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Title: Prospectus of the Scots New Zealand Land Company

Author: Scots New Zealand Land Company
        Patrick Matthew

Release date: May 29, 2018 [eBook #57235]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Craig Kirkwood and the Online Distributed
        Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
        produced from scans of public domain works at The National
        Library of Australia.)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSPECTUS OF THE SCOTS NEW ZEALAND LAND COMPANY ***




Produced by Craig Kirkwood and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from scans of public domain works at The National
Library of Australia.)






Transcriber’s Notes:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.

       *       *       *       *       *




PROSPECTUS, &c.


  The object of the SCOTS NEW ZEALAND 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 Property, 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 following 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 encumbrances,
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 returns
upon capital, and also more healthful occupation, than an old
densely-peopled country, where all the land is already appropriated,
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 where a great
portion of the population follow unwholesome occupations, 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 liberty, and where a
family of children is of the utmost value in assisting 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 starvation.

_3d_, Because, in the case of small capitalists, or middle-class men
of circumscribed income having families, to remain in this country, is
merely to sacrifice their children to their own selfish love of present
ease, and cowardly _vis inertiæ_,--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.[1]

_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 EMIGRATION 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 in the year, good
pasture at all seasons, and wool much superior to that of Australia.
New Zealand is, besides, most advantageously 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 disadvantages 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 (Fahrenheit), 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, rendering a hoarded winter supply and housing for bestial
unnecessary. 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 tolerated to live amongst them, and even treated
with kindness. The Missionaries, with their families, now about 100
individuals, have resided 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,
roaming 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
perhaps would not have been equalled in any country of Europe. The
extreme healthiness of the Missionaries and their families, considering
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 successful 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, having 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 Britain, 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 producing 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
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 condensing 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 surpassing 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;[2] and
the mountains 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
character of surrounding objects must exert a powerful influence upon
the genius of a people. These stupendous mountains, with innumerable
rills pouring down their verdant slopes,--their great valleys occupied
by the most beautiful rivers,--their feet washed by the ceaseless
south-sea swell,--their flanks clothed with the grandest 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 character 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 Europe; 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 region, at all seasons, upon the spontaneous produce
of the wilderness.[3] The climate is also the most favourable to the
development of the human species,[4] 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.[5] 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 peculiar
adaptation to the energetic maritime British race, it is somewhat
remarkable that no regular attempt has been made by Britain to colonize
New Zealand. This must have arisen from the numbers and barbarous
character of the native population; a population so small, however,
reduced as it now is, as to be quite out of 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 numbers, 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.”[6]

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;[7] and
several thousands of these emigrants, with their working people, are
now departing from our shores.

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. It is a company of
industrious men, chiefly working small capitalists, who 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 principles 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 extensive 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 servant-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 interfere
to supply a government. They will form their own regulations 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 governing 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
emigrants 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
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
insubordination,--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 character,--and
capitalists themselves, not inured to work, and expecting 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 successfully, under the
three following systems:--_1st_, 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 circumstances where master and servants, at
least to any considerable extent, 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 absolutely 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.[8]

Independent of mutual protection, conveniency of transport, and other
social advantages, a principal object of the Scots New Zealand Land
Company, is, that the shareholders may purchase from the sellers of
land in New Zealand, in a body, and not raise the 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 capitalists, on whose efficient support the
success of the colony will depend.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 economists, may be left to
their own especial practice.

[2] “‘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 Evidence, 1838.)”

[3] “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 temperate clime, if allowed to
range at large in the forests, on the hills, in the valleys, or on the
plains.’”

[4] “‘Marriages among the English have been prolific, in a very
extraordinary degree, of a most healthy progeny.’--(See official
document by T. Busby, Esq., British Resident.)”

[5] “‘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 perhaps 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.)”

[6] “Mr Flatt, an agriculturist from the East of England, of
considerable professional 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 is the
case of heavy rains, the clouds clear off immediately when the rain
ceases, and a most brilliant sun shines out.”

[7] “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 security of title.

