Chapter II: Part 2

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.

But our advocates of restriction and home monopolies exclaim--Why export workmen when so much improvement can still be made in Britain? Why import food and raw produce while we have full capacities of growing enough at home? Were Great Britain properly cultivated it would produce double what it now produces. The answer is, It is not what Britain is capable of producing, but what it in reality will be made to produce, which concerns us. Further improvement, and even the keeping up of the improvement already effected, depend upon the returns of the capital employed. If, from the less exhausted field for production abroad, we can obtain ten per cent. per annum for capital, while from the more exhausted, restriction-limited field at home, we can obtain only four per cent., capital will continue to be exported and British improvement will languish, or things will retrograde. This is the actual state of matters, and unless means are taken to bring about a more salutary state, the improvements they look forward to, and which Britain is indeed susceptible of, will never be attained. By a properly conducted colonization, in the first place, diminishing the labour-supply, and acting as a stimulus to our labour-market, and afterwards affording a continually increasing stimulus by means of the new-created, fast-extending colonial field of demand for British manufactures, and all this working in mutual reaction to excite industry, we may in reality go on improving till Britain produce ten times over what she now produces.

This attempt to draw attention to colonization proceeds from no wish to check the present national effort to obtain free trade! Colonial intercourse is in effect a circumscribed kind of free trade, under peculiarly favourable circumstances; _and the amazing increase, and vast extent and advantage, of our colonial trade, is the most direct proof of the advantage, not only to Britain, but to mankind, which would result from free trade over all_. Every enactment to prevent the exchange of the produce of labour between man and man, and nation and nation, if the article is not injurious to health and morals, is truly diabolic. All who have aided in these enactments ought to be held up to the detestation of mankind as repressers of industry, as promoters of misery, as ministers of evil, selfishly bent upon rendering abortive the good which a benevolent Providence has designed for man, in forming one portion of the earth more fitted for the seat of manufacturing industry and trade, and other portions for the peculiar production of various kinds of food and raw material, thus calculated, by giving rise to a reciprocity of advantageous intercourse, to promote an enlightening and friendly connection, and to diffuse science, morality, the arts of life, all that conduces to improvement and happiness, over the nations.

In the event of our own Legislature adopting the free-trade system, the introduction of the colonizing, by rendering Great Britain more independent of foreign nations, will be a means of inducing these nations also to agree to a reciprocity of free-trade; whereas, were we soliciting the free exchange of commodities, and apparently dependent upon these nations for a market, there would be no end to the haggling of their selfish and ignorant governments. In this view, therefore, colonization is a step to the attainment of general free trade throughout the world; at any rate, the increase of our trade and manufactures, sequent to an extensive emigration, by diffusing intelligence and wealth, must sooner bring about the free-trade system.

The mind is almost overwhelmed in contemplating the prospects of improvement in the general condition of humanity, now opening through the medium of British colonization, and the consequent diffusion of the elevating and meliorating influences of British liberty, knowledge, and civilization. One great free naval people, aided by all the discoveries of modern science, and united under the attractions of a common literature, and the reciprocal advantage of the exchange of staple products, increasing rapidly in numbers, and ramifying extensively over numerous maritime regions, will soon overshadow continental despotisms, and render them innocuous.

From the unlimited supply of new land, colonies are especially fitted for a connection with Britain. Being in the opposite extremes of condition, they are in the highest degree mutually beneficial, the former affording the raw material in exchange for the more laboured products of industry of the latter, while at the same time the colonists are by habit great consumers of British manufactures. What is required is, that the extension of colonization should go hand in hand with the extension of manufactures, thus generating new markets in proportion to the increase of fabrics.

But, at the present moment, it is as a salutary drain to our overstocked labour-market, that colonization is so vitally necessary. To bring things to a healthy state, a vast exportation of working-population must in the first place be effected, and to keep them so, a constant great stream of emigration must be afterwards kept up. And in proportion as this efflux is properly regulated, will, at the same time, the condition of the people at home and abroad be prosperous, and the population progressive.

Emigration to fruitful new lands, where our superabundant capital and population would be employed to the greatest advantage and most rapidly enlarged, is in policy and humanity alike our interest and our duty, as being the clear and direct road to prosperity. Under a properly regulated colonization, the most sanguine can scarcely form a conjecture of the extent to which our manufacturing and commercial greatness might be carried; and the comfort and happiness to which all classes might attain.

