Nation Making.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 48, 29 November 1890, Page 2

Nation Making.

A STORY OF NEW ZEALAND SAVAGEISM & CIVILIZATION.

By

J. C. FIRTH.

AUTHOR or “LUCK" and “OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA.

Chapter .XXXVII. THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

Bread by sweat of brow—Labour the law of life—The charter of humanity—Concentration of wealth—Decay of man—Development of colonies—Confederation of English-speaking raceImmigration indispensable—Colonies the heritage of the English nation—Cultivation of land a safe refuge—Nationmaking on safe lines—City versus country—WooL wheat, sheep and gold.

SETTLEMENT on the land, cultivation of the soil, earning bread by sweat of brow, are amongst the earliest foundations upon which nations have been built in the past. In our times, notwithstanding the inventions of genius and the money combinations of schemers, labour is still the law of life. Happily for mankind, the gospel of work is the charter by which humanity holds its dominion and secures its progress. If, in any nation, a schemer is counter! better than a toiler, if labour is regarded as a degradation and wealth esteemed as a patent of nobility, the glory and duration of such a nation may be regarded as vanishing quantities, which no institutions, regal or republican, can rescue from extinction. .V a P^°P ,e > b y tlleir inventive genius, by their commercial instincts, by their money-making facul'ties, are tempted by the glittering results these qualities offer to alandon the cultivation of the soil, which aforetime had l>een so great a factor in building up a race of sturdy men and thrifty, healthy women, who in the earlier stages of making their nation, laid the chief foundations ot its greatness and renown, and direct their energies to build factories, banks, and cities, and become dependent upon other countries for the larger portion of their daily bread, they are drifting onwards towards a great calamity. e

Such a condition develops two results—the increase and concentration ot wealth, the degradation and decay of man It offers a tempting prize to hostile nations. By its dependence on seaUirne foods it invites a danger which mav rapidly drift into an overwhelming disaster.' It invites an attack by a great naval power difficult to resist This is the condition of the United Kingdom to-day. It is true that the nation, after so long and so recklessly tempting its fate, has at last decide*.! to spend twenty millions in increasing its war fleet. This, however, is a game at which other nations can play. To rise a winner at such a game, England may well reckon her resources and resolve to use them Her’policv ought to be : J

t - , ! e - ex P en^*ture of twenty millions, but of one hundred millions to make her undisputed mistress of the seas.

2. The al>solute withdrawal ot England from intei fere.ice with Continental politics and disputes. 3. The steadfast development of her colonies a- outlets for her capital and surplus population ; as customers for her manufactured products ; as suppliers of food and other raw materials.

4. The commercial and political federation of the Empire, with the avowed intention of using t/.af as a preliminary step to secure the ultimate confederation of the En<4ishspeaking race all over the world. Then, indeed, the English-speaking people in every clime would have assured its progress, would have provided for ts safety from attack, and would have effectually secured the peace of the world and the progress of mankind at large.

I t will, of course, be said that this is a big policy. True. It is a policy which as yet may not be much more than an idea, which may be and must be left to the operation of the forces of opinion and circumstance which are bein** developed with more than less rapidity and certainty. In the meantime one of the forces is in ojeration—the action ami reaction of opinion between Britain and her colonies on such questionsof policy as the beneficial location of her superabundant population in her own colonies, instead of listlessly permitting her people to drift to the I nited States.

It is not that the colonies most need the money ot England. Of that, as observed in another chapter, they have already b-.rrmtred more than they have wisely used, and have thereby imposed burdens upon themselves not consistent with sound progress, not even with assured safety. Further investments of English capital in the colonies .nn«t l>e on English account unless all parties are prepared to face the ]<ossilde contingency of the degrading surrender of our repiesentative institutions for a time, and accept English administration of our affairs after the Egyptian fashion? "hat the colonies need more than English money is industrious men and women of their own blood. It" is true that, for the immediate present, when the borrowed and extended millions have laigely ceased to afford employment at high or at any wages—have, indeed, resulted in throwing many industrious |>eople out of employment—that the working classes of the colonies are opposed to the resumption of immigration. But let borrowing cease, and the working classes and others will leave the cities to settle on small farms in the country, where they will be in a jiosition to provide food for themselves, for the colony they live in, and contribute to the food lequirements of the" United Kingdom. When this policy is in o[>eration we shall hear no"more of opposition to immigration. Being no longer mere wageearners, the working classes will be more really prosjierous,

