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Summary—Importance of the colonies sometimes
overlooked at home—Their commercial importance—Fields for
capital—Mineral wealth—Farm products—New industries—Field for
farmers—Liberal land regulations— Openings for
artisans—For labourers—Free institutions —A land of
promise for willing workers—Inducements for seekers after
health and lovers of the picturesque— The clouds
clearing—Returning prosperity—The peace and unity of the
Empire.
Brief as had
been our sojourn among "our New Zealand cousins," and
rapid as had been our journeying through the islands, it
will be evident, I think, from what I have recorded in the
foregoing chapters, that enormous progress has been made
during the last twenty years in all that tends to
build up sound national life. The history of New Zealand
in its connection with the mother country is, in fact, the
history of all the Australian colonies. Too often has
their importance been but grudgingly recognized, where it
has not in some instances been overlooked altogether by
the leaders of thought and political life at home. Of late
years, thanks to such true Britons as Professor Seeley and
others, ample amends have been made for this whilom
neglect. The tendency now is all the other way.
With the multiplication and development of improved means of communication,
the pulsations of colonial life are more quickly and
keenly felt at the heart of the empire. Their political
importance is no longer ignored; but it is open to some
doubt if their commercial importance is as yet adequately
recognized. What fields are there not here open for
the employment of British capital in exploiting our
mineral wealth alone. We hear of millions being sunk in
Southern India, Spain, and elsewhere, yet I know myself of
gold, silver, copper, tin, antimony, bismuth, coal, slate, marble, lead and
other deposits in dozens of localities in Australia and
New Zealand, all of which would give certain and ample
returns to judicious investment. In silver alone, of
late years, the application of improved methods has
at one jump lifted Australia into the foremost ranks of
silver-producing countries. If English capitalists would
utilize the services of competent scientific mining
engineers, metallurgists and mineralogists; if they would
assist their colonial cousins with part of their wealth,
to properly prospect the country, there might be such a " boom "
in mining, as would draw more closely than ever the
heart and circumference of the Empire together, and forge
fresh bands of solid substantial profits, mutual
inter-dependence, and community of material interests
between all portions of our race which would quickly
result in a very real tangible federation indeed. But not
only in minerals do these colonies offer inducements to
the capitalist at home. Hundreds of promising industries
are retarded for want of the necessary capital. Oil mills,
for example, would be an instant success, if the farmer
were only assured of a steady market close at hand for his
oil crops. Tobacco-growing would increase a hundredfold
and would become a lucrative investment, if capital were
judiciously expended in putting up the necessary
appliances for manufacturing the leaf. Butter, cheese, and
bacon factories are even now increasing, but are
capable cf indefinite multiplication. In the manufacture of essences and
essential oils, there are splendid openings for
investment, and indeed there is scarcely a product of
nature used in the arts or sciences that could not be
profitably grown and manufactured in these colonies were
but the right men imbued with the desire to try them. As a
rule the colonial farmer is a poor man. Clearing is
expensive; wages, fortunately for the labouring classes,
are high; and the facilities for securing land have
hitherto been great, so that most settlers have been
tempted into purchasing more land than , they could
profitably work, with such resources as have been at their
command. Now, however, capital might be encouraged to
bring the aids of combination, modern machinery, and
skilled enterprise, to the aid of the farmer. In fruit-preserving
alone, were the right methods adopted, there are
fortunes lying ready to be made, beside which the profits
of similar enterprises in old lands would seem petty and
mean. As it is, all the available capital in the colonies
is profitably invested, and any return under six per cent,
is looked on as on the whole rather unsatisfactory.
In fisheries I
have suggested boundless potentialities ; and indeed nature has been so
lavish in her gifts of raw material, that if we could only
fairly set moneyed men and men of inventive genius
thinking, and induce them to throw in their lot
amongst us, we could not fail to benefit by the accession,
and they would never have cause to regret their advent.
