Prospectus of the Scots New Zealand Land Company (1839, Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black) (pdf copy) is a manifesto setting out the reasons for and rules of a new Company having Matthew as its Chairman. Its purpose was to enable the shareholders (envisioned to be from the working and middle classes) to emigrate and settle in New Zealand. See also Prospectus (1839) > Reviews and Newspaper Articles > Scots NZ Land Co.
The Company, it seems, did not attract enough subscribers, and no ship sponsored by the Company ever sailed. However, Tee (1984) states that the company “developed into the New Zealand, Waitemata, and Manakou Company, which later claimed much of the land around Auckland — Matthew is not listed amongst the Directors of that latter company”. The evidence that links the two Companies is currently unclear. An earlier source, Hocken (1909), states the link as a probability rather than a certainty, but again without citing the evidence (Hocken (1909; p.75): “This company probably developed into…”; Hocken (1909; p.84): “…which, perhaps, absorbed the Scots New Zealand Land Company”).
While the Scots New Zealand Land Company did not succeed, Matthew did persuade three of his sons (John, Charles and James) to move to New Zealand (arriving 1853-54), and Charles and James settled there permanently (see here).
The digital copy of the Prospectus presented here was obtained in October 2017 from a copy held at the National Library of Australia. The National Library of Australia have informed me that they are not aware of any copyright issues associated with this item.
The structure of the Prospectus is of a central core of rules and regulations (pp.11-18), sandwiched by sections expounding Matthew’s views on the benefits of emigration in general and emigration to New Zealand in particular, and the various social and political failings that Matthew’s scheme of emigration would address.
The various sections are briefly summarised below, followed by some points of interest and then the full text.
(2018-06-26) A version of the text is now also available at Project Gutenberg.
Summary of Prospectus sections
- REASONS FOR EMIGRATING (pp.1-2). A new country, “free of debt and ancient encumbrances”: (1) affords a superior field for human industry; (2) allows a man and his family to live free; (3) rescues the children of the middle-classes from “their own selfish love of present ease, and cowardly vis inertiae”; and (4) rescues working and middle-class families (“small capitalists”) from exploitation by the controlling elite (“great capitalists”).
- REASONS FOR PREFERRING NEW ZEALAND TO EVERY OTHER EMIGRATION FIELD, AND FOR FORMING A SCOTS NEW ZEALAND COMPANY (pp.2-11). There are several pages (pp.2-7) on the benefits of New Zealand, focussing especially on the agricultural benefits of its temperate climate. Then, several more pages (pp.7-11) on why Matthew’s company is better than its rival, the London-based “New Zealand Land Company”. Pointedly, “the Scots New Zealand Land Company is not a land speculating company, consisting of great capitalists residing in this country and trafficking in New Zealand with intent to profit”. In a long footnote (pp.9-11), Matthew argues against the “sufficient price” policy proposed by Wakefield, arguing instead that land should be sold to emigrants cheaply, lest dire social consequences (“indirect slavery”) ensue.
- FUNDAMENTAL RULES RESPECTING SHARES (pp.11-12). Six rules describing how an emigrant’s share in the Company will be used for transport to New Zealand and to provide land.
- FURTHER REGULATIONS RESPECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY’S AFFAIRS (pp.13-18). A further eleven rules covering the governance of the Company and the settlement in New Zealand. In light of Matthew’s strong views on the “secure and unfettered possession of land” (see also Matthew’s Two Addresses (1839)), the last section deals with rules for the proper maintenance of a land Register Book and other financial issues, including rudimentary plans for a Bank and a system of currency.
- IMPORTANCE OF COLONIZATION TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE (pp.18-21). Matthew explains the bigger picture – why emigration and colonization benefits everyone by reducing population overcrowding at home and generating new external markets for trade. Matthew argues that the Government should aid the emigration of “the only class by which free colonization can be successfully carried on – working small capitalists” by providing free transport on Royal Navy ships and allowing land to be purchased cheaply in the colony. “Nothing hinders Britain from enjoying the same advantages [as enjoyed by the USA] but her stupid and guilty neglect”.
- LAND PROPERTY RIGHT (pp.21-24). Matthew argues that the natives of New Zealand have no right to the land they do not actively cultivate, because they are incapable of competent governance and therefore have no “National or Government Right”. Nevertheless, they should be paid for any land purchases because this would maintain their good-will, and because taking it by force would in any case likely end up being more costly. Emigrants also need to actively cultivate their land in order to maintain their right of possession. In a short addendum, Matthew proposes setting up a New Zealand Whale Fishing Company attached to the same settlement, bringing both economic and defence benefits (see also Matthew’s later letter on whaling (1860) and paper submitted to the 1867 BAAS meeting).
- UTILITY OF EMIGRATION AND COLONIES (pp.25-30). “Extract from Emigration Fields”. Chapter 1 of the book is reproduced, with additions from other parts. For example, the paragraph starting “But our advocates of restriction and home monopolies exclaim…” comes from Note A of the Appendix, while the last paragraph, on the benefits of bringing all the Pacific islands under British colonial rule, comes from the last paragraph of the book.
- ESPECIAL REASONS FOR COLONIZING NEW ZEALAND (pp.31-33). Sections I-IV of Chapter 9 of Emigration Fields are reproduced (with some adaptations). These cover: the political and commercial importance of New Zealand to Britain; the importance of New Zealand as a resource for provisioning Australia; the importance of New Zealand as the head-quarters of the South Sea whale-industry; and the philanthropic benefits of bringing civilization to the New Zealand natives.
- TO THE BRITISH FAIR (pp.34-35). From Note C of the Appendix to Emigration Fields. Matthew explains the benefits of emigration to his female readership (“the British Fair”). According to Matthew, a harsh tropic climate will wither a woman’s beauty prematurely, while an indoor life in colder climates, away from the sun and fresh air, will do the same. An emigrant’s healthy outdoor life in temperate New Zealand will maximise a woman’s beauty, a prospect apparently so exciting to women as to “cause the bright blood to mantle deeper on the cheek of the British Fair”.
- SLAVERY (pp.35-36). From pp.53-54 of Emigration Fields. Matthew argues that the “indirect slavery” foisted upon the British working classes by the “governing land aristocracy” is almost as pernicious as true slavery.
- POSTSCRIPT (p.36). Echoing his earlier writings on natural selection and emigration in his 1831 book, Matthew reflects on “a power of selection in the scheme itself” that would naturally draw into it those among the working classes “who possess the greatest share of moral courage, intelligence, and determination of purpose”, in contrast to those who “in self-indulgence, waste [their money] upon pernicious liquors and tobacco, which enervate body and mind”.
Points of interest
- In line with his Chartist writings (Two Addresses (1839); Newspaper Articles > Chartism) and his views in Emigration Fields, Matthew opposes “great capitalism” which concentrates exploitative power into the hands of a ruling elite, but is in favour of “small capitalism” which empowers the working and middle classes to achieve their goals and ambitions. The objective of the Scots New Zealand Land Company is to enable the latter via emigration to new lands that are free of the oppression of “great capitalists”.
- Matthew also reveals his interest in whaling the South Seas, as an adjunct to colonizing New Zealand (p.24). His later letter on whaling (1860) and paper submitted to the 1867 BAAS meeting indicate that he is politically attracted to the co-operative shares scheme under which whaling vessels are run.
