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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 30

The Colonies and Dependencies of the British People. — Their Trade with the Mother Country and Openings for the Men and Women of Great Britain

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The Colonies and Dependencies of the British People.

Their Trade with the Mother Country and Openings for the Men and Women of Great Britain.

The Colonies and Dependencies of the British People.

The possessions of the British people extend over somewhat more than nine million square miles, and are inhabited by 320 million persons of all nationalities and religions. They embrace the three immense countries of Australia, Canada, and India, each nearly the size of all Europe, and 69 territories and islands in the two hemispheres. It seems incredible that this immense dominion, which covers nearly a sixth part of the habitable globe, and is administered by over 50 different governments, subordinate, in Imperial concerns, to that sitting at Westminster, has been acquired by a people now numbering scarcely more than 36 millions, and occupying but one-seventieth portion of the empire. This empire, five times the size of the Persian Empire under Darius, four times that of the page 8 Roman under Augustus, an eighth larger than All the Russias, three times the size of the United States, forty four times that of France, forty-three times that of Germany, is what has been bequeathed to us by our fathers.

These are the fruits of the victories of Marlborough and Wellington, of the genius of former statesmen. This is what we have to show for the indebtedness of the country, which sinks by comparison into insignificance. But in proportion as we gratefully admire the work of former heroes in the senate and the field, and reap the fruits of their courage and wisdom, must we deplore the madness of those who, invested with a brief season of power, lost to Great Britain the vast continent now occupied by fifty million Americans. Had it not been for this black spot on the shield of history a great confederacy of the Anglo-Saxon race would long since have been an accomplished fact.

We cannot dwell as we should, with more time at command, upon the special features of each of the continents, the territories, and the islands, where the sovereignty of the British people proclaims to all men—whatever their faith or colour—freedom of action, freedom of speech, freedom of commerce. But we may glance separately, though briefly, at the leading characteristics of each of the five great groups into which the empire beyond the seas is divided. Let us consider them in this order:—
1.The Australasian Colonies.
2.The North-American Colonies represented by Canada.
3.The South African Colonies.
4.The Indian Empire.
5.The West Indies.

The Australasian Group.

The Australasian group consists of the eight colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Fiji. It is difficult to convey to those who have not seen them an adequate idea of the bounties of nature towards this extraordinary region. They include in their wide area of more than three million square miles every geographical characteristic—noble rivers, magnificent mountains, fertile plains, arid deserts, with the most uniform and glorious climate in the world overhead, and below an page 9 inexhaustible store of mineral wealth. The senior of them has yet to celebrate the centenary of its foundation. But the chief towns rival the old world in the refinement, the luxury, and the culture of civic life, while the bush rears a hardy race devoted to field sports and all the manly virtues which have contributed to the preeminence of the British people.

It was but fitting that New South Wales should have been the first to declare, conjointly with Canada, that the sons of Greater Britain are not less willing than the children of the mother country to take up arms and lay down their lives for the honour and integrity of the mighty empire we share in common.

Queensland extends over a territory thirteen times the size of Great Britain, abounding in wide pastures, rich gold fields, and deep sugar plantations. The heat—especially in the northern portion, which is seeking separate local government—is tropical, but the energy of the colonists is superior to any mere atmospheric inconveniences.

But it is at Melbourne that the attention of the traveller is first riveted. Fifty years ago the seat to-day of one of the finest cities of the world was but a marsh. Now what a change! There is a new Paris. Unlike Rome, it is almost the work of a day. Melbourne was planted on a foundation of gold, and her magnitude and importance increased with the discovery of each fresh nugget.

South Australia is making rapid headway against difficulties of no mean order, and Western Australia, although still far behind, will doubtless lift up its head in the time to come.

It may be doubted if there is any place in the world where men can live upon air; but if there is one such, it is assuredly Tasmania. There it is a perpetual May Day. The summer sun is tempered by gentle breezes, and the cold grip of winter is unknown.

But the most attractive colony in Australasia is certainly New Zealand. In the lower part of the Middle or South Island, as it is now usually called, we find Scotland reproduced. There are the snowy mountains, there the lochs, there the frequent rain, there the industrious, frugal, farseeing race.

On the Canterbury Plains we have Yorkshire itself, and the country is hardly less attractive in its natural features and daily life than its great prototype.

In the North Island there are still some 40,000 Maoris who own the greater part of the land, and have equal rights with the page 10 colonists. They are a quiet, harmless race, idle perhaps, and not scrupulously honest, more especially under the advancing influence of civilisation, European clothing, and Irish whisky. But the North Island of New Zealand stood until lately preeminent in the world in the possession of its hot lakes, hidden in the most cunning formations of nature, and springs containing all the medicines of science. Men arrived on crutches, racked and distorted by disease, and went away cured. Nor was the district a mere hospital. Nature, while benefiting the bodies of the afflicted, delighted their vision with the most extraordinary and exquisite phenomena it was possible to conceive. But recently terrible eruptions took place, destroyed the marvellous terraces, and covered the country for miles with lava. Temporary devastation was the result, but in course of time the ground will become fertile, and if less interesting to the eye, more valuable to the pocket.

