South Wales would ever come back. The New Zealand land system would offer attraction to detain them, more seductive than gold, and all that was valuable in the bone and sinew, and mental and moral capacities of the thousands who might go thither, would bo finally lost to Australia. It would have been different had these persons beeu the owners of freehold properties iv the island contiuent. However small, these would have formed the magic circle of a home, which would either have prevented their departure or insured their return. Their going, even in that case, mighteventuallyhave induced them to enrich the land of their adoption by turning outtobenomore than a temporary sojourn iv New Zealaud, for the purpose of coming back to us loaded with its auriferous spoils. Is it too late to make either or both of these objects attainable ? The question is au importaut one in the eventuality which threatens us, and deserves serious consideration, both on the part of Government and individuals — How are we to retain that portion of our population, whioh far more than any other, man for man, contributes to those productions which constitute our annual income, and without whose co-operation, direot or indirect, the whole machinery of trade may suffer fatal derangement ?

The most available remedy will be the exercise of patience by the gold-diggers themselves. The land bills iv some form or other, but in such a shape at all events, as will enable eaoh of them to secure his favourite selection upon easy terms, are on the eve of pasing iuto law, and will come into operation at the commencement of the ensuiug year. That is moral certainty, in spite of all possible complications and political manosuvriug. What ever changes may take place, the passing of the land bills, so as to admit of free selection coming into force on the first of January next, or lhe promulgation of some regulations equivalent to* the most popular of their? provisions, is now as inevitable as the dayvspring totter the dark-

ness of night. Action on the part ofthe Government to that extent, may be looked upon as certain. The example of Victoria would leave the most timid or unwilling Ministry no alternative, but that of at once acting upon the Orders iv Council, in the.event of the Legislature, or any branch of it, showing itself refractory in reference to the land question. Upon tbis the gold-diggers may rely. • And with this convicton to rest upon, the temptations presented by the New Zealand gold-fields ought to be shown of more than half their strength. If they compare the fertilli.ty of the soil, or tho climate of Australia with the natural features ofthe neighbouring country, as described by the best authorities, and indicated by authenticated results, the diggers, or expectant settlers, will see ample ! reasons to remain where they are. Sim- | ply contrasting the illimitable extent and inexbaustible wealth even of our goldfields, with the narrow limits and dubious character of those of New Zealand, would furnish any intelligent adventurer, who has an eye to the future as well as to the present, with a motive to prefer, these colonies to Otago.

There is only one point of view in which the gold-field at the last mentioned place may appear to advantage by the side of our diggings, aud tbis, iv the present temper of the gold miners is apt to be exceedingly illusory ; we allude to the absence of the Chinese at Otago, and the almost overwhelming numbers of that alien vace flowing into the gold-fields of this colony. Now, whilst admitting the goodness and even the probable permanency of tbis ground of recommendation possessed by the Otago gold-fields and acknowledged that it is altogether uulikely after what has occured here, that the Chinese will be permitted to gain a footing there, either now or at any future period; still we cannot regard this circumstance as a lasting source of preference to the prejudices ofthe gold-fields of Australia, Our hope and trust is that Chinese immigration has reached its allowable maximum, and must arid will be immediately restrained. There are foundations for this belief, quite irrespective of the present intentions of the Legislature. There are, in short, causes at work of which even the prominent actors in connection therewith are unconscious instruments, but which will compel the adoption of effective measures to repel the Chinese invasion. On that head their need be no apprehension. The Anglo-Saxon feeling of nationality when once properly aroused, will be found adequate to its own vindication, and the accomplishment of every legitimate purpose. The apprehended, or rather the passible diminution of our digging population, aud the attempts that would probably be made to supply their place with Mongolians, would open the eyes of.all to the true state ofthe Chinese question, and to the actual relation in which Chinese labour, employed in raising gold, stands to our pecuniary returns and commercial interest. The matter is not understood as yet. But in that case the difference between ten thousand Europeans, who either expend all they earn in the colouy, or invest it in its improvement, and an equal number of Chinamen, who hoard up and carry away all that is procured by their labours, in the nature of capital, out ofthe country, would be unmistakably manifest. It would make itself felt in every tradesman's pocket, as well as in the Government coffers, before the expiration of twelve months, and Mill's definition of capital, via., " something produced, for the purpose ol being employed as the means towards a further production," would then be seen to apply to that part of the proceeds' of Chinese labour which is abstracted from the colony and transferred to the Celestial Empire. The Chinese evil must, therefore, in auy. event soon elicit or provoke an appropriate remedy. Let not the European diggers retreat before the Mongolians, for the cry has gone forth aud must soon be triumphant, Australia tor the Australians I