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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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The difficulty in getting land is really of two kinds it is in part due to imperfect administration, of which New South Wales offers the chief example. Applicants for land are said frequently to have suffered great delay, and the land law has been The difficulty is described by the Chief Justice from the bench as unintelligible. also due to the big estates. Neither in Victoria nor in New South Wales is ther· any considerable amount of good Crown land left, while there are generally plenty of local applicants for whatever good land is available. Thus Mr. Ashton, Minister for Lands in New South Wales, speaking in December at Wagga, said that a point had been reached when, whatever the area of inferior Crown lands available for dis- position, the area of Crown lands eminently suited for closer settlement had become more and more limited every day until it threatened to reach vanishing point, while An attempt has been made the demand for such land had become more vehement. in several States to meet the demand by repurchasing areas from the big estates, and these repurchased areas are generally taken up readily by local applicants. Thus, I notice in the press that the successful applicants for certain blocks on the Wyuna Estate in Victoria came, 7 from Central Victoria, 92 from North, 2 from Gippsland, 8 from West, 10 from South, 4 from New South Wales, and 1 fron New Zealand. Most of them were farmers by occupation, but there were several gardeners, railway employees, farm labourers, and ordinary labourers. The difficulty is increased by the land hunger, which makes a farmer who has made some money invest it in land adjoining his own, and in some cases estates, whether cut up by Government or by their owners, are bought up entirely by local people. In any case it is clear that the repurchase of estates for the blocks on which Government must charge enough to recoup itself, can only be of use to the man with some capital.
There are, however, still great areas in Western Australia and Queensland which I have are in the hands of the Crown, and which can be obtained on easy terms. not seen any of these lands in Queensland, but certainly in Western Australia, and I presume in Queensland also the cost of clearing is appreciable. The country is not like Canada, where to get a crop only ploughing and sowing are required. On the contrary, clearing is an item of appreciable expense if done by hired labour, and it also takes time, e.g., in the Narrogin District, where the timber after being ring- harked and standing for a season burns very readily, the cost would be about £2 an acre before a crop could be got. In districts with heavy timber (and as a rule the heavier the timber the better the soil) the cost would be several times as much, and it is, indeed, in some districts absolutely prohibitive. These obstacles can be, and have in many cases been, overcome by energetic men who have taken up land and cleared gradually while working for the greater part of their time in other employ- ment, but such men must be above the average in steadiness and energy. Nor must it be forgotten that Australia is, as a whole, a country with great vicissitudes of climate. The consequences of such vicissitudes must be more serious to a poor man than to one who is rich, though floods and droughts and bush fires are in many parts more than compensated by the generally magnificent climate, the gains in good years more than making up for the occasional losses.
Despite all drawbacks, to a man with some capital Australia offers very great advantages. Such a man has a chance of becoming a landowner which he will never get at home, and this after all is the greatest advantage which a new country has over an old one. He will not only find the advantages of settled Government which a British State gives, amid a population which is English in language and British in sentiment, but he will find a country where, as a rule, nature is bountiful. Indeed, she is in a way too bountiful, for farmers find it so easy to make a living that they often but scratch the ground when increased effort would produce a far greater return. Heie, again, moreover, it is fair to remember that the labour difficulty comes in. At Colac, in Victoria, I saw a fine field of grass going to seed, the owner of which said, in reply to an enquiry, that he would have liked to have made silage. but he could not get the labour. In this case the farmer, a well-to-do man, farming in one of the richest districts of Australia, was prepared to pay, but the cost of labour is often prohibitive. Indeed, one reason why dairying pays so well--and butter, like wool, now commands a good price--is that the milking is generally done by the farmer and his family; while one of the principal reasons why South Australia can grow wheat profitably though the yield may be only 7 bushels an acre, is that by means of the stripper the labour of harvesting is reduced to a minimum.
I incline, therefore, to think that although Australia has in the past offered good openings to the poor emigrant, and although the poor emigrant now may prosper
if he is a man of energy and resource, it is in present circumstances more generally suit- able to the man with a little capital. There-can, of course, never be a large emigra- tion of this class.
The above remarks are intended only to apply to Australia. New Zealand has for some time had an organized system of immigration. Were 500 good pick and shovel men landed to-morrow, Mr. Seddon observed to me, they could be found work. Anyone who would work on the land, would, he said, be sure to succeed; but though a good artizan would get on in a town, that class was not much wanted, and I heard remarks from unofficial persons which would seem to show that there is some apprehension in New Zealand that too many immigrants would come into the towns. At present the majority of those sent out by the High Commissioner are tradesmen of various kinds, but all, except a very small proportion, as was shown by Mr. Mackay, of the Labour Department, in a recent controversy on the subject, find work and get on. Immigrants on arrival are dealt with by the Labour Department, which assists nominated and other immigrants indiscriminately. Mr. Mackay, who deals personally with immigrants at Wellington, laid stress in talking to me on the folly of persons of middle age unaccustomed to country life who come out thinking that they can farm. The demand for men in the building trades is good, the Christchurch Exhibition in particular having created a great demand for carpenters. I asked Mr. Tregear, the Head of the Labour Department, to arrange to let us have the Labour Gazette direct, and early
The country as possible.
is at present extremely prosperous, and it still has good deal of good {rown Land undisposed of, the amount of which will be augmented by the arrangements now being made for taking over some of the Maori lands. New Zealand has, too, an excellent system of surveying and disposing of land, and the repurchase of estates has, taking them altogether, been so far a complete success financially, the land being taken up readily and the rents paid regularly. It must, however, be remembered that the country not being very large its capacity for the absorption of emigrants must be limited, and would, no doubt, be diminished were the prices of its wool and meat and butter in the London market, which have been high, to fall. At present there are practically no unemployed in New Zealand, that is able-bodied persons seeking for work which they cannot get, though here, as elsewhere, the sick and old and useless may be out of employment,
March, 1906.
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