- There is one reference to “the principle of adaptation” in trees (p.5), accommodating them to the temperate climate of New Zealand. However, on its own, “adaptation” need neither imply natural selection as the mechanism nor anything beyond within-species evolution as the scale. One would need to refer back to On Naval Timber and Arboriculture to see that.
- There is one reference to “a power of selection” acting on humans in the Postscript (p.36), selecting emigrants from those among the working classes “who possess the greatest share of moral courage, intelligence, and determination of purpose”. Matthew’s argument here echoes that given in Note C of the Appendix to On Naval Timber and Arboriculture (p.373), where he states: “In the agitation which accompanies emigration, the ablest in mind and body — the most powerful varieties of the race will be thrown into their natural position as leaders, impressing the stamp of their character on the people at large, and constituting the more reproductive part”.
- While clearly patronising, Matthew’s attitude towards the natives of New Zealand is also benevolent. His scheme of Government sketched out on p.13 includes a “Board of Native Protectors”, and Rule 6 of his “Further Regulations” (p.15) states that the natives should be given access to a hospital, encouraged to purchase their own land within the settlement and “be treated with untiring kindness”. These ideas were clearly too avant garde for some, as revealed by the horrified reaction of a reviewer of his Prospectus.
- There are several references to “Providence”, “paradise” and “heaven” (e.g. on p.2 the “fresh air of heaven” is denied to many in Great Britain). All these lend credence to the idea that, at least by 1839, Matthew believed in some form of theism (see Opinion > Matthew & God).
Full text of Prospectus
[1]
PROSPECTUS, &c.
__________________________________________________
The object of the SCOTS NEW ZEALND LAND COMPANY, is
to lay out the Capital of the Shareholders to the greatest
advantage, in transporting them, their families, and friends,
to New Zealand, and in purchasing Land and other Pro-
perty, and to obtain Protection and other Social Advantages.
__________________________________________________
At a Meeting of intending Shareholders, held at Perth, on the
24th of August 1839, PATRICK MATTHEW in the Chair, the fol-
lowing Prospectus of the SCOTS NEW ZEALAND LAND COMPANY,
moved by William Gorrie, and seconded by William Taylor,
was unanimously agreed to, and ordered to be published, the
principal portion of the same having previously been examined
and approved of by intending Shareholders in various parts of
Scotland.
REASONS FOR EMIGRATING.
1st, Because a new country, free of debt and ancient encum-
brances, with a plentiful supply of virgin soil at a low price, under
all the advantages of modern science and art, affords a superior
field for human industry, higher wages for labour, and greater re-
turns upon capital, and also more healthful occupation, than an
old densely-peopled country, where all the land is already appro-
priated, cultivated, and high-priced,- where capital is rendered
comparatively unproductive, science in a great degree unavailing,
and industry is crushed to the earth by a load of public debt, and
[2]
where a great portion of the population follow unwholesome occu-
pations, shut up from the fresh air of heaven.
2d, Because, in a new country, free of slavery, almost every
man is a holder of property,- deriving an income at the same time
from property and from labour, a state of things propitious to liber-
ty, and where a family of children is of the utmost value in assist-
ing their parents (the happiest condition of human existence, alike
favourable to the development of mind and body, and increase of
population); whereas in an old country, at least in Britain, the
many are entirely dependent for support upon labour-hire alone,
and a family in too many cases the entailment of misery and star-
vation.
3d, Because, in the case of small capitalists, or middle-class men
of circumscribed income having families, to remain in this coun-
try, is merely to sacrifice their children to their own selfish love
of present ease, and cowardly vis inertiae,- it being the lot of the
greater portion of their children here to sink prematurely under
the wasting confinement and miserable prospects of the counting-
house clerk and shopman, and the small portion of them who may
survive, and struggle up to a condition to support a family, are for
the most part become diseased or aged,- finely illustrating the
working of the destructive and preventive Malthusian checks, the
admiration of certain political economists. *
4th, Because, in the present peculiar condition of Britain, great
capitalists are enabled to undersell small capitalists, rendering it a
matter of necessity for small capitalists to emigrate, or to sink to
the condition of hired labourers.
REASONS FOR PREFERRING NEW ZEALAND TO EVERY OTHER
EMIGBATION FIELD, AND FOR FORMING A SCOTS NEW
ZEALAND COMPANY.
The climate of New Zealand is more temperate than that of
any other country, and pre-eminently healthy. The soil is rich,
and the supply of rain being regular, capable of producing all the
grain and fruits of Europe in great perfection,- potatoes two crops
*While two-thirds of the world are lying almost waste, it is yet rather premature
to speak of preventive or destructive checks – war, nunneries, infanticide, single-
blessedness. The latter, recommended as preferable to colonization by political eco-
nomists, may be left to their own especial practice.
[3]
in the year, good pasture at all seasons, and wool much superior
to that of Australia. New Zealand is, besides, most advanta-
geously situated for obtaining a market by disposing of its produce
to the numerous South Sea whaling vessels which frequent its
shores, and in supplying the wants of Australia at all times, but
especially during the terrible visitations of drought and injuries by
blight, to which that great island is so liable,- natural disadvan-
tages which will limit Australia, at least for a long period, to a
grazing country, rendering it more profitable to import agricultural
produce from New Zealand than raise it at home.
Nothing is so important to the success of a new colony as a
temperate climate. In New Zealand, the thermometer (Fahren-
heit), during the day in winter, is seldom known to fall below 40°,
and any slight frost which may occur during the night disappears
when the sun has arisen. The summer heat generally ranges from
60° to 75°, very rarely reaching 80° in the parts of the northern
island nearest the equator,- neither the cold of winter, nor heat and
drought of summer, causing any serious check to the pasture fields,
which continue in a growing state all the season round, ren-
dering a hoarded winter supply and housing for bestial unneces-
sary. This is of the utmost consequence to the husbandman, as a
vast deal of labour is required, in nearly every country suited to
the British race, to construct houses to contain the stock, and to lay
up provender for their sustenance during the inclement winter, and
is more especially advantageous in the case of new colonies, where
the industry of the husbandman is directed chiefly to the rearing
of stock. In New Zealand, the labour of the emigrant will be
doubly productive to what it is in almost every other emigration
field suited to the British race.
The Islands of New Zealand are estimated to be nearly of the
extent of Great Britain and Ireland,- about seventy millions of
acres. They contain numerous friths and rivers, some of which are
navigable to a considerable distance inland,- the Waikato Rivers
for about 200 miles, with a great extent of country along the banks,
of exceedingly fertile soil. The whole native population of these
extensive regions does not equal that of Edinburgh. The natives
have exhibited much barbarity and ferocity against their enemies,
or those they considered to be such; but where Europeans have
appeared, not in the character of an enemy, they have been tole-
rated to live amongst them, and even treated with kindness. The
[4]
Missionaries, with their families, now about 100 individuals, have re-
sided amongst them without personal injury for more than twenty
years, and about two-thirds of the Northern Island is said to
be under their influence. During the last fourteen years, with a
very considerable number of sailors, lumberers, and traders, roam-
ing over these Islands, and mixing with the natives, not one well
attested case of murder has been laid to the charge of the natives,
evincing a degree of forbearance and respect on their part, which per-
haps would not have been equalled in any country of Europe. The
extreme healthiness of the Missionaries and their families, consi-
dering that they have been the first Colonists in a very remote
wilderness, almost destitute of the comforts of civilized life, and
their success in agriculture and grazing, several of them possessing
fine productive grain farms, and thousands of cattle, is conclusive
in regard to the salubrity and steady fertility of New Zealand,-
perhaps no first colony in any other country has ever been so suc-
cessful and healthy. We extract the following account of New
Zealand from “Emigration Fields,” a work recently published by
Adam Black, Edinburgh.