Fiji is the centre of a numerous group of islands taken but ten years ago under British protection, and already the happy possessors of a sound administration, a surplus revenue, and that without which no Englishman is thoroughly happy, viz. a good solid grievance.

It lies in the fact that this colony and Western Australia are still administered as Crown colonies. In each of the six others we find a representative Government, of which the Governor nominated by the Crown is head, assisted by a responsible Ministry formed from the Parliamentary majority for the time being. There are two Chambers, the lower elected by universal suffrage, an absolute necessity in so thinly peopled a country. In New South Wales, New Zealand, and Queensland, the members of the Upper House are nominated for life by the advice of the Prime Minister; but in South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria the Upper House is elected. A former Premier of the latter colony, thus writes on the subject:—"This apparently democratic provision proves in practice a source of endless trouble and conflict. The nominated council, liable to be modified like the House of Lords by new nominations, never proved long intractable to the ascertained wishes of the community. The elected council,' on the contrary, assumes that it is the equal of the assembly, deriving its authority also from the ascertained wish of the electors, and insists that, to give way too promptly in a conflict with the other Chamber, is to betray its special constituents."

Although Australasia, without the New Guinea territory, em- page 11 braces an area equal to that of all Europe without France or Spain, it contains only 3,000,000 inhabitants. The population is increasing at the rate of 110,000 a year; but when we consider that Europe supports 327,000,000, or 87 persons to the square mile, we arrive at the astounding result that there is room, though not present opening, for some 250,000,000 additional British subjects in the Greater Britain of the South Seas. The population is now increasing at the rate of 42 per cent, in each decennial period, and in 1986 there will be in Australasia, if this progression continues, 94 millions of people.

The North American Colonies, as Represented by Canada.

Some people may have an idea that Canada is a land of perpetual snow. It is far from it, except in the extreme North. In the occupied regions the winters are severe, but the cold is still and dry, not so trying, therefore, as our incessant changes, damp, and east wind. The summer, moreover, is constant and delightful. The Dominion is somewhat larger than Australasia, nearly as large, therefore, as all Europe, and very nearly the same size as the United States. But instead of having fifty million inhabitants it has but five, and of these nearly one-fourth are Frenchmen, industrious, sober, and most loyally attached to England, and so unlike their brethren in Europe that they can scarcely be reconciled to change in anything at any price. We promised their fathers in the last century their language and their customs. We have kept our word, and they hold us to our bond to the great inconvenience of public life and the hindrance of progress. But an event has lately occurred of the deepest moment to Canada and the entire British empire. Not a war, nor a revolution, nor an earthquake, but the triumph of science, the victory of the iron horse. In ten years a railway has been driven three thousand miles, and the Atlantic Ocean has been joined to the Pacific. A vast region has thus been opened to commercial enterprise—most fertile and productive in many parts, and, besides this, a new route is secured between Great Britain, India, and Australasia.

From the seven provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, each with a local legislature bound solidly together in loyalty and attachment to the empire by the Dominion page 12 Parliament, and from the newest route to the East, let us cross the Atlantic to the old road round the Cape, and stop at

The South African Colonies.

We have not here the same prosperity and progress which are seen in Australasia and Canada. It is a maxim in the colonial service, and one which has proved but too true, that the difficulties of the administration of the Cape Colony and Natal are such as to ensure the ruin of any reputation. The South African Colonies, without the recently-acquired territory of Bechuanaland, are about the size of Austria-Hungary—that is, a quarter of a million square miles in extent, but with only a million and a half inhabitants. Ever since they came into British possession they have been the scene of incessant warfare and rebellion. The Kaffirs, the Hottentots or Totties, the Dutch Boers, and the Zulus have all given us very serious trouble. All must deplore that a region so favoured by nature, so delightful in climate, should have brought so little good comparatively to the human race. Whether or not we should not have done better to retain the fertile island of Java ceded in 1814, and handed back the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch, our forerunners in the East, it is too late to inquire. But one great lesson should not be lost upon the statesmen of to-day, and that is, that an independent constitutional and representative Government does not prove successful unless granted to a perfectly united nation existing but for one purpose.

Sailing up the Indian Ocean we pass the sugar island of Mauritius, sorely depressed by the German bounty system, and come to

The Indian Empire.

This immense territory, the size of Europe without Russia, is perhaps that possession which reflects the greatest honour and material advantage upon the British people. Two hundred and fifty-four millions of people bow to the sovereignty of the British Empress of India. The fertile plains which stretch from the slopes of the gigantic Himalayas to the ocean, and thence again to the frontiers of Siam and the densely populated markets of China, are safe now from the devastating hordes which poured down upon them in former days, times without number, through the Khyber Pass from the camps of page 13 Central Asia. Much further back into the labyrinths of antiquity runs the history of India than that of Europe. While we here were a rude uncivilised people, India was in advance of the times. But invasion from without—such as has been threatened in recent days, too, and quarrels within, held her back, and now we have caught her up, surpassed, and given her the fruits of a superior intelligence. Five hundred feudal princes are still allowed territorial independence. Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and Parsees are as free to pursue their religion as Christians. The administration of the country is conducted to a vast extent by native officials. But so just and equitable is our rule, so widely are its benefits recognised, that one British soldier is sufficient to secure the interests of the British people among some 4000 natives. But while this is the case, we must ever remember that a mere handful of Europeans amid rival races, jealous families, antagonistic religions, and an inextricable web of prejudiced castes, should not forget that physical preparation is a necessary guarantee for the preservation of safety and the maintenance of order. We have given the Indian peoples liberally of our substance—our blood, our money, our liberty, our knowledge, our education. While we concede all that progress demands, we must not submit to the use of our very gifts against us at the restless instigation of ambitious spirits, but courageously continue in the course we have followed for two centuries with such conspicuous success, to the advantage of the whole world.