Under a properly regulated colonization, to obey the common instincts of nature, “to increase and multiply,” instead of being, as it too frequently has been in Britain, a curse, will become, as in the United States, a blessing. _Things have been so far misdirected hitherto, that the greatly increased facilities of production of what is necessary to the comfort and pleasurable existence of man, which, under proper direction, ought to have benefited all classes, has only administered to the luxury of a comparatively small number, the property class._ So sensible are the working men in England of this, that they have considered facility of production their enemy, and have had recourse to the most pernicious and atrocious practices,--machinery-breaking, and burning of agricultural produce, to prevent it. The old system of English poor-law (perhaps the worst that could have been invented) and the new amendment, are equally ineffectual to accomplish the end desired,--the prevention of human misery,--the removal of those sufferings arising from inadequate employment or inadequate remuneration, evils for which there can be no effectual remedy save an increased or improved field of labour; and this, as formerly stated, is obtainable in Britain only by free trade or by extensive emigration, but most effectually by both. The prudential check, from which so much has been expected, is but an irksome and unnatural palliative, scarcely preferable to the natural destructive check itself. And in respect to gratuitous assistance, nothing can be more pernicious than poor-law contributions, and charitable givings, and bequests of all descriptions, at least as these matters have been conducted. It is merely _a nursing of misery_,--keeping up a vast number of unemployed people, ready at all times, should labour come a little more into demand, to compete with those in employment, and keep down wages to the lowest pitch that the animal machine can be kept working upon. It is the interest of the property-holders to have a very numerous population at this lowest pitch, and their poor-rate and charity contributions are virtually a mere pittance-supply to prevent their indirect slaves from perishing.

Charity is not less injurious as interfering with the great law of nature, by which pain and death are the established penalty of ignorance, idleness, and improvidence; enjoyment and life the reward of knowledge, industry, and forethought. Alms or relief to the poor is clearly an interference with, or a subversion of, this natural law, and though it does not prevent the suffering sequent to the former, it destroys the advantages sequent to the latter, and only promotes general misery. It is to the purposes of colonization that the English poor-rates and other charitable bequests, now worse than uselessly consumed in nursing up the improvident poor and keeping down the industrious, should be converted.

A sufficient emigration of the labour-classes would increase the labour-demand, and raise wages so high, that every one able and willing to work would obtain a competency for the support of a family, and even of a parent in infirm old age, in case of necessity; thus cutting up pauperism by the roots, and leaving the bastiles, the poverty-prisons in the south of England, untenanted. In the United States of America nearly all the marriageable people enter the marriage state, and find a family advantageous to the increase of their wealth and comfort. This arises from the favourable field for industry, and the social advantages they enjoy. Nothing hinders Great Britain from enjoying these, and even greater advantages, but her own stupid and guilty neglect. In many respects she is equally favourably circumstanced as America, in some much more favourably. Her climate is better, her capital beyond comparison greater, her machinery and aids of human labour and advantages of combined labour vastly superior, her new unpeopled territory more extensive and more favourably situated for trade, and equally easily reached. Why, then, should the condition of the working population of Britain not be as favourable as that of America? Simply because the field of labour, from our narrow home territory, dense population, and restrictive trade system, is more limited in proportion to the labour supply, and that we fail to profit by our opportunities of extending it. A sufficient emigration would render it equally, if not more favourable. Let the truly charitable--those who have the welfare of their suffering countrymen really at heart, reflect that ignorance is criminal, where knowledge is within their reach. Let them hasten to devote their exertions and wealth to purposes of utility, and not waste them in increasing the very evils they wish to remedy. _Let them promote colonization._ With an overflowing capital, and a population, notwithstanding our emigration, increasing at present nearly 400,000 annually, and as things are regulated beyond the means of full subsistence and labour-demand, Britain is placed under circumstances more favourable than ever occurred at any former period for carrying the principle of colonization into effect to its fullest, most salutary extent. The importance of emigration, as before stated, is proved by the immense and most advantageous trade we now carry on with the countries we have colonized; an almost unlimited extent of unoccupied territory is at our command; a very extensive emigration is necessary to render a poor-law practicable in Ireland, and to assist the working of the new poor-law in England (a sufficient emigration would soon render both unnecessary); the economy of transporting great numbers to distant countries in health and safety, and with celerity, is nearly perfected:--all these conspire, in an almost miraculous manner, to place the destinies of man at the disposal of Britain, and to render the present era the most eventful in the history of the world--_the era of colonization_.