“Estimating the advantages of position, extent, climate, fertility,
adaptation for trade,- all the causes which have tended to render
Britain the emporium of the world, we can observe only one other
spot on the earth equally, if not more favoured by nature, and that
is New Zealand. Serrated with harbours securely insulated, hav-
ing a climate temperated by surrounding ocean, of such extent and
fertility as to support a population sufficiently numerous to defend
its shores against any possible invading force, it, like Great Bri-
tain, also possesses a large neighbouring continent (Australia), from
which it will draw resources, and to which it bears the relation of
a rich homestead, with a vast extent of outfield pasturage. In
these advantages it equals Britain, while it is superior to Britain
in having the weather-gage of an immense commercial field,- the
innumerable rich islands of the Pacific,- the gold and silver pro-
ducing countries of Western America (by far the richest in the
precious metals of any of the world),- the vast accumulations of
man in Japan and China- all these lie within a few weeks’ sail.”
“The south temperate zone, from the excess of ocean, has a much
more equable temperature throughout the year than the north. New
Zealand, considering its territorial extent, participates in this oceanic
equality in an extraordinary degree, by reason of its insularity and
[5]
oblong narrow figure, stretching across the course of the prevalent
winds from lat. 34° to 48° south,- the most enviable of latitudes.
On this account, it enjoys a finer, more temperate climate than
any other region of the world; and, in consequence, the trees,
from the principle of adaptation, are only biennially deciduous, and
present, as well as the herbage, a never-failing verdure. The great
mountain-chain, or back-bone ridge of New Zealand, which extends
through nearly fourteen degrees of latitude, attracting and conden-
sing the high-towering clouds and vapour of the Southern Ocean,
affords a constant source of showers and irrigation and freshness to
the lower country; and this regular supply of moisture, under the
most balmy atmosphere, and the generative influence of a sun
brilliant as that of Italy, produces an exuberance of vegetation sur-
passing that of any other temperate country, -the richness and
magnificence of the forest scenery being only equalled by that of
the islands of the eastern tropical Archipelago;* and the moun-
tains themselves, the sublime southern Alps, more elevated than
the highest of the Alps of Switzerland, upheaved, from the depths
of the great south sea, in some places to more than three miles of
altitude, and, from their volcanic character, of the boldest, most
abrupt outline, are perhaps unequalled in all the world. The cha-
racter of surrounding objects must exert a powerful influence upon
the genius of a people. These stupendous mountains, with innu-
merable rills pouring down their verdant slopes, -their great val-
leys occupied by the most beautiful rivers,- their feet washed by
the ceaseless south-sea swell,- their flanks clothed with the grand-
est of primeval forests,- their bosoms veiled in cloud,- and their
rocky and icy scalps piercing the clear azure heaven,- must go to
stamp, as far as earthly things can have impression, a poetical cha-
racter upon the genius of the Austral British. The small portion
of New Zealand already under cultivation, yields, in luxuriant
abundance and perfection, all the valuable fruits and grain of Eu-
rope; and, unlike Canada (where the husbandman has to endure
life-consuming-toil in the very hot enervating summer, to lay up
provender for the subsistence of all his bestial during the long and
rigorous winter), stock of all descriptions fatten in this favoured
* “ ‘It is a most beautiful country. I have visited the Brazils, the whole of Van
Diemen’s Land, and New South Wales, and been on the Continent, but I never saw
a country in the world that equalled it (New Zealand). In scenery. climate, and
productiveness, it is a perfect paradise.’ – (See T. B. Montefiore. Parliamentary Evi-
dence, 1838.)”
[6]
region, at all seasons, upon the spontaneous produce of the wilder-
ness.* The climate is also the most favourable to the development
of the human species,† producing a race of natives of surpassing
strength and energy. From the mountainous interior, the country
is, in a wonderful degree, permeated by never-failing streams and
rivers of the purest water, affording innumerable falls, suited to
machinery, adjacent to the finest harbours. The forests abound in
timber of gigantic size, peculiarly adapted for naval purposes and
for house-building, and, from its mild workable quality, much more
economically convertible and serviceable than the timber of any
other country in the southern hemisphere; most of which, from
extreme hardness, is almost unmanageable.‡ Millions of acres, it
is said, are covered with the famed New Zealand flax (the great
value of which is now coming to be appreciated, and which, in case
of necessity, will render Britain independent of the Russian supply
of hemp and flax); and around the shores are the most valuable
fisheries, from the mackerel to the whale; in the pursuit of which
latter, many of our vessels resort, though at the other extremity of
the earth. Combining all these natural internal advantages with
the most favoured position for trade, New Zealand must ultimately
reign the Maritime Queen of the South-eastern hemisphere.
“Estimating these surpassing natural advantages in their pecu-
liar adaptation to the energetic maritime British race, it is some-
what remarkable that no regular attempt has been made by Britain
to colonize New Zealand. This must have arisen from the num-
bers and barbarous character of the native population; a popula-
tion so small, however, reduced as it now is, as to be quite out of
* “The missionaries have been sojourning in New Zealand for the last twenty-
three years. They, with their families, amount to upwards of ninety individuals,
and, with the exception of infants, only one death (it is said) has occurred amongst
them. In this country. according to the Rev. W. Yate, ‘invalids become well, the
healthy robust, and the robust fat. It has a perpetual spring, the whole atmosphere
seems impregnated with perfumes, and every breath inhaled stimulates the system
and strengthens man for the labour which may lie before him. I am persuaded (says
he), that all graminivorous animals, wild or domestic, would thrive well in this tem-
perate clime, if allowed to range at large in the forests, on the hills, in the valleys, or
on the plains.’ ”
† “ ‘Marriages among the English have been prolific, in a very extraordinary de-
gree, of a most healthy progeny.’- (See official document by T. Busby, Esq., British
Resident.)”
‡ “ ‘There is a great variety of timber in the country fit for all purposes, as for
shipbuilding, domestic, and other purposes. The forests of New Zealand afford per-
haps the finest spars for masts and yards in the world, and which are extremely
valuable. In India, the wood being there very heavy, they cannot get any description
of wood to make good spars, and those taken from New Zealand find there a ready
sale.’- (See J. L. Nicholas, Esq., Par. Evidence.)”
[7]
all proportion to the extent of territory, and which exists only
around some of the sheltered bays of the coast, and in a few of the
rich valleys of the interior. According to Mr Yate, and the other
missionaries who have had the best means of estimating their num-
bers, the whole amount may be about 110,000. Another writer
states: ‘The inhabitants, in fact, have not, in any sense of the
word, taken possession of the country which they call their own.
