Part 3

[10] It would be well did our Home Government limit its cherishing care to protection,--vessels of war, and a harbour fort or forts in New Zealand, leaving the internal government entirely to the emigrant population, with this proviso, that trade in native produce (pernicious maddening drugs excepted) be free between the parent country and the colony. This would be the cheapest colonial organization, and also the one which would attach the colony the most firmly. Instead of jealousy and discontent (the natural produce of the present system) we should have pride in the parent country, and honourable enthusiastic attachment towards it.

[11] Would such a plan not be practicable in Britain?

IMPORTANCE OF COLONIZATION TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE.

Certain nations, or rather races of men, have a disposition to increase in numbers and are continually throwing off swarms; while other nations or races, from some progressing deficiency of vital stamina similar to the gradual decline of old age in the individual, are sinking in population, and the countries they have occupied becoming open to the immigration of the prolific and more vigorous races. The causes which tend to produce the one or the other condition of human vitality, seem to lie beyond the bounds of philosophic inquiry, but the fact itself is sufficiently clear. Hitherto the swarming or emigration of the more prolific races has been left to little else than instinctive or brute feeling of necessity--has at least not been entered upon by any government or society with any thing like the vigour and compass of plan which would result from a rational estimation of its importance, under proper regulation, to the comfort and happiness of the community.

When more than one-half of the earth is wilderness, and transport become so easy, it is treason to the human race to speak of preventive or destructive checks. As things are now situated, every adult in Great Britain has a right to demand of the Government to be put in a condition of marrying, should he incline, with the certainty by common industry of providing comfortably for a family. This condition of things is the great, the only test of a good Government. The Government that cannot or will not provide for this, is either grossly ignorant, impotent, or criminal, and unfit for its place. A sufficient emigration of the labouring and property classes, would improve the home field for labour and capital, and raise wages and the returns upon capital so high that every industrious man would be able to maintain a family in comfort as soon as he had reached maturity, say the age of 21, and had attained a fair proficiency in his calling or business. Marriage about 21 is desirable on several accounts. The head of the family is stronger and healthier to provide for his children, and more likely to survive and provide for them till they attain strength to provide for themselves. The children are also stronger and healthier and easier provided for:--And the earth is comparatively a desert. The British Navy ought to be employed during peace as transports, carrying out emigrants to our colonies--in laying the foundation of future empires. By this, two very desirable ends would at once be gained--a sufficient and safe means of transporting our surplus population to new lands, and the proper discipline and experience of the Navy itself.

Colonization is merely sowing the seeds of future prosperity. The perfection and extent of our manufactures, the source of our national wealth and of the value of our landed property, are owing to the demand and supply of the United States and other colonies which we have planted,--our trade to which exceeds that to all the world besides. During depressions of trade, we give charitable supply to those who cannot find employment, keeping up numbers of unemployed people, ready should labour come a little more into demand, to compete with those in employment, and thus keep down wages to the lowest pitch. This is merely a nursing of misery. Were those who could not get employment, or who could not live comfortably upon what they received for their work, sent out to fruitful new lands and properly located, each person sent away would give employment to a person at home in fabricating articles for his use, and for which he would make return in raw produce, thus converting our paupers into rich customers, and raising the price greatly of home labour. Emigration is going on to a vast extent from the Eastern and Middle United States, keeping up a most favourable field for industry, and rendering a family highly advantageous in these countries. Nothing hinders Britain from enjoying the same advantages but her stupid and guilty neglect. Our colonies are fully as extensive, as healthy, and as favourable a field for industry, and it is not more difficult now for a native of Britain to emigrate to some of our very extensive colonies, than for an inhabitant of the Atlantic States to go to the banks of the Missouri or the Texas Territory. It would be more so were Government to give its aid in Navy transports, and by so doing the Service would be greatly benefited. Why, then, should the condition of the working population of Britain not be as favourable as that of the people of the United States?

