New Zealand Company

“ 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. ”

“ We know that we speak the sentiments of the New Zealand company, and of those who have purchased land under them, when we affirm that nothing would be so satisfactory to them as the plan laid down in Dr Lang's pamphlet, for a general assumption by the crown of the property in all lands in New Zealand ”

“ Many of the immigrants came singly from Australia, but from the year 1839 the New Zealand Company sent thousands of settlers in more or less organised fashion to the country on either side of Cook Strait, to Wellington, Nelson, and New Plymouth. This company was founded by the celebrated Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a man who had read and thought much upon the subject of colonisation. His views reflected fairly the public sentiment of the day. The colonists should be grouped in communities for mutual help and safety ”

“ There was an opinion in political circles, afterwards crystallised into a definite recommendation by the House of Lords, that the colonisation of New Zealand was the duty of the State, if it was Britain's duty at all, but private enterprise had never been wholly disassociated from the scheme. [29] As far back as 1825 a New Zealand Company, "acting with the sanction and encouragement of the Government," had been formed under Lord Durham, and had acquired an estate on the banks of the Hokianga {43} River. This settlement, under Captain Heard, had been of the most fugitive character ”

“ 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. ”

“ Fortunately for New Zealand, Britain had a fair start of France in the race for possession. Unfortunately for many colonists, then and to be, the New Zealand Company ran well ahead of the British [Pg 134] Government in the race for the acquisition of land. Most fortunately for all concerned, Her Majesty's representatives were men not afraid to undo the tangle caused by the early dealings in land. They were men determined to adjust upon an equitable basis all land transactions between the white population and the brown. ”

“ John Thomson, A.M., Edinburgh, offered to found a colony of 50 sober men, 100 Sepoys, and 100 convicts, as "the inhabitants of New Zealand are just in that state of civilisation to be made useful." In November 1823 Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolls, an ex-Indian officer, made a proposal to Earl Bathurst to establish a colony of military pensioners. In the following month Baron de Thierry's scheme was brought under the notice of the Government. The year 1825 saw the first New Zealand Company established. ”

“ Young countries do not always carry much of their own trade; but, thanks to the energy and astute management of their Union Steamship Company, New [10] Zealanders not only control their own coasting trade, but virtually the whole of the traffic between their own shores, Australia, and the South Sea Islands. The inter-colonial trade is substantial, amounting to between £5,000,000 and £6,000,000 a year. Much larger, of course, is the trade with the mother country; for our colony, with some success, does her best to shoulder a way in at the open but somewhat crowded door of London. ”

“ At every country town in the South Island among the most prominent features are the great granaries and stores of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. They seem to be ubiquitous. The company provide weighbridges and platforms for their customers at all the large stations free of charge. The neat churches, too, are a constant feature. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ New Zealand has certainly every reason to be proud of her coastal service. The Union Company have a fleet of fifty-five vessels, mostly passenger boats, all vieing with one another as to speed, comfort, and decoration, and the service is second to none in the world for punctuality, speed, and moderate charges, while the Company prides itself on its generous treatment of its employees.
We did very little in the afternoon except stroll through the Museum, which is very well off in Maori carvings and pictures of Maoris and subjects relating to New Zealand in general, mostly by local artists. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It has to share the trade with another growing [Pg 131] firm, that of Huddart, Parker & Co., and smaller local firms like the Northern Steamship Company. Of course, the efforts of these firms are not alone confined to New Zealand. They maintain a constant communication between Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and the Union Company sends its ships farther afield with great success to China, Japan, San Francisco, and Vancouver. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After luncheon we went to Lyttelton to see the port, and there we discovered that New Zealand is even better supplied in her coastal service than we had thought. For in addition to the Union Company’s fine fleet there is another which aids and supplements it, the Huddart Parker Company’s boats, about twenty of them, voyaging between all the Australasian ports. They are very fine ships too, and specially built for the comfort of passengers, beautifully fitted and equipped with all the latest improvements. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But the large four-storied building recently erected on the-Dowling-street corner of the same block by the Australian Mutual Provident Society, a boldly conceived Italian design, shares with the Bank of New Zealand, the honours of the situation. While exactly opposite the Bank of New Zealand, the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Company has purchased a site, upon which it is anticipated that a building will be erected which will excel all previous structures. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The intense competition amongst manufacturers in Europe and America induced the Americans to ship to New Zealand large quantities of surplus stocks. These stocks interfered with ordinary operations of trade inside the colony, embarrassed the colonial manufacturer, and diminished the output. ”

“ The New Zealand government is one of the chief customers for manufactured goods. It owns the railroads, builds bridges, and operates coal mines. Hence, its purchases are enormous. It buys all sorts of iron and steel building materials, as well as hardware, galvanized roofing, elevators, irrigation pumps, and all kinds of machinery and engineering apparatus. ”

“ Correspondent London Times, December 17, 1909. LABOR REMUNERATION: New Zealand: The Labor Group Method. "What distinguishes New Zealand as a State is the way in which governmental powers have been used, not to stop competition in the socialistic sense, but to force a higher and fairer level, on which it acts for the many rather than for the few. Every startling step has been of this nature. New Zealand is democratizing competition. If the public is there threatened with monopoly prices in coal or in insurance, the State acts competitively for the whole people. ”

“ Two or three, and two or three only, of the first-class positions in the civil service are filled by natives. On the whole, Young New Zealand is, as yet, better known by collective usefulness than by individual distinction.
The grazing of sheep and cattle, dairying, agriculture, and mining for coal and gold, are the chief occupations. 47,000 holdings are under cultivation. The manufactures grow steadily, and already employ 40,000 hands. ”

“ To meet the expenses which the establishment of a system of factories upon the principle I have mentioned would necessarily entail, funds might be obtained from a variety of sources, such as a small fee on the registration of the purchase of land from the natives, on the entry and clearance of British shipping, and a small percentage on goods and produce imported and exported. The great security which would result from this system would, it is conceived, readily dispose the British subjects resident in New Zealand, to conform to such an impost. ”

“ Discounting exaggerated conceptions, no person, no institution in New Zealand is so busy, so versatile as that vague yet substantial entity, "The Government." Its hands are in many enterprises and benevolences, and for years it has been constantly on the lookout for new ways to occupy itself.
To-day it does business with one hand and distributes philanthropy with the other. As a direct commercial institution it operates railways, telegraph and telephone systems, coal mines, tourist steamers and motor coaches, and soon it will be selling electricity. ”

“ Even when their vessels have anchored here, the thoughtlessness and eccentricity of this class of men, when they are under no restraint or control, has sometimes not only led to disputes with the natives, but with each other, which eventually have proved equally detrimental. In short, New Zealand is a place of such vast importance to so many lucrative branches of British trade, that it must be well worthy the speedy attention of our Government at home. ”

“ The industries of New Zealand, the trades and manufactures, are as yet confined and undeveloped; they suffer from lack of capital and lack of labour. Where capital, however, is forthcoming and labour is to be found, there is still the absence of skilled management and technical knowledge to contend with. In some cases, where a trade is started for the first time in the country, it is started by persons who have really very little acquaintance with the work they are about to undertake. ”

“ The total foreign trade, imports and exports, comes to more than four hundred dollars a year for every one of her people. This, the New Zealanders claim, is the highest per-capita foreign trade in the world. In some years half the amount has been spent for goods brought in from other countries.
In travelling here one sees everywhere evidences of prosperity and a high level of comfort. The people are well dressed and live in modern, well-built houses. Unlike Australia, New Zealand has a big rural population, and about half the inhabitants live out on the land or in country villages. ”