It is still the undivided domain of nature, and they are merely a
handful of stragglers who wander about the outskirts.’ Thus,
densely populated Britain, with the means of effectual relief, is
allowed to remain writhing under the preventive and destructive
checks, while a region, the finest in the world,- a region which,
beyond all others, can lay claim to the name of PARADISE, is lying
an untenanted wilderness.” *
Already British emigrants of steady character are beginning to
flock to this fine country. The New Zealand Land Company, a
company of land speculators in London, have made and are making
purchases of lands in New Zealand, at almost nominal price, from
the natives, or from others who say they have purchased from the
natives, and they have sold in this country to intending emigrants
upwards of 100,000 ac. at L.1 per acre,- land which neither the
Land Company itself nor these intending emigrants have ever seen,
nor do the latter even know in what part of the islands their lots
may be situated, neither have they received any guarantee from
that Company that they will receive them at all; † and several thou-
sands of these emigrants, with their working people, are now de-
parting from our shores.
The Scots New Zealand Land Company is not a land specula-
ting company, consisting of great capitalists residing in this country
and trafficking in New Zealand with intent to profit. It is a
company of industrious men, chiefly working small capitalists, who
* “Mr Flatt, an agriculturist from the East of England, of considerable profes-
sional and general knowledge, and who has lately returned from New Zealand, where
he had been remaining several years, informs the Author, that in crossing the North
Island, he travelled along a tract of fine alluvial soil in the lower valley of the
Waikato rivers, equal in extent, but richer, than the alluvial level between Cambridge
and Hull,- the kernel of England. Mr Flatt also corroborates the statements of
others respecting the salubrity, mildness, and beauty of the climate,- that it is a land
of sunny-showers, and that in the case of heavy ruins, the clouds clear off immediately
when the rain ceases, and a most brilliant sun shines out.”
† “The Company are not to be considered as guaranteeing the title, except as
against their own acts.” See published “Terms of Purchase” by the New Zealand
Land Company, and signed John Ward. This is the amount of their boasted secu-
rity of title.
[8]
are to go out to New Zealand to make their own market, and, after
seeing the article, to purchase a territory either at first hand from
the natives, or from any other individual or company, wherever
they can obtain lands best and cheapest, and to occupy these as
soon as bought, thus leaving no room for mistake as to tenures,
multiplicity of claimants, or doubtful claims. They, with their
families, will themselves cultivate the lands they purchase, as is
done in the non-slave portion of the United States, where the prin-
ciples of colonization, from greater experience, are better understood
than in Britain, and where the practice is successful beyond all
parallel, the only instance of successful colonization on an ex-
tensive scale without slavery,- indeed, the only manner in which
colonization can now succeed without slavery, notwithstanding of
the “sufficient price,” (merely a new Corn Law!) or any other ser-
vant-producing scheme it is possible to devise.
The Scots New Zealand Land Company of emigrants will manage
their own affairs,- their own property, while existing as a company,
and their political and social matters till the British crown shall in-
terfere to supply a government. They will form their own regu-
lations in New Zealand, suited to local circumstances, with the full
power of modifying or changing these immediately, as events may
require. They will not be subservient to the rule and dictation of
a company of land speculators, or committee ambitious of govern-
ing power, residing at the other side of the globe, who may have
interests and principles, or prejudices, distinct from or opposed to
those of the colonists, and who, even with the best intentions of
acting for the good of the colonists, must, from ignorance of facts,
at least only receiving their knowledge of these through a colouring
or distorting medium, combined with the long period of time that
must elapse before the Home Committee can be made acquainted
with the necessity of any change of regulations and orders for the
change arrive out,- be full as likely to direct wrong as aright.
The evil effects of a managing Committee, at the other side of
the Globe, ignorant of facts and of a governor without sufficient
discretionary power, has been exemplified in the colony of South
Australia (founded in 1836), where, in consequence, the first emi-
grants were delayed a season after going out (consuming much of
their means), waiting till their lots were surveyed and prepared
for being occupied,- the working surveyors having deserted, from
insufficient pay, and a quarrel having arisen betwixt the Governor
[9]
and Colonel Light, and other officials, respecting the site of the
capital. The unfavourable condition of the colony, as late as February
1839 (corresponding to August in Britain),- only one grain field
(it is said) existing,- the sheep, which had been imported at very
high prices, perishing from the drought, and of little value, and the
portion of the emigrants, destitute of capital, shipped off in such
numbers, to act as servants, in a state approaching to insubordi-
nation,- is attributable, at least partly, to the same source, the
ignorance and prejudices, or rather the erroneous Theories, of a
Home Committee. The people which the Home Committee have
so unwisely sent out, and encouraged to go out,- poor improvident
men, without habits of forethought, economy, or steadiness of cha-
racter,- and capitalists themselves, not inured to work, and ex-
pecting to benefit by the abundance of hired labour, but most of
whom, in effect, have become mere gambling land-jobbers – are not
the classes suited for colonists. Colonization can only proceed suc-
cessfully, under the three following systems:- lst, Compulsory
labour or slavery. 2d, Working small capitalists, working families.
3d, Co-operative working societies, possessing capital. The plain
fact is, that the Swan River and South Australia colonization has
been sacrificed, and the New Zealand London colonization is about
to be sacrificed, to a scheme of master and servants, under circum-
stances where master and servants, at least to any considerable ex-
tent, is impracticable. In a new colony, at least under the present
diffusion of knowledge amongst British men, it is imperative that
the majority of the colonists be working capitalists. This is abso-
lutely necessary to solder a new society together. Their fine spun
plausible theories, totally unsupported by facts, or rather totally
in opposition to facts, about “the sufficient price,”- fixing the price
of fresh land so high as to keep it above the reach of the poorer class
– thus forcing the working men, carried out, to work as servants –
desirable theories, which have imposed upon the understanding of
many, and amongst others, upon that of the late Colonial Secretary
Lord Glenelg – are mere moonshine. *
* The cost of free labour in a new colony, or wherever all the land of fair quality
is not occupied, has always been – from the ambition to be his own master, inhe-
rent in man,- must necessarily be, greater than the producing value of the labour.
Where fair land is unoccupied, none but he, who, from some natural defect or in-
capacity, is incapable of working to himself so well as to produce a maintenance, will
ever work as an agricultural servant to another, excepting at a hire beyond the value
of his labour; consequently, the work performed for hire will be done in very infe-
rior and unprofitable manner. This must cause the hired workman to be not upon the
[10]
Independent of mutual protection, conveniency of transport, and
other social advantages, a principal object of the Scots New Zea-
land Land Company, is, that the shareholders may purchase from
the sellers of land in New Zealand, in a body, and not raise the
best terms with his employer, and he will be felt to be a plague rather than a help.
Mr Wakefield’s “sufficient price” plan, “a high price upon fresh land,” at least
“such a price as render slave labour a loss, plenty of free hired labour being made
attainable,” is one of the most crude and impracticable schemes in reference to a Bri-
tish race population, that the brain even of modern political economists has hatched.