[8] 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, inherent 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 incapacity, 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 a very inferior and unprofitable manner. This
must cause the hired workman to be not upon 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 British race population,
that the brain even of modern political economists has hatched.
Nevertheless, he has procured a whole host of followers, including
the South Australian 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
herbage 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 hundreds, 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 annum 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 unfrequently all
they possess) waiting upon the lagging surveys, or upon some plausible
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 cultivating 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 market 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 “sufficient 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 transitu_, 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 Zealand, 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
something like “a sufficient price” in the British colonies in the West
Indies (perhaps 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 attainable,” the black population being thus compelled to labour
to the planters at whatever 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 Legislature 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 absurdity, and, if persisted in, will ruin these
colonies. For a complete exposure of the indirect systems of slavery,
see “Emigration Fields,” pages 53 and 187.




FUNDAMENTAL RULES RESPECTING 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 property
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 persons
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 passage 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 below 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 passage, 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 embarked, L.1, 10s.; below 2 years, L.2,
5s.; below 3 years, L.3, 10s., and L.1, 10s. for every year more till
the age of 14. The provision-supply in New Zealand, being for children
under 3 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 approved
bill due on ... and the remainder when the Committee shall appoint,
by approved bill, including interest, or by cash; notice of 20 days
being given should one-fourth be required, and 30 days should a greater
portion. That in case any of those the shareholder 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 deduction 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.




FURTHER REGULATIONS RESPECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY’S AFFAIRS.


_1st_, As soon as what is considered a sufficient number of
shareholders shall have subscribed, that a general meeting be held of
the shareholders, or their accredited agents, to choose a Governing
Committee or Directory,[9] in which will be vested full powers to
carry on the enterprize in the most effectual manner. This Directory
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 having
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 Director,
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.[10]

_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 Directory 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
settling 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 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 expedition 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 certain
per-centage on the share, or land-tax, shall be levied, or a portion
of the undisposed land be sold, to procure medical treatment 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 Zealand Land
Company, before embarking, give his solemn pledge that he will obey the
Committee of Government in all things not opposed to the common rules
of morality, and in all duty which free citizens owe to the government
of their choice, until such time as the British Government shall have
assumed an energetic governing control over that part of N. Zealand.
That in case any shareholder 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 description,
be allodial (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, inclination
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 recorded, 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 Register Keeper and
witnesses, and no bargain respecting land to be binding till registered
in this Book. That possession, living witnesses, 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.[11]
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 borrowing 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 subscribers
in every district or town which any number of intending 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 Chairman. The applications for
shares to be in the following form. The letters requesting shares not
to be binding upon the subscribers, unless 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 specified in
  the Prospectus issued by a meeting of intending shareholders, held at
  Perth on 24th August 1839, and signed Patrick Matthew, Chairman.

  I am, Sir, yours, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] The following scheme of a Directory or Government is submitted to
the Shareholders for consideration:--

In order that the Executive may be conducted as a whole with promptness
and decision, 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,           }
  1 or more Secretaries,       } Appointed and removable at any
  1 Treasurer,                 }  time by the Governor.
  1 Surveyor, with Assistants, }
  From 4 to 10 Councillors,    }

The powers and business of the Governor to be accurately defined
by the preliminary 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, } Each Board to consist of four
  Board of Works,                      }  persons appointed by the
  Board of Trade,                      }  Shareholders.
  Board of Native Protectors,          }

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 general meeting.

OFFICERS.

  1 Treasurer or General Receiver of subscribed    }
     capital, also to act as Land-Register Keeper, }
  3 Guardians of Widows and Orphans,               } Appointed by the
  1 Conciliator,                                   }  Shareholders.
  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 Conciliator’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 specific purpose. All the Executive chosen
by the Governor to vacate with the Governor, 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 meeting 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.

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

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




IMPORTANCE OF COLONIZATION TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE.


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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

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




LAND PROPERTY RIGHT.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

PATRICK MATTHEW, _Chairman_.




UTILITY OF EMIGRATION AND COLONIES.

_Extract from “Emigration Fields.”_


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




ESPECIAL REASONS FOR COLONIZING NEW ZEALAND.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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




TO THE BRITISH FAIR.


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

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

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

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

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




SLAVERY.


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

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




POSTSCRIPT.


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

  P. M., _Chairman_.

       *       *       *       *       *

Transcriber’s Notes:

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

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

Punctuation has been made consistent.

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







*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSPECTUS OF THE SCOTS NEW ZEALAND LAND COMPANY ***


    

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