Even although 450,000 (the present total yearly increase, including the present emigration of nearly 100,000) were exported annually, the future increase, from the improved condition of the great body of the people, would extend perhaps to double this number, say 1,000,000 annually, and that of our capital in a corresponding ratio; while at the same time the demand for manufactured produce, caused by the wants of the exported portion of our people, would greatly improve the home labour-demand, even with this great increase of hands. Thus our numbers would go on increasing faster at home than at present, while at the same time the country would increase in power, in a ratio still more rapid from the greater prosperity of all.

It is only within a few years that the immense importance of colonization has come to be appreciated; recently the most unfavourable prejudices existed respecting it, and the most erroneous and absurd doctrines were promulgated, to feed the popular odium, by political economists; who, in their wisdom, could never solve the difficulty how Britain continued the richest nation of the world, while her resources were being wasted upon numberless useless colonies. Let us contemplate the difference of results which the resources of Britain would have accomplished had they been so _wasted_,--had they been devoted to purposes of _creation_ as they were to purposes of _destruction_ during the American and French revolutionary wars. We did not then hesitate to lavish hundreds of millions in engaging in deadly feud the European and American nations. It seems hitherto to have been the principle of Government to hold any expense incurred for purposes other than rapine or destruction as a misapplication of the national resources. A change is at hand. The reign of Queen Victoria promises to be glorious for a victory over barbarism and human misery--Colonization is the means.

A tax of ten per cent. in Britain and Ireland upon land rental would be most profitably employed in carrying out labouring emigrants, and in locating them comfortably. This would be a humane and rational amendment of the English poor-law, and the best poor-law for Ireland that could be introduced. This fund, together with the proceeds of the sales of colonial lands, under judicious and economical management, would in the course of a few years have a most beneficial effect upon trade, and greatly ameliorate the condition of the working population; continued for half a century it would change the face of things over a great portion of the habitable world; and the extent of its effects, persisted in for several centuries, would be beyond even what we now can contemplate.

Independently of the communities formed by British emigration, were a good system of colonial government adopted, islands and inferior states would find it their interest to unite with us, and the whole of the multitudinous island-groups scattered over the vast Pacific, in number as the constellations of the heavens, might become incorporated as part of the British empire.

ESPECIAL REASONS FOR COLONIZING NEW ZEALAND.

Independent of the natural peculiar adaptation of New Zealand for a British colony, there are several very cogent reasons to induce Britain to occupy this country without a moment’s delay.

I. In the present posture of affairs, when Russia and the United States are gradually extending their territory, increasing their means, and preparing for, or at least looking forward to, a contest with Britain for the naval supremacy, it is for us to look around over earth and ocean, and to pre-occupy, if possible, every favourable position.

In glancing at the map of the eastern hemisphere, where, from the extending territorial possessions of Russia, and the great and rapidly increasing trade of the United States, as well as of Britain, a considerable part of the contest may be expected to be carried on, any one must remark the commanding position of New Zealand,--with innumerable harbours, with vast naval resources, standing forth like an extended rampart in advance of, and covering our wide Australian possessions, and having the whole of the Pacific under its lee. In marking these advantages, one is disposed to inquire,--Has Britain not stirred to secure this most important position, in reference to curbing the United States and Russia in the East,--this most invaluable acquisition in reference to augmenting our trade and resources? Has she not conciliated the natives, who are a warlike maritime race, capable of forming excellent seamen and shipwrights, and as such would be most valuable auxiliaries? Has she not erected forts at the Bay of Islands and in Cook’s Straits, under whose guns our numerous South Sea whalers and our Australian traders (they pass New Zealand homeward) could take shelter in case of hostilities? She has done nothing of all this. She has only thought of a plan to afford her a pretence for preventing others (on the dog-in-the-manger principle) from colonizing this valuable country. She has sent out one solitary Resident, and made some sort of an acknowledgment of a New Zealand flag.

II. Another reason for the friendly occupation of New Zealand in provident policy, scarcely second to the above, has, I believe, never been taken into view. From the unsteady climate and extreme droughts of our colonies in New Holland, they, as they become more populous, will be periodically subjected to destructive famine, unless some neighbouring country, whose climate does not partake of the same vicissitudes, can afford them supplies. Excepting New Zealand, the distance to other countries from whence sufficient supplies could be obtained is so great, that extreme horrors of famine might be experienced before intelligence of their wants could go out, and supplies back could reach them.