more truly independent, and will invite their kin acn.«ss the sea to j°iti them in these new lands. The four million people living in the Australa&ian colonies are not so silly or so greedy as to suppose that these great countries, with a capacity to sustain a population of forty millions, are the exclusive possessions of the handful of |«eople who live in them to-day. They are the heritage of the English nation. They have been, with incredible rashness, handed over to the control of a class of reckless politicians, who have plunged every colony over which they rule into a sea of debt, and have then, by means of the borrowed millions, done much to degrade the free institutions of these young nations into a regime of bribery and pauperism. This reckless and extravagant borrowing in New Zealand, together with the heavy taxation it involves, has created deep dissatisfaction throughout the colony with the system of government which ha* led to such Jesuits. Already the cry is being raised : ‘ The system of government must be simplified, and its cost be enormously reduced, or we shall drift back to a Crown colony, which means that the administration of affairs will pass into the hands of representatives of English capitalists, ami that our free institutions will suffer dishonour at our hands.

Both these alternatives are before us. To day we may, if we will, adopt the former one. If, instead of boldly laying the axe to the root of corrupt administration, we idly settle into a policy of ‘drift,’ in a not very distant tomorrow we may be driven to accept the latter alternative. In the meantime our imperative duty is to place the j»eople upon the land. Happily the inflation and extravagance caused by the expenditure of the borrowed millions have well-nigh come to an end. Great numl>ers of people are turning to land-tilling as a natural means of earning a living, as a safe refuge against disaster. In this direction the colony is resuming the work of nation-making on safe lines.

In these young colonies any forcing of the English factory system, by what is teimed protection of native industry, is a mistake and a danger. Our plain duty, our wisest policy. 13 - tO . P r<xJuce materials for the English market, for winch we are eminently fitted by our genial climate, our fertile soils, and by the extraordinary range of possible products in a colony stretching through thirteen degrees of latitude (from 34'S. to 47" 8.). No extension of our cities will secure such a result. The country, and the country alone, can secure it. Our soundest and wisest policy is to settle our people on country lands, and so develop its wonderful resources. In this direction we have room in Zealand for millions of industrious and frugal people, who will settle on their own freehold lands, and live mainly upon the produce of their own farms. This appears to me to be a sure foundation on which to make a nation in these new lands.

That much has been al readv done in the direction of producing raw materials will lie evident from the following brief summary extracted from Government records for 1888 :—

TABLE I.

TABLE 11. SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE YIELD I>ER ACRE IN 1888. OF AGRICCLTVRAL PRODCCTS IN VARIOCS COVNTRIES.

Showing for New Zealand, with its imperfect cultivation, greater yields per acre than anv other country except Great Britain, notwithstanding the high-class farming in force in the I nited Kingdom. TABLE 111. SHOWING QUANTITIES Of PRINCIPAL ARTICLES ITHE PRODUCE AND MANI EACTURE Of NEW ZEALAND) EXTORTED 1888-9.

These figures tell their own story. They proclaim the colony of New Zealand to be one of the most tertile countries in the world, and with a g reater range of productions than any other field of immigration. e ITO BE CONTINUED.)

Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. New Zealand 187.382 853.358 15.235 561 277 101 I nited Kingdom 1.935.702 10.358.630 28.938.716 3.815.643 3 ictona .. .. 315.OCO 1.333.873 10.623.935 243.461 Sheep in 1858 —1.523.321.

Wheat. Oats. Barley Hay. Potatoes. New Zealand bus. 26'37 bus. 31-24 bus. 27*26 tons. 1'48 tons. 5'45 Great Britain 28-05 37'24 32'84 l nited States <1887, 12'12 25'44 19'57 \ ictoria 10-71 22~92 31'20 1*41 4'18

W ool .. W ool used in colony Tallow Rabbit skins Gold X\ heat S7.077.030 4.079.553 7.35S - 12.593.177 lbs lbs tons number 211.764 2.745.784 ozs bushels Oats Butter 2.725.102 3.631.376 do. lbs Cheese 3.731.840 lbs Frozen meat Kauri grum Phonnium iflaxi .. 63.003.472 8.533 5 fiC3 lbs tons Sawn and hewn timber .. 44.219.840 feet