Nevertheless, he has procured a whole host of followers, including the South Austra-
lian and New Zealand Committees. How would people be prevented from settling
beyond the precincts of his high-price-limited territory? Would he keep an army
scouring the country beyond this line with fire and sword? Nothing short of this
would suffice; and we should have enough of bush-fighting. We would remit from
the heated fancies of ignorant closet colonists to the experienced judgment of men
who have seen colonization going on, and more especially who have borne a part in
it, to determine of the utter unfitness of the “sufficient price.” Has the attempt at
the sufficient price worked well in South Australia? Has not a great proportion of
the small capitalists lost their capital and been forced to become servants (in some
cases obliged to the servants they had carried out for procuring a master), while
only the larger capitalists have been able to hold out? Has not the high price of
land, L.1 per acre, instead of condensing been the means of dispersion,- throwing the
stock owners with their flocks out to wander over the undivided territory for which
they pay no price, which in fact is worth no price – perhaps no great loss in that arid
country where change of place is necessary in the season of drought to obtain her-
bage and water – a country only fit for this Tartar or Arab system of husbandry?
Has the miserable Adelaide and the steril sands around it, a place scarcely capable
of affording support, even under the best culture for which it is fitted, for a few hun-
dreds, become any thing but the grave of the hopes of the many thousands who have
been thrown upon this desert coast by means of the money extracted from capitalist
emigrants by this “sufficient price,” or by money borrowed at 10 per cent. per an-
num upon the faith of the “sufficient price?” Adelaide will never reach higher than
a miserable village, unless like Sydney it get an extraneous Government expenditure
of several hundred thousand pounds per annum (Sydney without this would have
remained a miserable village). As soon as the money spent by emigrants (not un-
frequently all they possess) waiting upon the lagging surveys, or upon some plau-
sible means of employing their little capital to advantage, shall have ceased to flow,
Adelaide will appear in its natural poverty.
Is the sufficient price calculated for New Zealand? Why import so many servants
when it is so politic to employ native labour, and to leave the labour market open
for this supply? The natives say they have a double motive for selling land to the
British – the price they receive for it, and the employment they procure in cultivat-
ing it. Why take means to prevent dispersion when prudence will direct a pretty
close arrangement? Why take means to procure a consolidated population as a mar-
ket for agricultural produce, when a market so very favourable already exists in the
agricultural produce-demand of Australia and of the South Sea Whalers, together
with the British and Indian demand for flax and spars? For what then is a “suffi-
cient price” desirable? Only for the private emolument of managing secretaries and
other officials, to whom the “sufficient price” will pay a pretty good tax in transits,
and to be a plausible pretext for the Land Company resident in London to obtain
the warrantry of the Legislature for monopolizing whole provinces of New Zea-
land, and for selling the land at a high price to the buyer;- no doubt thinking
the buyer will be a more industrious colonist after his pockets have been emptied
into this land-jobbing Company’s coffers. From some hints which have been thrown
out in Parliament lately, it would seem to be in contemplation to have some-
thing like “a sufficient price” in the British colonies in the West Indies (per-
haps practicable there by a sufficient demonstration of bayonets), that is, a plan
of preventing the working black population from procuring portions of land, by the
industrious cultivation of which they could maintain themselves in ease and comfort.
By this plan it is intended “to make slave-labour a loss, plenty of hired labour being
[11]
price greatly by the demand which individual competition would
create. The following scheme of the Company has been drawn up, as
much as possible suited for the advantage of small working capital-
ists, on whose efficient support the success of the colony will depend.
FUNDAMENTAL RULES REPECTING SHARES.
1st, That every shareholder take out one person, if the person is
above 7 years of age, for each share; and in the case of children
under 7 years, two persons for each share (the shareholder counting
one should he or she go out). In case of an odd child under 7 , to
be allowed to take in lieu a half share, and possession of the pro-
perty purchased by the share funds, to be obtained only after the
person or persons covering the share shall have arrived at the place,
excepting in the case of death on the passage, which will be held the
same as the arrival: That no sailor, unless he is a shareholder, or
carry out a wife or family, be allowed to cover a share.
2d, That should any shareholder fail to embark a person or per-
sons to cover his or her lot or lots in New Zealand, within three
years from the time of the sailing of the first expedition, or such
person or persons fail to arrive in regular time, death on the pas-
sage alone excepted, such lot or lots shall be sold by the Company,
and the subscribed money returned to the subscriber, should the
proceeds amount to as much. In case the proceeds should be be-
low the subscribed money, the proceeds only to be remitted.
3d, That for each share, the amount of subscribed capital be
L.28 for investment in New Zealand, and a specific sum for pas-
sage, and New Zealand provision supply of meal, flour, and rice
for one year. That for an adult this sum be L.16 for passage, and
L.6 for provision in New Zealand,- in all L.50 per share; but in
the case of the shareholder taking out children to cover shares,
under 14 years of age, when embarked, that the passage and New
Zealand provision-money be as follows:- Below 1 year, when em-
barked, L.1, 10s.; below 2 years, L.2, 5s.; below 8 years, L.3,
attainable,” the black population being thus compelled to labour to the planters at what-
ever hire the planters choose to give, or to starve. Perhaps there is some understood
stipulation, that the planters will restore the twenty millions to the British Legis-
lature on the passing of this “sufficient price” act, as well they might? Welcome
back slavery to the West Indies – welcome West Indian slavery to the working man
in Australia and New Zealand, rather than the “sufficient price.” But it is an ab-
surdity, and, if persisted in, will ruin these colonies. For a complete exposure of the
indirect systems of slavery, see “Emigration Fields,” pages 58 and 187.
[12]
10s., and L.1, 10s. for every year more till the age of 14. The
provision-supply in New Zealand, being for children under 8 years
of age, when embarked, one-fourth of that of an adult; between 3
and 6 years, one-half; between 6 and 9, three-fourths; and above
9 the same as an adult. A family consisting of more than cover its
shares, to pay L.22 for an adult, and for children in proportion.
4th, That each subscriber pay up L.10 upon each share, by ap-
proved bill due on . . and the remainder when the Committee
shall appoint, by approved bill, including interest, or by cash ; no-
tice of 20 days being given should one-fourth be required, and 80
days should a greater portion. That in case any of those the share-
holder carries out be not adults, he shall state their age, giving proof
of the same, when, according to the above scale in No. 3, a deduc-
tion will be made on the sums to be paid, in proportion as the whole
sum he has to pay falls short of L.50 per share. Any one failing to
pay according to these regulations, to forfeit 5 per cent. of the money
he has given bill for or advanced, should the delay of payment be
less than one week, and to forfeit 10 per cent. of his money for every
week of delay, ten weeks’ delay forfeiting the whole money he has
given bill for or advanced; excepting in the case of the shareholder
dying, when his or her payment will be returned to the heir or
heirs, should he, she, or they not wish to continue shareholders.
Shares to be transferable.
5th, That in Britain, and previous to the expiry of the fourth
year in New Zealand, each shareholder above 18 have a vote for
each share until the number of shares exceed 10, but, however
many shares more, not to have more than 10 votes. That the
same rule be observed in all property affairs of the Company, in New
Zealand; but in all political affairs in New Zealand, that every
British settler in the Scots territory, above 21 years of age, have a
vote after the fourth year from the arrival of the first expedition.
