THE DEPRESSION: ITS ONLY CURE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2119, 6 February 1886, Page 4

THE DEPRESSION: ITS ONLY CURE.

Tin following Irttt-r :tp{ic.uc<l in a lccuit i-v. <>1 tnc OtiLjo l)iil> Tinier :— Mi., -I'ioji <Kciy p.n t <>f .Vow /cml.uiil, a-* I ti.ucl oinv.'ud, 1 heat the one \\ ul di (lc|>iu->sion, and men s hi'aits aie failing than for fear of what is coining. Ami it i> liimouro.l that Mr Julnis Vogcl « o'it.L n|)l,it( s .mother 10 million loan; .m<l though tlioio aro those who think it 1-. juit the i eaction from those stiinuLml> tti.it haa caused the present [/ios tuition, there is no doubt that the ex pcn.htiuv of iiicli a sum would be hailed \V i th vim cis il acclamations, as affordingat li ivt ,m muiKduitn if but tempomiy relief. It lias come to this r that all iiit< u-it>> .nul all classes from the highest ty tho lowest, are calling out for s)inetfiiiif,' that will infuse new life into the coin ii v ; and I uouM respectfully ask tho time h,is not come for a new depaiture. It h.is boon long held as a cardinal doctrine of colonisation that immigration is tho life-blood of a colony. This dogma lips become a good deal discredited in New Zealand ; and can we wondei ? Immigration, as we know it, has been the introduction at the expense of the State of pei sons who ore from their arrival dependants ; while, as introducing men to compete with men who are thenitelves struggling for bread, the idea of immigration has become hateful to the masses. It seems to them but the selfish effort of capital to facilitate the supply of labour to increase capital, all the talk about building up the State seems to them so much bunkum. As these toiling masses are the electors it behoves every man that means to woo their sweet voices to purge himself from the suspicion of favouring •• immigration," aud consequently immigration is decried. Yet the truth is still the same, that it is immigration, and immigration alone, that can revive the colony. Not the immigration of paupers, but the immigration of the complement of labourto wit, the immigration of capital, combined with energy and enterprise, to go hand in hand with labour in developing the great resources of the country. The assertion of this may seem a truism, for nearly every one says that it is the introduction of capitalist settlers that is required. But why, I ask, is there no really effective effort made to supply thiswaut? Why is there not as much done for the introduction of capitalists as is done foi labour immigration. Free passes have been given to the latter, and would still be given if the Colony could absorb the labour. Why are corresponding passages not given to capitalist settlers, which the colony could absorb to almost an unlimited extent? Anyone that has stood on the quays at Derry, Belfast, Liverpool, and seen the stream that pours into the steamers for Canada or the States learns the secret of the steady advance of wealth aud population in the Far West. Thither capital and labour march side by side, while here, when we e«say to equalise the conditions of transit as between America and this uttermost end of the earth, the State's funds £jo to introduce but one element of successful settlement, and luiiiK in labour to compete with labour in a precarious market, and to swell the gains of the capital already in tho colony. Every social wrong brings its own revenge, and property is now biifFciing as well as labour. In all fairness it might seem a reasonable thing with labour to bung in employets of labour, and I do not speak without knowledge when I say that with similar inducements to those given to labour immigrants — namely, by free passages given in accordance \vith their condition in life— capitalist settlers to any required amount would be attracted to New Zealand. It may seem a small thing for a man with three or four thousand pounds to disburse two or three hundreds to bring himself and his lainily to New Zealand ; but 1 shall bo borne out by all who have come in contact with this class of men in Englmd when I say they are exceedingly leluctiut to take this siim fiom the forefiont of their precious and peihaps haidly ■won capital, and to pay it away for passa/es, when for a much smaller amount they can be conveyed to Amenca. It it, to them like the drawing of a front tooth. It may be foolish, and we may be wholly disinclined to sympathise with their folly, but there it is, and it is the \mvt, of wise men to look at ciicuinstances as they are and make the best of them ; and if capitalist settlers are really wanted we must indulge their little idiosyncracy. For it la to be borne in mind that it is not the mere cost of tiansit that deters, but that such men, especially if they have families, reason thus*: "If we go to Canada and lose our all, we are within call of friends and may find our way back again ; but if we are Btranded at tho Antipodes it is exile for ever." Whatever we who have crossed and recrossed the seas may think, this is to the " stay-at-home" a stern fact, and if we want this class we must take account of it. Ido not hesitate to affirm that anything short of such a strong inducement us a free passage suited to their condition in lift; will not be sufficient to divert a lar o r e stieain of capitalist settlers to New Zealaud, and that with such inducements they may be obtained to any extent required. I know that many will say " No, we paid our passage to the colony, why should we pay for people who can afford to pay better for themselves ?" But I apprehend it is not a question of mere sentiment this, but of what is for the colony's good ; aud let us consider what may bu the advantages direct and indiiect, of such a novel departure in immigration. Let us take a typical family of a man, his wife, and four young childien, representing four adult passengers, and having a capital of £5000. No doubt, under a laige Government contiact with the direct steamers, a saloon passage could be had for £f>o. Our typical family would therefore cost the Government £200, which, borrowed at 4 per cent, would mean f8 per annum. Now, as each colonist pays through the customs neatly £-4 per annum, or through the consolidated icvcnuc may be ciedited vath this quota of £8 per annum, our typical family, without our taking advautage of the infancy of the children, are reckoned still as for adults, would contribute through the customs £10 per annum, or through the general revenue would swell the coffers of the State to the extent of £32 per annum, against £8 per annum, the cost of their tr.iusport. When, theiefore, the people say, " Why should we pay for the the passage of the people who ran pay for it better than ouiselve3?" I reply, You don't pay for their passage, you bring them out, and through a feat of fiscal legerdemain, you make them pay for themselves. That they do in the space of six years, and then they continue to pay for it o\ er and over again every six years for the term of their natural lives. But in another form you lend him the price of his passage, which costs you 4 per cent., and he pays you back 16 per cent, for ever. I know that it may be eaid that this is true of the labourer immigrants as well. It iray be so, and if he pays such an a\erngc, and can be sati-factoiily located in the colony, then is his profit great. But whether the labourer immigrant attains such an average, certain it~ is that the capitalist, with his family, and w}th their consumption of dutiable goods, and the patronage of the stamp, and telegraph, and land offices, and other luxuries of civilisation will not be below the average ; and equally certain it is that lie will find a satisfactory niche in the colony. . Now, let us follow thw family up and multiply it. Supposing we borrow a million sterling and- instead of expending it in making a tram, way to the top of Mount Cook, or other cniially "reproductive work," devote it to bringing out our typical family and a multitude of their congeners id i first -clam nlocni. We could have COOO of these families at £200 a piece for one million.

