Nation Making

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 46, 15 November 1890, Page 2

Nation Making

A STORY OF

NEW ZEALAND SAY AGEISM & CIVILIZATION

By

J. C. FIRTH,

AUTHOR ox -LUCK" and “OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA

Chapter XXXV PAUPERISM.

English pauperism -The problem of the poor-National pauperism Lives simple, wants few—‘ Borrow and conquer’—lndustry disorganised—People demoralised-Pauperism and waste - Adversity the school of wisdom—True lines of progress. this chapter I do not propose to treat i o f English pauperism,of the hundreds >jrSpj[ .< i and thousands of the very poor of ESySL H London and of other large cities in rafSj ■' the United Kingdom, who, if not I, actually living under public relief, are so near the verge of it that when •11 one day’s food has been consumed as s, 11 often not to know where the next day’s food is to come from, and whom ' nothing but the noble independence so often found amongst the humble poor prevents from sinkin" beneath the meanness and degradation of pauperism. The settlement of this part of the ‘ problem of the poor belongs to nations already made. I intend to treat of another kind of pauperism—the sturdy beggar kind—which more nearlj’ concerns the making ot this young New Zealand nation. To scheme for the making of a road, bridge, or railway, to demand employment at the cost of other people, and to obtain these objects by political trickery or electoral bribery, or by the power of votes, are forms of pauperising influences affecting large sections of New Zealand and Australian colonists. To beg, to bribe, to threaten the Government of the day to grant the demands of a petty, personal, local, mercenary character under the stimulating influence ■of borrowed millions, has become so much the fashion in every Australasian colony as to threaten the extinction of the manly traits characteristic of Englishmen. In any ■difficulty or emergency, whatever its cause.it is too mu eh the custom to follow the example of the lazy carter of old, ami appeal to Jupiter for help in the shape of the Government. Not until borrowing ceases will Jupiter’s advice ‘to put his own shoulder to the wheel ’ be much regarded by the latter-day kin of the lazy drayman of old. Before the advent of the ‘ borrowing policy’ in 1870, New Zealand colonists were a hardy, helpful, industrious community, without any great amount of this world’s goods or conveniences ; poor indeed, but yet so far rich that what they had was their own. Neither pauperism nor the spirit of pauperism was to be found in this colony. Their lives simple, their wants few. the early colonists called no pawnbroker, banker, or English or other money-lender lord. Nearly twenty years under the ‘ borrowing policy have passed. Let us see how the account stands. The public debt of New Zealand to-day is £37,000,000. That of the rest of the Australasian colonies may be taken at a further sum of £135.000,000, or £172,000,000 in all. Notwithstanding the warning offered by New Zealand, a reckless spirit of borrowing still pervades the Australian colonies, which will probably impel them to continue to borrow as long as English capitalists will lend. What that limit may be time will tell : possibly a further £100,000,000. By that time the Australian colonies will have become wise by their own experience, and, like New Zealand, will cease to borrow’ when they can borrow no more.

The demoralizing influence, direct and indirect, of the ■ boi rowing policy,’running like an epidemic from colony to colony, has infected large sections of colonial communities with a despicable taint of pauperism, which will require desperate remedies before it is eradicated. The evil has not been confined to any one class. Wealthy squatters, large landowners, merchants, storekeepers, publicans, ami large sections of the working classes have alike been sinners. Town and country vied with each ■other in their support of the policy of borrowing and spending. The working classes throughout New Zealand degraded the great principle of universal suffrage by using their votes to promote a spirit of almost universal pauperism. When Sir Julius Vogel propounded his ‘ borrowing policy ’ in 1870, it might w ell have been said that ‘ he came, lie borrowed, he conquered.’ The newspaper press of the colony, with few exceptions, supported him. Before the bold financier's dazzling schemes Parliament itself, with -some exceptions, fell under the magician's spell, and joiner! in the general cry for borrowed millions, railways, and high wages. If at any ]>olitical meeting a warning voice was laised, it was drowned by cries of ‘Railways, high wages, millions, ami Vogel for ever !’ So the game went on. Lured by the high wages the Iwirrowed millions enabled the Government to give, the

working classes rushed from the farm, the forest, ami the mine, even from the sea, until the industrial system of the colony was disorganized, and in some instances destroyed. Nearly twenty years have passed, and the borrowing fever has abated. The colony has had its dance. It lias now to pay the piper. The Imrrowed millions have vanished. The feast is over, the husks remain. Like the prodigal of old, the colony has come to its senses. It is now going to work, not without some just flouting by its respectable elder English brother. For the present the rolies, rings, and fatted calves are in the distance. If we are not very merry under these circumstances, we are at least trying to lie wise. • hir horse lieing gone, we have resolutely shut the stable door. The Isn iowed millions have gone. The pau|ier spirit they have engendered will die hard. Depression and hard times

are not very pleasant medicines, but they are the best of all remedies, and will eventually help the colony to recover its health and vigour. In the meantime borrowing ceased, and public works practically came to an end, with the result that large numbers of wages-earners were thrown out of employment, and the cries and demands of the unemployed were heard in the land. For such a degrading exhibition it is easy to blame the working classes. They have, however, been quite as much sinned against as they have sinned. The colonial Government have reaped as they sowed. They have fostered pauper dependence, and greatly weakened manly self-help. The difficulty was met by various expedients. In NewZealand large sums have been expended in providing employment, often on unnecessary works. So great has been the deterioration of the old manly English character, that portions of the colony, heretofore regarding themselves as hieing specially English and wealthy, have stooped to lieg or demand the expenditure of sums for relief, quite disproportionate to their legitimate requirements. That this ruthless expenditure for the ‘ unemployed ’ has not been confined to New Zealand will beevident from an instance occurring in a neighbouring colony, where £250,000 of public money was expended in a few months mainly on road-making on private property, or on other work practically useless to the general public, and expended without proper supervision, and without even the necessary vouchers being furnished. Is it possible to doubt that under such a system the manly independence characteristic of the English race is in danger of decaying in the colonies ’ Nation-making on such lines is impossible. Necessity and adversity are sometimes the schools of wisdom. They have so far influenced New Zealand that the colonists have resolved that borrowing shall cease, and that this wise course and settlement on the lands are the true lines of safety and progress. (TO BE CONTINUED.)