But if the Legislature and Government of Britain shall fail to do their duty in providing for the welfare of the community, and the community are not able to procure a Government capable and willing to do this duty, still there is no reason why the British people should sit down in despair. Not only can working small capitalists emigrate in a sufficient number, especially by uniting their efforts, but working men without any capital, have it in their power by forming Emigrant Associations, with weekly subscriptions, to invest money in new lands,[12] and to export portions of their own body to these lands should the hire of labour be too low here, or whenever the want of labour-demand threatened to reduce wages. To diminish the supply and increase the demand is the only legitimate way to keep up the price. And the increase of wages which would thus be obtained, would more than pay the subscription necessary to carry out and supply with land and commencing stock the number of their brethren requisite to be sent off to keep the labour demand in a salutary state. Trades’ Unions might work very advantageously in conducting this. This is a better plan of keeping up wages than strikes, which in nine cases out of ten are the means of lowering wages. Were the money which has been injuriously expended on strikes, and still more were the money that is injuriously expended by the working-men upon ardent spirits, strong ales, and other baneful intoxicating drugs, employed in planting a sufficient number of their body in fruitful new colonies, the condition of the working-men in Britain would be immeasurably elevated.

They have allotted a certain portion of the price of fresh land to carry out working emigrants without means. This plan might be worked advantageously perhaps were the price of the land _sufficiently low_,--that is so low as to command the desired amount of sales, and not impede the emigration of working small capitalists, or the purchasing of the land by working-men, say about five shillings per acre, as in the United States. There is, however, something ungracious in their schemes or manner of conducting them, which has not met the approval of the British working-men. The emigrant is exported and set down in a strange land, without funds or friends, and under the necessity of engaging as a servant to others (his reason for emigrating is to escape from servitude), and certain regulations are adopted, and troublesome certificates required,[13] which impede the working of the system. As soon as the Scots New Zealand Company shall have located itself and made the necessary arrangements, it will be ready to co-operate with emigration societies of working-men in Britain, in carrying through any plan which may appear most advantageous;--not with a view to procure servants, but to obtain friends and neighbours. In the mean time, emigration societies should be formed, and funds collecting.

There will, no doubt, be servants or helps in New Zealand, and need for them, too, in some cases, independent, even, of what the natives will supply. But any scheme of emigration to encourage the system of master and servants to such an unnatural excess as to allot (as it is said they propose) 75 per cent of the whole price of the lands to carry on the _servant-trade_ from Britain to New Zealand, would be attended with the most injurious consequences, not only to the employment and civilization of the natives, but to the prosperity of the settlement, if it did not ruin it altogether. Servants or helps should, like every thing else, be left to the salutary direction of demand and supply,--that is, the trade should be left entirely free, without exclusive tax or bounty, provided, indeed, it shall not be thought _contra bonos mores_, and prohibited. And if Government or the Legislature interfere, it ought surely to be to encourage, by affording means of transport to that class which experience has proved to be the most advantageous,--in fact, the only class by which free colonization can be successfully carried on,--_working small capitalists_, and which the system of master and servants, attempted to be achieved by the “sufficient price,” would do much to obstruct.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] We would recommend investment in new lands as incomparably superior to investments in savings’ banks, as affording far better security and higher profits, and would urge those who have money in savings’ banks to withdraw it, and purchase shares in the Scots New Zealand Land Company. The effect of a proper system of colonization and the exclusion of bad subjects, has been recently exemplified in Russia. A number of working small capitalists, solicited and received the grant of a desolate hilly portion of country from the Emperor. They divided this into portions of about 60 acres of tillage land, with a suitable portion of hill pasture to each family, allowing no one to enter the community, unless he possessed a certain capital, and totally excluding lawyers and priests. The success has been great beyond all precedent. No quarrels, high morality, industry, economy,--the country cultivated like a garden,--plenty to all.

[13] Certificates are forthcoming and favourable in proportion to the worthlessness of the subject. The friends are active in procuring the necessary certificates of character to those they are ashamed of, and wish at the antipodes.

LAND PROPERTY RIGHT.

Right to land property is of two kinds, _National_ and _Individual_. Both are founded on _Utility_, that is, the advantage of mankind.

_National or Government Right_ exists only where there is a presiding responsible government competent to treat with other governments, and to obey international law, and able to put down pirates and freebooters within the territory of the state. National or Government Right is evidently founded on the _utility_ of government power, and of national responsibility. _Individual Right_, or appropriation of land, arises from actual occupancy of the lands, more especially cultivation by labour. _Individual Right_ is founded on land being more advantageously employed and cultivated when divided and appropriated than when held in common, and on the claim which a person acquires to any article, not belonging to another, by expending his labour upon it. In some instances land has been cultivated in common by the tribe or district inhabitants, and sometimes the government has engrossed this right of property in land, and farmed it out in portions; but neither plan has been found to promote improvement so well as individual appropriation.