III. There is yet another pressing motive for the immediate occupation of New Zealand. No other branch of maritime industry has increased so much of late years as the Southern Whale-fishery. This has arisen partly from the recent development of the business itself, and partly from the failure of the Northern Whale-fishery. From the general resort of the southern whalers to the shores of the New Zealand group, in whose firths and bays much of the fishery is carried on, there can be no doubt it is fitted beyond any other place for the seat of this trade. There are at present 15,000 seamen and 150,000 tons of shipping engaged in it. An economic alteration in the conducting of the fishery is now in progress. Instead of vessels proceeding on a tedious three years’ voyage from the United States, France, or Britain, the fishery is now, to a considerable extent, being carried on by boats or small vessels constantly employed in the business (bay fishing), and the prepared oil conveyed to Europe and other markets in common merchantmen. Nearly three-fourths of the fishing is now in the hands of the United States, and a little less than one-fourth British. But were the occupation of the whole of the New Zealand group to take place, there is no doubt, from the superior cheapness and conveniency with which the fishery could be carried on by the New Zealand British, that the greater part of it would soon be in British hands. It would afford a rich field for the enterprise of the colonists and native New Zealanders, to whose character and maritime habits this employment is peculiarly suited; and it is incomparably the best training for maritime war. The policy of immediately occupying New Zealand in reference to this most important object is manifest.

IV. In a philanthropic point of view, New Zealand is a most eligible field for colonization. It is perhaps the sole instance, at least the most striking instance, of a thin or scattered population which would not necessarily suffer, but might greatly benefit by the immigration of Europeans into their country. The aborigines of the greater part of America and of New Holland are, or, when in existence, were _hunters_, subsisting upon the _feræ naturæ_. From long-continued use, constituting instinctive habit of race, they had themselves become, or were, in a manner, _feræ naturæ_, altogether incapable of, or extremely inapt to, agricultural labour and fixed residence, at least without a very gradual change of habit extending to several generations. As these hunters, in their pristine state, have their numbers balanced to the hunter means of subsistence which the whole country produces, the entrance of the civilized races, occupying a portion of their territory, not only abridges their hunting-grounds, but also by the employment of firearms speedily diminishes the game in the adjacent territory. Thence, if the hunter-aborigines do not fall by the musket of the stranger they are forced by famine to invade the hunting-grounds of the neighbouring tribes, and war ensues. Thus the aboriginal race is gradually extirpated by slaughter and famine, assisted by the new diseases and intoxicating poisons of the stranger. Much the same takes place with nomadic nations,--tribes subsisting principally by flocks and herds,--such as the Hottentot and Caffre of South Africa, who are also already, at least were, balanced in number to the means of their _pastoral_ subsistence. These, when encroached upon by and forced to retreat before the fire-armed European, have not space left for the support of their herds. They are driven by necessity to trespass in search of pasture upon their neighbour’s territory, and exterminating war is the result. On the other hand, the New Zealanders, in a country, although so rich in vegetation, almost destitute of game, and without herds of any kind, have been accustomed to raise their food, with the exception of fish, by agricultural labour (either by digging for roots, or digging to produce roots); and, instead of being peopled up to the means of subsistence obtainable by agriculture, do not reach the one-hundredth part, their numbers having been kept down apparently by their ferocity and by anarchy. The entrance of Europeans in a friendly manner (such as is here proposed) affording them protection to person and property, domestic animals, better implements of husbandry, more valuable fruit-bearing trees and edible plants, all the advantages and comforts of civilization, which tend so much to the increase of population, and which they, from their character and previous habits, appear capable of receiving and benefiting by, must, instead of operating to their injury or destruction, prove to them the greatest blessing.

In the case of the scant-peopling hunter, the imperative necessity of an overflowing population, such as that of Britain, is a justifiable reason for breaking up his preserves. In the case of the pastoral people of South Africa, it is unjustifiable to invade their territory and disturb their quiet feeding herds, at least while any part of the world available for British emigration remains under the hunter occupancy. But in such an anomalous case as New Zealand, where a very scant agricultural population occupy a few straggling districts of an extensive country, with the exception of these petty districts, to them entirely useless, and which, from defects in the social order and other circumstances, they are not only totally unfitted for populating, but are even fast decreasing in numbers; and where a steady general government introduced by the emigrants would, in all probability, remedy the consuming evils under which the race is disappearing,--it is here, if we are at all to be guided by reason, humanity, justice,--it is surely here where we ought to locate our overflowing population. In the case of a region only inhabited by a few scattered barbarous tribes, totally incapable of instituting any responsible government, and where, in consequence, the country and adjacent sea are infested with lawless bands of robbers and pirates, any nation which possesses the power has a right to interfere, establish a government, and colonize,--surely much more so in the case of New Zealand by Britain than in the case of Florida by the United States.