6th, That the first expedition, independently of its own funds,
take out L.28 of each share, and L.14 of each half share, of the
subscribers who are to follow, to be laid out as a New Zealand
investment, the remaining L.22, or smaller sum, being left to
carry out these following shareholders, and to provision them for
a year in New Zealand. The passage provision to be plain and
wholesome, any thing beyond this to be charged extra. The funds
taken out to be in blankets, iron, tools, implements, utensils, dollars,
and other articles suited for traffic with the natives.
[13]
FURTHER REGULATIONS RESPECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF
THE COMPANY’S AFFAIRS.
1st, As soon as what is considered a sufficient number of share-
holders shall have subscribed, that a general meeting be held of
the shareholders, or their accredited agents, to choose a Governing
Committee or Directory,* in which will be vested full powers to
* The following scheme of a Directory or Government is submitted to the Share-
holders for consideration :-
In order that the Executive may be conducted as a whole with promptness and de-
cision, and that the various individuals composing it may act in unison, and be
brought more readily under the control of the shareholders, who stand on the same
relation to the Executive as a parliament does to the ministry, it is resolved that one
individual, elected by the shareholders, act as the head, choosing his assistants, for
whose official conduct he is responsible.
EXECUTIVE.
1 Governor, appointed, and removable at any time by the Shareholders.
1 Deputy-Governor, appointed and removable at any time by the Governor
1 or more Secretaries, ——————– ’’ ——————————
1 Treasurer, ——————————– ’’ ——————————
1 Surveyor, with Assistants, ————- ’’ ——————————
From 4 to 10 Councillors, —————- ’’ ——————————
The powers and business of the Governor to be accurately defined by the prelimi-
nary general meeting of the shareholders by which he is elected. All moneys put
under the control of the Governor to be voted at quarterly general meetings of the
shareholders. In case the shareholders become too numerous for a deliberative body,
each ten or more to elect a representative.
BOARDS OF OBSERVATION.
Board of Politics,
Board Of Health, Physical and Moral,
Board of Works,
Board of Trade,
Board of Native Protectors,
Each Board to consist of four persons appointed by the Shareholders.
The above Boards to supervise the concerns of the Company; and, should they
observe any thing wrong, or tending to wrong, to report of the same to the Governor,
and at the same time to retain a copy of this report, to be laid before the next gene-
ral meeting.
OFFICERS.
1 Treasurer or General Receiver of subscribed capital,
also to act as Land-Register Keeper, appointed by the Shareholders.
3 Guardians of Widows and Orphans, ——————– ’’ ———————
1 Conciliator, ————————————————- ’’ ———————
2 Judge-Arbiters, ——————————————— ’’ ———————
1 or more Medical Practitioners, ————————— ’’ ———————
In case of quarrel or property dispute, the parties to appear personally before the
Conciliator, and, if he fail in settling the affair amicably, that he remit, to the Judge-
Arbiters. Should one of the parties agree to settle the dispute amicably by the Con-
ciliator’s advice, and the other party do not, that the latter, should judgment go
against him, pay the whole cost of the arbitration, including pay of witnesses on both
sides. In case the Judge-Arbiters be not unanimous, to remit to the first meeting of
the shareholders.
The Governor, the Boards of Observation and Officers, to be annually elected, and
changeable at any time, wholly or in part, by a general meeting convened for the spe-
cific purpose. All the Executive chosen by the Governor to vacate with the Gover-
[14]
carry on the enterprize in the most effectual manner. This Direc-
tory will purchase or hire a vessel or vessels, to sail for N. Zealand
as early as possible, and as soon as a sufficient number, say one
hundred shareholders, are prepared to go out: The Directory hav-
ing discretionary power to choose and limit those going out, in case
the number coming forward at the time of sailing exceed what the
vessel or vessels can conveniently carry, so that those on the first
expedition may be as masculine and efficient as possible, but in no
case to separate the members of a family without their own consent.
2d, That previous to the sailing of the first expedition, in which
the Directory and Company’s officers will go out, a Home Direc-
tor, Deputy, Secretary, and Treasurer shall be appointed, forming a
Home Committee, along with a Head of Department and Deputy
Head for each district. This Home Committee to act under the
directions of the Foreign Committee or Directory, in managing the
concerns, and sailing of the expeditions which follow;- the Foreign
Directory having the sole management abroad in laying out the
capital of the Company, and in directing matters generally. *
3d, That, previous to the sailing of the first expedition, the
amount of the shares be ascertained, and the first subscription closed.
A second subscription to be immediately commenced, for further
investment in New Zealand, under the management of the Direc-
tory in New Zealand, who will purchase territory with the second
and further subscription funds, as soon as the funds are sent out.
4th, That, as soon as the site of the principal town, or first set-
tling station, shall have been chosen, that one-half or one-fourth
acre of town-land, and from five to ten acres of suburban-land, for
gardens, be divided to each share, for a commencing nucleus, and
that the country lands be afterwards divided when required,- if
possible, 100 acres of good land to be apportioned to each share.
The whole to be drawn for by lot. A shareholder having several
nor, and to have no retiring salary. That one-third of the shareholders, or the
Governor, have power at any time to order the Secretary to convene a general meet-
ing for any specified purpose, which the Secretary must do immediately, by circular
letter (giving one week’s previous notice) to each shareholder; but in all cases that
the business of the meeting be limited to the object stated in the requisition.
* It would be well did our Home Government limit its cherishing care to protec-
tion,- 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 na-
tive 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.
[15]
shares, to receive the whole wherever his first lot may happen to
fall. And, as matter of conveniency in occupying and enclosing,
and also as some recompense for their pioneering labours, the first
expedition shall have the first choice of the town and suburban land,
but not of the country land. Any residue of territory to be disposed
as a general meeting of the shareholders shall determine.
5th, As soon as the first expedition shall have located itself, and
made purchases to a certain extent, that the speediest intimation
of this be sent home, and all of the shareholders at home, that
are in readiness, to go out with the least possible delay, in a
second expedition, if the Home Committee has not in the mean
time thought it expedient to send out the second expedition sooner:
To be in readiness for which latter arrangement, the first expedi-
tion will have notice waiting at the Bay of Islands, where some
of the intending shareholders have already extensive possessions,
of the place of its rendezvous, by which the second expedition may
be enabled to reach it.
6th, That after the expedition shall have located itself, a cer-
tain percentage on the share, or land-tax, shall be levied, or a
portion of the undisposed land be sold; to procure medical treat-
ment to the natives, and, if necessary, to keep up a small hospital,
where the natives may obtain food and lodging during their medical
treatment. The natives to be treated with untiring kindness, and
in every way encouraged to obtain property by provident industry.
7th, That the actual necessary personal expenses of the officers
of the Company be paid to them; the vouchers for which must be
given in to the Secretary at each general meeting, for the time
previous, in order that the meeting may examine and sanction the
same. That the reward or payment for the public labours of the
officers be determined by the shareholders assembled at the general
meetings, it being understood that all public officers, where any
considerable amount of labour is required, have a fair and sufficient
remuneration for the time of service, but no retiring salary. That
these rewards of officers for labour performed be given in land in
New Zealand, or in money, at the option of the shareholders.