To farmers with
a little capital, who find too circumscribed a sphere for
their energies in the old lands, the colonies present an
inviting field. Land is yet plentiful and cheap. The
returns for faithful tillage are bountiful and certain, and there
is no end to the variety of products that may be
grown. "Corn, and wine, and oil," is no figure of speech
as applied to the products of these colonies, but a plain
matter-of-fact statement. As regards New Zealand, for
instance, the following statement illustrates the anxiety and
determination of the Government to foster agriculture, and it should
not be forgotten that roads and railways are constantly
being constructed, and new markets being opened up.
"In order to
test the sincerity of the outcry for land by professional
political agitators, as well as to prevent the chronic
appeals of the labouring classes to the Government through
alleged lack of employment, the Minister of Lands has
devised a new land scheme. The leading features of it are
the setting apart of blocks of land as special
settlements—in the first instance in Wellington province,
but if successful, the scheme will be extended to other
provinces—to be occupied on perpetual leases for a first
term of thirty years, and a second term of twenty-one,
without any right of acquiring a freehold. Rental is to be
based on the capital value of the land, the minimum price
being two per cent, per acre, and the maximum area
twenty acres to any applicant, who will get it without
competition, as priority will be determined by lot. Among
the essential conditions are residence, cultivation, and
that the land shall not be subdivided or sublet.
Government will contribute 20/. towards building the
settler's house, and, if land is bush, will give the
average price to enable the selector to clear and sow the
section in grass. The State will then charge on
value of the land five per cent, per year, and on the sum
advanced for the improvement the same rate. A start will
be made in the middle of June of the present year (1886)
to make the initial experiment at Parihaka, and the
Government state the settlements will be located near
towns or railways where labour is attainable, and where
the land is suitable for small industries."
To active, intelligent artisans, and workers who have no
capital but their own stout hearts and strong, willing limbs, these colonies
present a field for their enterprise, such as is nowhere else existent at
this time upon the earth. We have no room for the intemperate idler, the
loafer, or incompetent, chicken-hearted, slovenly shirker. We have enow of
these, God wot, already; but there is work out here for every willing,
capable, self-respecting man, under circumstances of such material comfort,
such increased remuneration, such political freedom, such generous fare and
charm of climate, with all the accessories and surroundings of community of
speech, race, religion, and home institutions, as are nowhere else
procurable in any dependency of the Empire. A little "roughing it" there is
certain to be at first. Things will be a little strange to begin with. The
streets of colonial cities are not paved with gold, and indeed the towns and
cities are in any case not the best fields for the labourer in the colonies,
but if a man is willing, adaptable, handy, cheerful, sober, and determined
to get on, depend upon it he cannot fail of a success, which is all but
impossible of achievement in the crowded and narrow sphere of the labourer's
life at home.
To the seeker
after health, these colonies offer the fountains of
renewed youth. At all times of the year by judiciously
changing the locality, you can live in perpetual summer,
with an air as balmy and bracing, and perfectly enjoyable,
as can fall to the lot of mortals here below.
To the lover of
the picturesque, and the seeker after the pure delights
that a communion with nature ever yields, I think my pages
of description surely afford ample promise that a visit
cannot possibly be fraught with disappointment.
The clouds of
commercial depression are lifting. The native difficulty
seems to be fairly and for ever settled. Politics, let us
hope, are becoming purified. The long succession of
deficits has at length come to an end. Last year's
estimates have shown a surplus of 37,000/. The coming
year has an estimated revenue of over four
millions, with an anticipated surplus of 42,000/.. This is
accompanied by a diminution of the property tax to the
amount of 24,000/ The population is increasing
satisfactorily. Public works of much importance, and of a
reproductive character, are being vigorously prosecuted ;
and those already carried out, are year by year
becoming increasingly reproductive. The feeling of
friendly regard and brotherly affection for the dear old
mother country seems only to become accentuated as time
rolis on. The signs of returning and permanent prosperity
are everywhere apparent. Intellectual and mental life is
vigorous ; religion and learning are advancing ; and on
all sides, the outlook is hopeful and the signs
fortuitous. It is to be hoped indeed that our New Zealand
cousins are entering upon a new era of peaceful
progress and steady advancement in everything that will
tend to build up true national greatness, and help to
preserve the unity, the peace, and the dignity of that
great Empire of which their southern island home is one of
the most beautiful and most fruitful dependencies. |