The natives of New Zealand themselves admit, and every stranger who has been amongst them corroborates the fact, that they are incapable of combining and forming any thing like a responsible government fitted to treat with other governments, and to observe international law, or even to maintain any proper government authority within the territory of New Zealand. They have, therefore, no _national or government right_ to the New Zealand territory, and have only _individual right_ to those parts which they cultivate or derive some benefit from by occupancy. A native of New Zealand has no _right_ to the unappropriated wilderness of New Zealand more than any other person who may be standing beside him in that wilderness. But as the natives of New Zealand, in common with the natives of New South Wales and Tasmania, have got a sense of _right_ to these unappropriated territories, it is well to purchase their good will to the occupancy of these,--that is, their forbearance from molesting the occupiers; because, to take possession without doing so might lead to the sacrifice of life, and because it is even cheaper to hire their forbearance than to compel it by force. Any one purchasing their good will to a portion of territory has no _right_, however, to that territory, further than not to be molested by the natives; and unless he himself has settled on the grounds, grazed them with stock or cultivated them--the quantity of ground bearing a reasonable proportion to his stock or means of cultivating--he has no right to prevent any individual from taking occupancy and cultivating, and thus becoming _rightfully_ possessed of the same lands. Any one who has purchased the forbearance of the natives, and failed to occupy, and who out of revenge may instigate the natives against the person who does occupy, is manifestly guilty and answerable for the consequences. It is useless here to assert the _right_ which the imperative necessity of an overflowing population gives to spread over and occupy the waste portions of the earth. This _right_ has been acknowledged and acted upon in all ages; and the _right_ to any territory, not having a population capable of forming a presiding responsible government, is recognised to belong to the nation which has first discovered and taken formal occupancy.

No Company in London can assume a government right over New Zealand, which, by first formal occupancy by Captain Cook, belongs of recognised _right_ to the crown of Great Britain. Still less can this company receive any _government right_, or _individual right_, to lands in New Zealand from the natives, who, we have shewn, have no such _rights_ to give, except in regard to the small portions which the natives have acquired _individual right_ to by cultivation. The New Zealand Land Company in London have, indeed, the good sense to be aware of this,--that they can give no guarantee to the possession of the lands they are selling;--taking good care in their conveyance to the buyers to specify, “_and the Company are not to be considered as guaranteeing the title except as against their own acts and the acts of those deriving title under and in trust for them_.”

Any attempt of capitalists in London or elsewhere forming New Zealand Land Companies, to monopolize whole provinces of New Zealand, by purchasing the good will of the natives at a mere nominal price, ought, therefore, not to stand in the way of emigrants going out and occupying any of these lands which the London or Home Companies or their assignees may not have become possessed of by actual occupancy, that is, by the lands being apportioned amongst and occupied by settlers, in numbers something commensurate to the extent of grounds. The British Government and Legislature will surely look to this?[14]

To allow any company of home capitalists to monopolize the territory of New Zealand in this way, would be to subject the colonization of New Zealand _to such a tax_ as the company might choose to lay upon it (at present L.1 per acre is the tax, minus such a portion of it as they may choose to expend upon carrying out emigrants, and the price they may pay for the good-will of the natives). This tax, or price of L.1 per acre, nearly four times the government price of land in the United States, by depriving the emigrant of his little capital, so very necessary to his success as a settler, will act as a great barrier to colonization, and prevent that fine country from becoming speedily of paramount value to Britain.[15]

Should the New Zealand Land Company of London capitalists go on purchasing the good-will of the lands they are selling only, and not attempt to engross or monopolize large portions of New Zealand, to the exclusion of emigrants who will not consent to pay to them their heavy monopoly price or tax, and if they shall employ 75 per cent. of the price they charge for the lands in fitting out colonizing expeditions, consisting of a proper assortment of emigrants, as they have done in the first instance, _but which they refuse to go on doing_; or, if they shall dispose of the lands at a price nearly equal to the government price of the United States for fresh lands, and not take to themselves beyond a fair interest for the capital they may lie out of, allotting the residue for the internal improvement of the colony (roads, bridges, &c.), and for civilizing and ameliorating the condition of the natives, their agency in promoting New Zealand colonization may be of very great utility, by giving confidence and security to emigrants. If this is the line they are to pursue, the Scots Company will do every thing they may have in their power to further the London Company’s objects, and will no doubt be met by the London Company in the same spirit. New Zealand will afford more than a sufficient field for the exertions of both.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] The proper means to prevent settlers from seizing upon more land than they can put to good use, and taking up too wide an arrangement, is not a high price upon fresh lands (which is merely to suck out the life’s-blood of the colonist just as he is about to commence the arduous combat), but a low land tax per acre, rated permanently to three or more class qualities of soil. This is the only genuine tax,--should be the only tax, and made available to the whole government of the colony. Instead of repressing industry as other taxes necessarily do (those on pernicious luxuries excepted), this tax would even benefit the payer by stimulating him to improve his lands, and thus render them of higher quality, while their class rating for taxation remained unchanged.