8th, That each shareholder and emigrant of the Scots New Zea-
land Land Company, before embarking, give his solemn pledge that
he will obey the Committee of Government in all things not oppo-
sed to the common rules of morality, and in all duty which free
citizens owe to the government of their choice, until such time as
[16]
the British Government shall have assumed an energetic governing
control over that part of N. Zealand. That in case any share-holder
will not submit to the directions of the Committee, at any time
previous to the individual possession of the land, that he or she shall
be obliged to sell out of the Company, within a time to be fixed by
the Directory; and if subsequent to the possession of the land, that
the Scots New Zealand community break off all intercourse and
social connection with this refractory emigrant.
9th, That all above fourteen years of age carried out by this
Company pledge that they will not, directly or indirectly, purchase
from the natives any lands till the Company shall have made an end
of its purchases in investing the Company’s first funds, or at least
till one year after the arrival of the first expedition, should the
funds not be sooner expended. Any one breaking this pledge, to
be held infamous, and beyond the pale of society.
10th, That every male above fourteen years of age be regularly
armed, at his own, the Company’s, or the British Government’s
expense, with such arms as the Governing Committee may think
most fitting; submit to such military training as this Committee
may think necessary, and be at all times ready to act in defence
for the public safety. That all who go out pledge to this.
11th, As a chief element in the prosperity of a country is secure
and unfettered possession of land, and easy transmission, that the
tenure or condition under which the land shall be held, and mode
of conveying it, in order to be of the simplest and clearest descrip-
tion, be alloidal (without any superior), and The Book of First
Allotment made out by the Register Keeper and the Surveyor be
of itself sufficient evidence of the title. The lots to be described
in this Book as definitely as possible; and the lines of demarcation
or marches to consist of natural divisions, such as water-courses, in-
clination run or shedding of water, line of rocks, &c.; and, when
these are not convenient, that marks prominent to view be stamped
upon trees or earth-fast stones, or pits be dug, by the Surveyor. That
this Book of First Allotment or Register Book (kept in a fire-proof
apartment) have a page opened for each division of land, describing
its name, boundaries, size, owner, in the fewest words possible. In
the case of transfer, or borrowing money upon it, the same to be re-
corded, in the fewest words possible, on the Register page, and
signed by principals and two witnesses: The lender, on receiving the
money back, merely signing his name as receiver, attested by the
[17]
Register Keeper and witnesses, and no bargain respecting land to
be binding till registered in this Book. That possession, living wit-
nesses, and the Register Book, be the only necessary title: But, in
order to provide against the possible destruction or loss of the register
book, the holder, upon requesting it, and paying the necessary cost,
to receive from the Register Keeper a copy of the register page,
describing his own lands down to a specified date, written upon a
paper stamped by a peculiar die, used for this exclusive purpose,
and signed by the Register Keeper, attested by witnesses.
In connection with the Register Office, a Bank might be formed,
based upon the land-property of the shareholders, each of these
landholders being allowed to draw out notes to the value of two-
thirds of his land-shares, or more should the land rise in value,
forming a currency of heritable bonds. The notes to be payable
in gold or dollars, upon giving six months’ notice, the same as with
heritable bonds here.* This would prevent any mischievous run
upon gold, and at the same time keep up the paper to its proper
value, affording a sufficient paper currency, and facility of borrow-
ing on land-property, so important to the prosperity of the country,
and so necessary to keep up the mental acumen and wisdom of
the holders.- The regulations for this system of currency, and for
many other things, cannot well be detailed in a Prospectus.
__________________________________________________
In the mean time, this meeting recommend to intending sub-
scribers in every district or town in which any number of intend-
ing subscribers reside, to form Branch Societies, and appoint a
Head of Department or Committeeman, who can communicate with
the central head, or attend general meetings, as the representative
of his brethren. Persons wishing further information, or who wish
to subscribe for shares, to apply by letter, post paid, to the Chair-
man. The applications for shares to be in the following form. The
letters requesting shares not to be binding upon the subscribers, un-
less 200 shares shall have been subscribed for by Martinmas, 22d
November 1839.
To PATRICK MATTHEW, Esq. Gourdiehill by Errol, Scotland.
(Insert here the date and your residence.)
I hereby engage to take (Insert here the number of shares) of
the Scots New Zealand Land Company, conform to the terms spe-
* Would such a plan not be practicable in Britain?
[18]
cified in the Prospectus issued by a meeting of intending share-
holders, held at Perth on 24th August 1839, and signed Patrick
Matthew, Chairman.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.
IMPORTANCE OF COLONIZATION TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE.
Certain nations, or rather races of men, have a disposition to in-
crease in numbers and are continually throwing off swarms; while
other nations or races, from some progressing deficiency of vital sta-
mina 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 hu-
man 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 enter-
ed upon by any government or society with any thing like the
vigour and compass of plan which would result from a rational esti-
mation 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 tran-
sport 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 cer-
tainty by common industry of providing comfortably for a family.
This condition of things is the great, the only test of a good Govern-
ment. 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 pro-
vide for his children, and more likely to survive and provide for
[19]
them till they attain strength to provide for themselves. The chil-
dren 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 ex-
tent 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 Mis-
souri or the Texas Territory. It would be more so were Govern-
ment to give its aid in Navy transports, and by so doing the Ser-
vice 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 will-
[20]
ing 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 in-
vest money in new lands,* 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 advanta-
geously 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 lower-
ing wages. Were the money which has been injuriously expended
on strikes, and still more were the money that is injuriously ex-
pended 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 suffi-
ciently 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 un-
gracious 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
* We would recommend investment in new lands as incomparably superior to in-
vestments 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 Rus-
sia. 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.
[21]
reason for emigrating is to escape from servitude), and certain re-
gulations are adopted, and troublesome certificates required,* 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 so-
cieties of working-men in Britain, in carrying through any plan
which may appear most advantageous;- not with a view to pro-
cure 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 pros-
perity 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 afford-
ing 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 capi-
talists, and which the system of master and servants, attempted to
be achieved by the “sufficient price,” would do much to obstruct.
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 pre-
siding responsible government competent to treat with other govern-
ments, and to obey international law, and able to put down pirates
and freebooters within the territory of the state. National or Go-
* Certificates are forthcoming and favourable in proportion to the worthlessness
of the subject. The friends are active in procuring the necessary certificates of cha-
racter to those they are ashamed of, and wish at the antipodes.
[22]
vernment Right is evidently founded on the utility of government
power, and of national responsibility. Individual Right, or appro-
priation 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 an-
other, 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, there-
fore, 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 Zea-
land 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 pur-
chase their good will to the occupancy of these,- that is, their for-
bearance 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
[23]
and answerable for the consequences. It is useless here to assert
the right which the imperative necessity of an overflowing popula-
tion 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 form-
ing 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 no-
minal 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 commen-
surate to the extent of grounds. The British Government and
Legislature will surely look to this? *
To allow any company of home capitalists to monopolize the terri-
tory 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
* 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 im-
prove his lands, and thus render them of higher quality, while their class rating for
taxation remained unchanged.
[24]
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. *
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 colo-
nizing 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 improve-
ment of the colony (roads, bridges, &c.), and for civilizing and ame-
liorating 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.
__________________________________________________
In conjunction with the Scots New Zealand Land Company, it is intended to esta-
blish 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 appre-
hended 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.
