MISCHIEVOUS INFLUENCE OF NEW ZEALAND ON THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.
ALL accounts from the West Indies continue to mark the decline ofiroductive industry in those colonies, arising from the abolition of slavery and the consequent scarcity of labouring hands. Com- pulsory labour being abolished, hired labour is not to be procured, because great cheapness of land absolves the poorer classes from a necessity to which the dearness of land subjects them in densely- peopled countries—that of working for hire in order to subsist. All sorts of shifts are resorted to, but in vain, to supply the defi- ciency of labourers. In the Australian Colonies, a recent improve- ment in the art of colonization has furnished the means of pre- venting this deficiency. The plan of disposing of public land by sale only, and using the purchase-money as a fund for importing
labourers, has met with the most eminent success. It is regarded
by the capitalists of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land as their only security against the ruin which would befidl them if it were not steadily pursued now that they are on the point of losing their convict slaves. At Port Philip and in South Australia the operation of this plan has been signally benefi- cial. In both of those infant settlements, the price required for public land has had two good effects in particular it has pre- vented the colonists from dispersing themselves over a vast terri- tory, and has compelled poor persons to labour for hire before they could obtain land ; while the purchase-money received has been employed in conveying from Britain to these settlements thousands of poor persons, who form a labouring class greater in proportion to the demand for their services than was ever before known perhaps in " new country" without slavery. What value the people of New South Wales attach to their Emigration-fund derived from the sales of public land, may be inferred from their anxious remonstrances with the Home Government against the diversion of any part of that fund from its proper purpose. Throughout this group of Colonies, indeed, the settlers attach a sort of sacred importance to their Emigration-fund, like that which England assigns to her wooden walls, Prussia to her standing army, and Holland to the preservation of her dikes. It is their one thing indispensable.
We are far from believing that the plan of colonizing by means of an emigration-fund derived from the sale of public land, has been so established in the Australian Colonies as to be susceptible of no improvement. In South Australia, the price of public land, though higher than in the other settlements, is probably too low for the objects in view. As respects Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, and Port Philip, or Australia Felix, some land is still granted for nothing—most unjustly towards those who are compelled to buy ; the mode of selling by auction, instead of at a fixed price, produces many inconveniences ; large portions of the Emigration- fund are misapplied to other. purposes; the administration of the law, such as it is, is not confided to any special authority solely occupied with that business, but remains with the Colonial Office, and is sadly neglected accordingly ; and the law, if it may be called one, consists of a mere order of the Secretary of State, which may be abrogated by any other Minister at his pleasure. But while these defects in the application of the system were admitted, there was reason to hope that they would be remedied by degrees. The melancholy spectacle of the decline of the West Indies, and the striking progress of the Australian group of Colonies, through Opposite causes, have recently drawn so much attention to this sub- ject of the supply of' labour in connexion with the supply of land, that it seemed reasonable to expect that the principles of the Aus- tralian system would ere long be carried into perfect execution in the Southern Colonies. Such was our own opinion until the other day; but it has been recently shaken by the appearance of a dis- turbing cause, to which therefore we would bespeak the serious at- tention of all who have any interest in the Colonies of Australia, whether residing here or there.