TO THE BRITISH FAIR.

The withering effects of the arid climate of Australia, is manifest in the haggard walking skeletons of the aborigines, while the balmy mildness and moist air of New Zealand exerts a directly opposite effect, evinced in the fine stately forms, smooth polished skin, and rounded beauty of the Malayan population, although they are evidently a little out of climate--so far removed from the Tropics; much more must this delicious climate have a propitious effect upon the Caucasian British race, who are naturally suited to the climate. The rose tinge of the cheek is a direct consequence of moist air of a fresh stimulating coolness. We find in Van Diemen’s Land, which approaches the New Zealand climate, that the rose of health is common, although it seldom is so on the main of Australia, where the air is too dry and parching for this species of flower. The British Fair may rely that England’s Rose will not fail to blossom in New Zealand in all its native richness, giving the unmatched tinge of flower-beauty and freshness. The danger is, that it may even throw that of the mother country into shade; although its sister, the vegetable rose, has never been seen indigenous in the southern hemisphere, while it surrounds the globe in the northern with a flowery chaplet.

There is but a very small portion of the world where the rose-bloom is constantly domiciled on the cheek of beauty. In Asia and Africa it scarcely appears but in gleams of transient suffusion. In America it is almost equally rare, except in the New England States, the hills of Virginia, and the maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Canada, and Nova Scotia,--in the latter country the carmine blending to shades of purple and blue, and not unfrequently a little out of place; while, in the interior plains of Canada and the United States, the pallor is universal. In Europe, it blossoms in the cooler, aquatic, and hilly regions, wherever the air is fresh and moist,--in Britain, especially the western side,--in Ireland, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, Norway.

Were the direful effects of a summer spent in the dry parts of the south of Europe generally known, we should have less of _female_ emigration to these countries. The lily and rose-leaf cheek and cherry lip of the British fair, whose purity and dewy freshness is nourished by the moist coolness of their native air, when exposed to the Levanter or Sirocco of Italy and Spain, or even to the dry hot air of the more arid parts of France, soon shrivel to mummy and wrinkled parchment. The seclusion of beauty in Mahomedan countries, and the Mantilla of Spain, is less from jealousy of man than of the arid Eurus.

Female beauty, which, under hot dry atmosphere, withers like the rock-rose “ere the noon,” in tropical countries often before the age of twenty, and in the warm parched portion of the temperate zones, before thirty, may be expected in New Zealand, provided warm fire apartments (very little needed in that climate) are not much in use, to last till nearly double that age.

Much depends upon regular and natural habits of life,--exposure to the stimulus of the sun’s light, and especially to the fresh moist air of the morning. It is customary for girls to go out agathering May-dew, to form a rose-cosmetic,--and the roses certainly appear. Airy sitting and sleeping apartments are essential, and especially to guard against exposure to dry fire heat, and, above all, against the modern abominations of heated air and gas-burners. In some parts of the north of Europe, where the climate is severe in winter, the rooms are heated by stoves, which, in order to prevent dust, open only to the lobby or passages, and consequently afford no ventilation to the rooms, but give out a close suffocating heat. The women are confined to these rooms all the year, excepting during the short warm summer, and being thus always exposed to vitiated air and high temperature, are nearly of as short duration as within the tropics; while the men, more healthy and lasting from greater exposure out of doors and cooler atmosphere, say they require two sets of wives. In the mild climate of New Zealand, where the houses are scarcely needed but to guard off showers, the beau-sex, passing most of their time in the open air, and the remainder in well ventilated apartments, will not have this contingency much to fear. _In other respects_, from its soft moist climate, New Zealand, like Sicily, may be expected to be especially propitious to women.--The prospects now before them must cause the bright blood to mantle deeper on the cheek of the British Fair.

SLAVERY.