[25]
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 ma-
chinery in aid of human labour. By means of these facilities to pro-
duction, together with combined labour, the work of man has been ren-
dered doubly efficient in raising food, and many times more efficient in
fabricating clothing, and other human requisites. An immense avail-
able 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 pro-
duction 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 unli-
mited 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 re-
source,- 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 promo-
tive of the comfort and happiness of the working-population of Britain,
[26]
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 cer-
tain 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 occu-
pations. 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 colo-
nizing system, than by the utmost freedom of trade without the coloniz-
ing system, and the turning of our entire energies to manufacturing in-
dustry.
But our advocates of restriction and home monopolies exclaim – Why
export workmen when so much improvement can still be made in Bri-
tain? 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 Bri-
tish 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-ex-
tending 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 inter-
course is in effect a circumscribed kind of free trade, under peculiarly
favourable circumstances; and the amazing increase, and vast extent, and ad-
vantage, 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 be-
tween man and man, and nation and nation, if the article is not injuri-
ous 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 repress-
ers of industry, as promoters of misery, as ministers of evil, selfishly
bent upon rendering abortive the good which a benevolent Providence
[27]
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 cal-
culated, 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 happi-
ness, 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 in-
dependent 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 sel-
fish 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 ex-
tensive 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, new 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 litera-
ture, 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 ren-
der them innocuous.
From the unlimited supply of new land, colonies are especially fitted
for a connection with Britain. Being in the opposite extremes of con-
dition, they are in the highest degree mutually beneficial, the former af-
fording 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 overstock-
ed 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 ra-
[28]
pidly enlarged, is in policy and humanity alike our interest and our duty,
as being the clear and direct road to prosperity. Under a properly re-
gulated 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 fre-
quently 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 bene-
fited 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,- ma-
chinery-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 ac-
complish the end desired,- the prevention of human misery,- the remo-
val 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 na-
ture, by which pain and death are the established penalty of ignorance,
idleness, and improvidence; enjoyment and life the reward of know-
ledge, 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 ad-
vantages 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
[29]
the improvident poor and keeping down the industrious, should be con-
verted.
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 pauper-
ism 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 com-
parison greater, her machinery and aids of human labour and advantages
of combined labour vastly superior, her new unpeopled territory more ex-
tensive and more favourably situated for trade, and equally easily reach-
ed. Why, then, should the condition of the working population of Bri-
tain not be as favourable as that of America! Simply because the field
of labour, from our narrow home territory, dense population, and restric-
tive trade system, is more limited in proportion to the labour supply,
and that we fail to profit by our opportunities of extending it. A suffi-
cient emigration would render it equally, if not more favourable. Let
the truly charitable – those who have the welfare of their suffering coun-
trymen really at heart, reflect that ignorance is criminal, where know-
ledge 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 regu-
lated 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 ex-
tent of unoccupied territory is at our command; a very extensive emi-
gration is necessary to render a poor-law practicable in Ireland, and to
assist the working of the new poor-law in England (a sufficient emigra-
tion would soon render both unnecessary); the economy of transporting
great numbers to distant countries in health and safety, and with cele-
rity, 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.
[30]
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 an-
nually, 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 num-
bers 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 colo-
nization has come to be appreciated; recently the most unfavourable
prejudices existed respecting it, and the most erroneous and absurd doc-
trines were promulgated, to feed the popular odium, by political econo-
mists; who, in their wisdom, could never solve the difficulty how Bri-
tain 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 ac-
complished 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 Ame-
rican nations. It seems hitherto to have been the principle of Govern-
ment 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 vic-
tory 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 ra-
tional amendment of the English poor-law, and the best poor-law for
Ireland that could be introduced. This fund, together with the pro-
ceeds 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 in-
ferior 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.
[31]
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 preoccupy, 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 consider-
able 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 se-
cure this most important position, in reference to curbing the United
States and Russia in the East,- this most invaluable acquisition in re-
ference to augmenting our trade and resources? Has she not conciliated
the natives, who are a warlike maritime race, capable of forming excel-
lent 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 coun-
try. 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 neighbour-
ing 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 in-
telligence of their wants could go out, and supplies back could reach
them.
III. There is yet another pressing motive for the immediate occupa-
tion of New Zealand. No other branch of maritime industry has in-
[32]
creased 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 ge-
neral 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 con-
stantly employed in the business (bay fishing), and the prepared oil con-
veyed 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 charac-
ter and maritime habits this employment is peculiarly suited; and it is
incomparably the best training for maritime war. The policy of imme-
diately occupying New Zealand in reference to this most important ob-
ject is manifest.
IV. In a philanthropic point of view, New Zealand is a most eli-
gible 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 ferae naturae. From long-continued use, constituting
instinctive habit of race, they had themselves become, or were, in a
manner, ferae naturae, 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 fire-
arms 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 neigh-
bouring 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, –
[33]
such as the Hottentot and Caffre of South Africa, who are also already,
or at least were, balanced in number to the means of their pastoral sub-
sistence. These, when encroached upon by and forced to retreat be-
fore the fire-armed European, have not space left for the support of
their herds. They are driven by necessity to trespass in search of pas-
ture upon their neighbour’s territory, and exterminating war is the re-
sult. 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 sub-
sistence 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, do-
mestic animals, better implements of husbandry, more valuable fruit-
bearing trees and edible plants, all the advantages and comforts of civi-
lization, which tend so much to the increase of population, and which
they, from their character and previous habits, appear capable of re-
ceiving 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 rea-
son 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 agricul-
tural population occupy a few straggling districts of an extensive coun-
try, with the exception of these petty districts, to them entirely use-
less, and which, from defects in the social order and other circumstan-
ces, they are not only totally unfitted for populating, but are even fast
decreasing in numbers; and where a steady general government intro-
duced 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.
[34]
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 mild-
ness 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 cool-
ness. 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 dan-
ger 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 north-
ern 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 paler is universal.
In Europe, it blossoms in the cooler, aquatic, and hilly regions, where-
ever 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 emi-
gration 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.
[35]
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 abomina-
tions of heated air and gas-burners. In some parts of the north of Eu-
rope, 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 pas-
sages, 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 al-
ways 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 redun-
dancy 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 emo-
lument; 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 occu-
pied, and has reached any considerable value or rental. Wherever this has taken
place, and population has become dense, hired or piece-labour becomes more profit-
able 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 sti-
mulate 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 go-
verning power, and form a land-aristocracy class. They proceed to legislate and
[36]
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 popula-
tion 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 pro-
fitable or practicable, and they have succeeded,- the destitution and hollow check 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 pur-
pose 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 Wake-
field naively tells us, “render slave-labour a loss.” The indirect slavery, as in Britain, I
will be more profitable!!
POSTSCRIPT.
The Scots scheme of colonization is in itself calculated to have an efficient select-
ing 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 provi-
dently 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 de-
termination 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 ra-
tional liberty: Equal political rights and property in the hands of the few can-
not co-exist. Did our working men form an emigration-fund of the money (col-
lectively, 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 more
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 suffi-
cient motive for exertion. An association of twenty working men, by subscribing
each 2s. weekly, on 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.
Page created: 20 July 2015
Last modified: 26 June 2018
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