[15] In conjunction with the Scots New Zealand Land Company, it is intended to establish a New Zealand Whale Fishing Company, having a domicile at one or more of the maritime stations of the Land Company, at which the families of those engaged in the fishing will reside, and where the oil will be prepared for export. This will be mutually beneficial in a high degree. The fisheries will draw in a great revenue to the colony for exported oil, and those engaged in them will constitute the best of customers for the fine produce of the land. The families and shore-establishment of the Whale Company will be sheltered by the Land Company during the time their own strength may be absent in the fishery; while, should any thing serious be apprehended to the Land Company, the assistance of the daring and formidable crews of harpooners, who will be absent only on short voyages, will soon be forthcoming. They will indeed constitute a most formidable defensive force; and, instead of being a great cost and population-check, a consuming evil and source of decay, like the armies of Europe, they will be the source of wealth, and population, and power.

PATRICK MATTHEW, _Chairman_.

UTILITY OF EMIGRATION AND COLONIES.

_Extract from “Emigration Fields.”_

Britain, at the present moment, exhibits man in a position altogether new, from the extensive application of steam power and improved machinery in aid of human labour. By means of these facilities to production, together with combined labour, the work of man has been rendered doubly efficient in raising food, and many times more efficient in fabricating clothing, and other human requisites. An immense available power and surplus labour supply has thus been developed, limited in the field of food production by our confined territory, restricted in the field of manufacturing production by our home food-monopoly. A great change in the relative proportion of labour and capital requisite for production has also taken place, and human labour, in part superseded by steam power and machinery, has undergone a comparative depreciation of value. The usual balance of demand and supply of labour being thus deranged, has caused occasional gluts, and it may require a time, and much further misery may ensue, risking political convulsion, before the social economy adjust itself, unassisted, to the new order of things.

One of the most prominent consequences of this new order, is the great comparative increase of number of the non-producing classes (the holders of accumulated wealth--the idle recipients of income) and the unprecedented extent of their comforts and luxuries, while the condition of the working-class, instead of improving, has deteriorated. Had the free-trade system been adopted contemporaneously with this available increase of power of production, the condition of the working-class would, no doubt, have improved in nearly an equal degree, as an almost unlimited demand for our manufactures, in exchange for the food and raw produce of the Continent, would have taken place. But as this system, however much to be desired, is awanting, and the mischievous effects of our restrictive system already in part irremediable, humanity calls upon us to endeavour to devise some other means of effecting an improvement in the condition of the working-class, but of such a nature, as not to impede the attainment of free trade.

Prevented by our trade-restrictive system from obtaining a market in foreign nations for the immense surplus fabrics which this vast increase of power is capable of producing, there is only one other available resource,--_to transplant our surplus working-population to new lands_. This would not only bring about a salutary balance in our home economy, but at the same time, by raising up new and most valuable customers, would afford wide and extending fields of consumption, commensurate with the future increase of our powers of production. In the present condition of Britain, it is even probable that a system of colonization, judiciously planned and _sufficiently_ followed out, would eventually be equally promotive of the comfort and happiness of the working-population of Britain, as if free trade were to give full scope to the employment of the whole working-population at home, and at the same time be more influential in improving the race of man generally. Change of place within certain limits of latitude, seems to have a tendency to improve the species equally in animals as in plants, and agricultural and trading occupations are far more congenial to health and increase, than manufacturing occupations. It cannot therefore be doubted that the increase of the British race (evidently a superior race), and their extension over the world, and even the vigour of the race itself, will be more promoted by this colonizing system, than by the utmost freedom of trade without the colonizing system, and the turning of our entire energies to manufacturing industry.