Except for the production of fine wool, the islands of New Zea- land possess a far more fertile soil and climate than any known part of Australia : they also abound in exportable produce ready- made by nature, to the same effect as if millions or perhaps tens of millions of capital had been there invested in preparing the country for the seat of a commercial people. The colonization of New Zealand by direct emigration from this country, is now put beyond a doubt. Nearly a thousand emigrants have already departed, pos- sessing amongst them a very large capital, in the shape of houses, machinery, implements, goods, ships, and money ; and thousands more are preparing to follow them under the auspices of a powerful Company, whose plans sewn to be not less wisely formed than vigor- ously executed. Years have been employed in making ready for this movement of emigration to New Zealand, and nothing can
stop it now. Let us suppose therefore that settlements are formed in various parts of the islands, and ;he whole of this fertile country is laid open to British colonization. A most important question then arises—How will the New Zealand Colonists be sup- plied with labour ? Not by direct emigration from this country. For although the Company which despatches the first colony, has so far adopted the Australian plan of colonization as to sell for a considerable price the land which it has acquired from the natives for a trifle, and to use seventy-five per cent. of the purchase-money as a fund for the emigration of labourers—although the capitalists of the first colony have thus taken out an ample supply of labour for their earliest operations—yet this proceeding applies to but a small portion of the islands ; and in all the rest of that large and productive territory, land will be " dirt cheap." The means by which land will be everywhere acquired, is purchase from the natives at a nominal price, or, as Dr. LANG calls it, land-sharking. The very persons whom the Company has sent out, will speedily follow the example set by the Missionaries and others, and will shark vast tracts of laud from the natives. A large amount of goods, we are assured, is now on the way to New Zealand for this express purpose ; and much more will be so applied by the capi- talists of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land as soon as . they hear of the disposition which prevails in England to emigrate to the new colony. In less than a year perhaps, the greater part of the islands will be added to the extensive districts which have been already obtained from the natives for next to nothing. It will then be impossible —already has the private appropriation of land been so great that it would be difficult even now—to establish in New Zealand the Australian plan of selling on the public account. In New Zealand, therefore, not only will land be extremely cheap, but there will be no emigration-fund wherewith to furnish a supply of labourers. What follows ? It seems to follow inevitably, that capitalists invited to settle in New Zealand by the greater fertility of the land, the value of its natural exportable products, and its ex- treme cheapness, will seek to attract labourers from the Australian Colonies. Owing to the course of the winds in that part of the world, the passage from the Australian Colonies to New Zealand is very easy, and certain as to time. The expense of emigration, therefore, will be trifling from New South Wales, Van Diemen's
Land, Australia Felix, and South Australia. By extending their voyage but a little way, labouring emigrants from England to any of the Australian Colones will easily reach New Zealand; and we may be sure that means of transport will be provided by the New Zealand Colonists, in order that their first want—the want of labour—may be supplied. The Emigration-funds, consequently, of New South Wales, &c. will supply New Zealand with labour. The Australian Colonies will be drained of their labour by the cheapness of land in New Zealand. No link is wanted in the chain of reasoning on which this conclusion is founded.
But the evil to the Australian Colonies would not stop here. Thus cheated of the fruits of their Emigration-fund, the capi- talists of those colonies would no longer have a motive for pur- chasing public land ; and their Emigration-fund would rapidly di- minish, if it did not soon disappear. Their productive industry being ruined by the want of labour, their commerce would perish ; their lands, which already possess a considerable exchange. able value, would become unsaleable; and the great capital which they have invested in live-stock, shipping, buildings, and various improvements, would run to waste. We are desirous to avoid exaggeration, but cannot help repeating what we said some weeks back*—" New Zealand will ruin New South Wales, unless some check be promptly applied to the bungling or malice of the Colo- nial Office."
For who will be to blame for all the mischief that must ensue to the Australian settlements from allowing New Zealand to be colo- nized by means of land-sharking ? No civilized government but that of England permits its subjects to acquire land from savages. As respects New Zealand, our Government not only permits, but encourages this barbarous practice. It has protected and pa- tronized the Missionaries in the very extensive purchases which they have made of late years ; its own officers in the islands—Ma- gistrates and Residents—have been among the principal land- sharks; in 1825, it sanctioned the proceedings of a London Com- pany which then made extensive purchases ; by recently refusing to become itself the sole purchaser of lands from the natives, as was proposed by the New Zealand Association of 1837, it has left the present New Zealand Company no choice but to become a great land-shark, or to abandon the country to the local land- sharks of the Runaway-Convict and Missionary establishments ; and lastly, it has just published a Treasury Minute whereby it holds out the most direct encouragement to land-sharldng in New Zealand, by declaring that no part of the islands shall obtain the advantage of British law except "such territory as may be possessed by British subjects." It may be that the mischief is not yet past remedy ; but as- suredly the application of a remedy admits of no delay. New Zealand, we assert it with confidence, has been, to all international and legal intents and purposes, a part of the British dominions ever since the year 1814; and according to the law of England, every British subject who has acquired -land in those islands, has done so as a trustee for the Crown. The whole of the land-shark- ing may be lawfully disallowed, though not equitably without com- pensation, on account of the neglect of the Crown to enforce its rights. To make compensation as to the past, would not be dith- * No. 40; August 28th.
cult : it would be easy to prevent a further accumulation of mis- chief. Making compensation where it was demanded by equity, the Crown might easily, by the exercise of its unquestionable pre- rogatives, establish the Australian plan of colonization in New Zealand, and thus spare the Australian settlements the injury which they cannot otherwise escape. If New Zealand had a suffi- cient Emigration-fund, the labour which was taken from England to Australia, would remain in Australia; and New Zealand would become, as the natural granary of the Australian settlements, a valuable aid to their prosperity, instead of being, as seems more likely to happen, their very injurious rival.
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