Prospectus of the Scots New Zealand Land CompanyMatthew, Patrick
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Prospectus of the Scots New Zealand Land Company
Matthew, Patrick
New Zealand -- Emigration and immigration; Scots New Zealand Land Company
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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