They would cost us f 40,000 a year and the) wo ild p'i> us -CIGOOOO, or a profit on the nive-tment of £120,000 a yeai as loii' n ' -is they lived. I do not know of .uiv luilwa^d in the Colony that pays as mudi j'lolit on outlay ; and they would bung into tho cunoncy twonty-tive niillioiia Veiling. Nor do I know any Mihtay that would be so ufieful as this, nor so pleasant withal These figures are solai^cas to provoke a smile, and yet a million is a mere bagatelle to us now ad.iys in this great "loan land." Supposing wo divide it by two, and only spend half a million, that would give us 2100 such families on which we would gam only i'6'o.ooo a year to revenue, and they would bring us in only 12^ millions sterling. Yet there is a good deal of fun in 12} millions. Or supposing we divided their capital by two, and only expected them to bring £2.)00 apiece, we should have \'2\ millions to our currency to remain in "the Colony, not to float away to distant owners, but to fructify, and under the watchful eyes of their owners to stimulate every industry existing or prospective in New Zealand. It may be said that such settlers could not be obtained. Then, if so, there is no expenditure. But that they can be had, I assert in the most positive terms, bating my assertion on convictions formed on personal knowledge and somewhat special experience extending over the past seven years. There are hundreds and thousands in England who have either realised on the active industry of their past, and are waiting or living on their investments, to whom it would be advantageous to remove to the colonies, add to whom such a proposal as a voyage in one of the palatial steamers gratis to the end of the earth would prove a startling attraction. It would require no lecturing agents or puffs of any kind, which in the circumstances would be mischievous to the last degree, and the existing machinery of the Agent-general's office would be equal to all the work. It may be said the people would not stay, aud New Zealand would be devoting herself to feeding the sister colonies. Of course, no such men would bind themselves to stay, and it would be mischievous to try to make them. But there are few persons with two or three thousand pounds who have not friends in England who would be prepared to enter into bonds, securing that in the event of the immigrant leaving the colony before the year elapsed, the whole of the passage money would be refunded ; if before two years, a certain proportion ; if before three, four, or five years, so in proportion — it being assumed that if he remained in the colony for five years he had recouped the colony what he had cost it, or his interest would be so bound up in it that he would likely become permanent. If an intending immigrant with such an amount of capital had not friends in England prepared to guarantee his honour and honesty, he would be a very suitable settler to stay at Home. I shall not trespass on your valuable space by following out this subject in detail. The Government have offered £10 on passages as inducement to immigrants. That it w ill stimulate the coming of the class hitherto imported I have no doubt. So far as concerns the class treated above they might as well whistle to them. Ten pounds on a sixty guinea passage will be nowhere. I believetliat half the passage money will bo nearly equally ineffectual, but that the novel and starting: attraction of an absolute free saloon passage in the m-ismifieent New Zealand liners would ling thronsrh the l«nd. That~it would pay the colony should be enough for us. Tin-re is not a man in New Zealand from tho humblest employe* to the wealthiest capitalists but would be benefited. Herein such immigration would differ from that of the past in that, while labour immigration was intended to feed tho maw of capital, and was palpably injurious to the labouring clauses — bainboo/le them on tho subject as it may — this immigration of capitalist employers would not only be a boon to every woikiug man and artisan, but it would tend to advance the value of every bit of property from tho humble cottage lot of the labourer to the laoad ncies of the millionaire. The money would be knocking for admittance at the door of pvery company, manufactuiin^r, fdiniinif, paotoial, or mining in the colony. It would vivify eveiy legitimate enterprise, and .stimulate into existence hundreds now undreamt of. It would warrant the Parliament in initiating new public works and in borrowing new millions, and if facilities were afforded by a Colonial issue of bonds and debentures, whether city, harbour, or State, it would hold the securities and receive the interest here instead of haviug the Colony as ut present, bleeding at very poie for the benefit of the foreign bondholder. lam not saying a word against the proposed loan, but only in favour of a portion of it bieng diverted into a healthier channel. Unhappily the Colony has fed on loans, and the unnatural appetite must be humored till happier times, when it may peradventure learn to take wholesome food. There ia nothing for it now but go on. The position reminds me of a picture that used to grace the outside of au Irish novel. A coach was flying at full gallop down a hill, reeling and toppling. The guard with eyes distended and hair on end, is bawling from the rear of coach to the driver, " Paddy, Paddy, your sowl to glory ! Hammer the horses, or the coach will capsize 1" But where is it all to end P or are we to hammer the horses for ever ?— I am, &c, G. M. Reed.