SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1414, 9 July 1884, Page 2

SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN NEW ZEALAND.

(The Statist.)

' New Zealand is the best chronicled of our Colonies. The literature it has already produced — directly or indirectly—would fill a library. Hundredweights of books on the antipodean Britain may be unearthed by the curious reader at our national museum. Not a year passes but some traveller from this country feels bound to call our attention to the beauties and utilities of that gem of the Pacific. And less this should not be enough to k«ep New Zealand and its affairs well before the public eye, some prominent colonist fills the interludes with a speech or a pamphlet, or a lecture, or a contribution to the Press, recapitulating the immense resources of his country, and its unexampled prosperity. In all that there is some egotism and a little puffery. New Zealand has an interest in keeping up its reputation in the Old Country— such an interest as a debtor has in standing well with his creditor. It has land to sell, and must cry its wares in the public market. But after discounting motives of this kind, their remain solid reasons why New Zealand should occupy a warm place in the regard of the Home miblic. It is the most distinctly British of our Colonies, both in natural features and political institutions. Canada is larger, but Canada is cold. Australia also is larger, but monotonously fiat India is rich and grand, but in India the English will always be a foreign minority. The stranger from this country who lands in Auckland or Dunedin has no sense of being a foreigner. He finds there much about the same disposition of hill, dale, and river as in his own country ; and so far as the climate of New Zealand differs from ours, it differs for the better. The history of New Zealand has been a creditable one. Forty years have changed it from a wilderness into a peaceful and flourishing land, with numerous towns, where the comforts and elegancies of life may be enjoyed as fully as in Europe. New Zealand had a " Native" problem to solve, and tried to solve it in the spirit of the Decalogue. That it did not quite succeed in this is due rather to circumstances than to any flaw in the public conscience. The mischief was done before the Colony acquired a corporate existence. The faults of N«w Zealand are the faults of youth — ill-regulated energy and exaggerted hopefulness. Because it can do much, it believes it can do everything. Its latest economic vagary is a scheme for rendering New Zealand •■ self-contained" — a Scotch phrase meaning " independent of extraneous help." The idea itself is essentially Scotch ; it emanates from the Scotch community in Otago, and finds a spokesman and advocate in Mr W. Blair, M. Inst, C.E,, who is, we believe, a native of Scotland. Mr Blair's views formed the subject pf an address lately delivered to the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association at Dunedin. The address, which was favourably noticed by the Colonial Press, has been issued in the form of a brochure, a copy of which has reached us. The policy recommended by Mr Blair is grand in its simplicity. He has inquired into the resources of the country, and believes that New Zealand can, therefore ought to, draw from her own soil and brains all, or nearly all, the articles of her daily consumption. He would exclude from her markets the produce of other countries, not be loading them with heavy import duties — New Zealand is pure from the Protection heresy— but by creating within herself industries which should produce better and cheaper goods than can be imported from foreign centres of production. The materials are there ; all that is wanted is men to utilise and consume. So he represents New Zealand as calling to the four winds of heaven for emigrants. "In New Zealand we want, most of all, men women and children — * all sorts and conditions of men,' and all « kindreds and tongues ' — to develop the varied resources of the Colony." Quality no object. Anglo-Saxons to trade, grow corn, and drive engines; Italians to plant olives, Frenchmen to make wine, Mongolians to grow tea and tobacco." Such a mixed and dubious population would prove a veritable monster of Frankenstein. One native industry it would certainly stimulate — the cultivation of phormium tonax. There would bo an increased demand for homp. From Mr Blair's own figures we find New Zealand can produce three classes of goods in superabundance — that is, after providing for her own wants she has a margin over the

export, and can find a ready market for it ' The first class is food. It 1882 she exported wheat and flour to the value of £859,029. In the whole class of human animal food, the export per head of population was L 2 10s 2£d, as against £1 26s 2d for the same kind of imports. The next class comprehends natural substances, such as gold and silver, in which tl*e exports of 1882 reached £1,115,498 ; but from this must be deducted the coined metal imported, which amounted to £265, 320, leaving a balance to the good of £920,178. This class also comprises large exports of kauri gain, tallow, and hides, bringing up the average per head to £3 lis lOd, as against 16s 103 for same class of imports. Finally, New Zealand can export wool aud woolen goods to the value of £6 4 o£d per head of population, and imports in this class only £4 14s 2|d, although the bill for one item alone (drapery and ready-made clothing) amounts tp £1,258,661. The frozen meat trade had scarcely begun when these returns were made, and already it amounts to £350,000 per annum. These are the staple items of New Zealand's wealth. That way liet fortune. But New Zealand is dissatisfied because she has to pay large sums for spirits, salt, sugar, tea, cetife*, cotton goods, leather, and leather goods, earthenware, books, toys, medicine, tobacco and pipes, glass, agricultural implements, machinery , woolpacks, roofing materials, &c. These and such aB these are the commodities she yearns to make for herself. The list is not long on papei, but the manufactures involved cover almost the whole field of industrial activity, for each industry requires 50 others to feed it. To place these articles in any given market would tax the energies of the most productive country in Europe. Yet Mr Blair does not hesitate to say that of the £6,000,000 spent in imports, " £1,500,000 is for articles which could be produced iii New Zealand by merely extending the industries already in existence ; £1,500, 000 for articles that could readily be produced by establishing new industries the conditions of which are favourable, and £1,000,000 for articles that could be produced when the resources of the Colony are farther fully developed." The remaining two millions are for tropical and other products, which there is no chance of superseding by local supplies. "It is thus," says Mr Blair " possible to produce and make three-fourths of the goods we buy from other countries." But there is a long way from possibility to expediency. It is possible for a man to walk from London to Liverpool, but it is better he should employ a railway to carry him thither We have every desire to see New Zealand prosperous and .contented. Our remarks are not dictated by any wish to deprecate Colonial industries when their establishment seems necessary and beneficial. . Independence is one of the noblest virtues: But thei c if a false independence, which reaches its full bloom and perfection in tho sulky savage who lives alone in a cave aud throws flints at his neighbours. The true independence is consistent with the frankest sociality, the freest interchange of services and commodities. New Zealand is right in setting a high value on her natural resources, but she would act unwisely if she tried to develop them all simultaneously. She cannot hope to compete with Europe in more than a few industries. Let her cultivate, to perfection those in which she finds herself strongest and they will yield her profits enough ta buy her every other thing she needs from countries where they are produce!) better and cheaper. There is as much independence in buying a thing as in making it. The question resolves itself ultimately into one of self-interest. If the policy of self-suflScieney doeß not pay, we may safely trust the New Zealauders to find out their mistake. A people who value their beautiful scenery chiefly because it attracts wealthy tourists and invalids, are not likely to persist iv a policy that is certain to damage their material interests.

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