It, nevertheless, but ill becomes the home British to say much about
the United States’ slavery, or, indeed, about any slavery. The causes
which operate to promote or prevent direct slavery, have never, that
I am aware of, been clearly pointed out. Slaves (direct) are found
only where land is cheap. When the land, from its redundancy in
proportion to population, as in America, is of little or no value,
the whole property consists of labour, or the produce of labour; and
the covetous man not being able to satisfy his lust for riches by the
produce of his own labour, has no other way of gratifying it but by
obtaining possession of the persons of his fellow-men, and compelling
them to labour the otherwise unprofitable ground for his emolument;
and this he finds profitable, because the produce of labour, even of
slave-labour, in this favourable field for production, is more than
sufficient to support his slaves as reproductive labouring-stock, or
to purchase new ones should they wear out. On the reverse, slaves
(direct) are not found when the land has been all occupied, and has
reached any considerable value or rental. Wherever this has taken
place, and population has become dense, hired or piece-labour becomes
more profitable than slave-labour, and drives it from the field. The
reason of this is obvious: man, in a state of comparative liberty
of action, has more of mental energy to stimulate and carry on his
corporeal exertions, and to direct them to more profitable effect,
than when under direct slavery, while at the same time he can be
maintained at less cost as a reproductive animal when in semblance
free. Besides, when the land has been all taken up, and has come
into the hands of a small number of the community, these, from being
the possessors of property, generally obtain the governing power,
and form a land-aristocracy class. They proceed to legislate and
levy taxation in the most partial and unjust manner to forward their
own selfish interests, they secure the land-property to themselves
and their posterity, and, by taking advantage of the poverty and
necessity for food of the labouring population, make out to obtain
a more complete command over their labour, and more power to render
them subservient to their pleasure and luxury, than if the working
population were slaves direct.

In this way, by means of a food-monopoly for the emolument of the
heir or eldest male of the family, and excessive taxation upon the
necessaries of the working people for the support of the younger
branches, our governing land-aristocracy have done every thing in
their power to bring the working population to a complete state
of _indirect_ slavery, the only slavery which, from the nature of
things in Britain, is profitable or practicable, and they have
succeeded,--the destitution and hollow cheek of wife and children
being a more powerful incentive to severe toil than the whip of the
hippopotamus hide. A sufficient emigration would help to reform
this. The purpose of the “sufficient price” (a high price upon fresh
land in colonies) to compress population together, will be seen by
the reader at a glance. It will, as Mr Wakefield naively tells us,
“render slave-labour a loss.” The _indirect_ slavery, as in Britain,
will be more profitable!!

POSTSCRIPT.

The Scots scheme of colonization is in itself calculated to have
an efficient selecting power to procure emigrants of moral and
intellectual superiority, and eminently fitted for colonists. A
power of selection in the scheme itself, is preferable to any
inquisitorial committee. The condition of _working small-capitalists_
is generally the consequence of some mental superiority, which has
led the individual to be providently industrious, and to despise
mere momentary sensual gratification. It is the boldest and wisest
of these who will join in this scheme. And amongst the working
classes, those who possess the greatest share of moral courage,
intelligence, and determination of purpose, will be the men who will
join the Emigration Societies, and work out their own and their
family’s independence, at whatever cost of present exertion and
self-denial. The general diffusion of wealth, the possession of some
property by a large majority of the people, is necessary to human
comfort and rational liberty: Equal political rights and property in
the hands of the few cannot co-exist. Did our working men form an
emigration-fund of the money (collectively, at least, thirty millions
Sterling yearly) they, in self-indulgence, waste upon pernicious
liquors and tobacco, which enervate body and mind, they would soon be
able to carry out and supply with land and stock, one-half of their
number, and the increase of value of their colonial property under
the management of those sent out (the most trusty individuals of the
association, chosen by ballot), would be sufficient to transplant,
if necessary, the remaining half, while the time and strength saved
from being wasted in dissipation, would serve greatly to increase
the comforts of themselves and families, independent of the rise
of the wages of labour which would ensue. The greatness of the
object ought to be appreciated,--the change from mere labour-drudges
(most frequently in unwholesome occupations) in a country where a
property-class have in a manner secured every thing to themselves,
to the condition of proprietors in a most beautiful, fertile, and
salubrious country, is surely a sufficient motive for exertion. An
association of twenty working men, by subscribing each 2s. weekly,
can transplant two, or with a family, one of the members yearly; and,
aided by the increase of the value of their colonial property, in the
course of six years, or with families, eight or ten years, the whole
could be proprietors residing on their own estates, the value of
which every passing year would increase for ages to come.

P. M., _Chairman_.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Notes:

The full title of this document is _Prospectus of the Scots New Zealand Land Company_, and the author is Patrick Matthew.

Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter and relabeled consecutively through the document.

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.