Let us now retrace our path, and glance for a moment at the numerous islands in the West Atlantic forming

The West Indian Possessions.

Time was when their value and importance was far in advance of their position to-day. Of the fifteen principal ones, Jamaica is the chief and in some measure holds its place. Large fortunes were made in by-gone times. But the abolition of forced labour and the creation of a free people, has changed the course of events. An improvement is confidently expected in the early future, and it is to be hoped that Parliamentary efforts may be directed to that end.

We have thus been led rapidly through the five principal regions in which the sovereignty of the British people holds sway. We have not been able to tarry at numerous trading stations over which flies the Union page 14 Jack. Nor have we had time to stop at the fortresses and military posts which the far-seeing wisdom of our ancestors acquired to secure us in the possession of their legacy. Of such we have Gibraltar guarding the mouth of the Mediterranean, Aden commanding the entrance to the Red Sea, Singapore holding the gate between the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and Hongkong watching the broad surface of the Sea of Japan. Then we have the Falkland Islands to watch over the stormy rounding of Cape Horn, St. Helena the tomb of fallen greatness, and last, but not least, the now prosperous Island of Cyprus.

We see, truly, that our empire is one on which the sun never sets, and on some portion of which summer is ever present. We can almost hear the applause of the American Senate as their greatest orator spoke half a century ago of "Britain, that great country, who has illuminated the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum beats following the sun in his rising, and keeping company with the hours, encircles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England."

I must now trespass upon your attention while we briefly survey

The Commerce Between our Possessions.

Let us pause, though for a moment, to look at the immense volume of trade in the hands of the British people. It amounts to no less than 1,210 million pounds sterling annually, and of this 760 millions belong to the mother country wherein we stand. We thus see that the import and export trade of the British Empire is more than half that of the whole of the rest of the world put together, and that the foreign trade of the United Kingdom is very nearly double that of France, which stands next in order with 464 millions.

Our total export trade from the United Kingdom amounts to 327 millions, and one-third thereof goes to British possessions. Four-fifths of the imports into India are British. In nearly every colony one-half of the external trade is with Great Britain, and three-fifths of it with the British people located in some portion of their empire. As an illustration of the vast interchange of commerce between British possessions, no better example can be found than Victoria. There the strictest protective duties prevail, and with no diminution as regards British goods. Yet, notwithstanding this, we find that out of a total page 15 import trade of 19 millions in 1884, no less than 17 millions' worth were imported from British possessions, and of this more than half came from the United Kingdom. Nor is it less remarkable that the imports from the mother country into British possessions have nearly doubled during the last fourteen years, while the amount of British goods purchased by the great European nations has only increased by one-seventh.

How different is the condition of commerce between Great Britain and foreign States we see at once, when we find that while England buys one-fourth of the total exports of France, British goods only amount to one-twelfth of her imports. We buy one-sixth of the goods sent abroad by Russia, but of the goods the subjects of the Tsar purchase from abroad, ours only amount to one-eighteenth.

In short, if we strike an average of the returns over a term of years, we buy 175 millions' worth of foreign goods in Europe, and only sell to Europe in millions' worth of British goods, that is, a deficiency of 64 millions against us. In foreign countries, not in Europe, we buy 140 millions' worth of goods, but only sell to them in return 70 millions' worth, or one-half. There is, consequently, a balance of considerably over a hundred million annually against us in favour of the foreigner.

To look at the matter in another way. Whereas we find that foreign countries consume an average of less than 10s. per head of British goods, the Canadians consume £2 per head, the South African Colonists £3 per head, and the Australians more than £8 per head. It was a saying in the olden time that one Englishman was a match for two Frenchmen, but now we find that two Australians do more for British commercial interests than thirty-three Americans.

These figures prove beyond all doubt that the object for which our fathers fought, died, and denied themselves, of acquiring colonies to increase the markets of the mother country, has been attained, and this, although the restrictions on colonial trade which overthrew the Spanish and other empires of former ages, and did our own such grievous injury, have been happily removed.

Let us now observe the other side of the picture, and see not only what sale markets we find in the colonies, but also what advantageous markets in which to purchase all we require from other countries for food and clothing, and to work those industries we have established in our midst. We buy from our page 16 brethren beyond the sea no less than 90 millions' worth of goods every year, and it is a trade which is constantly extending and increasing. The varied climates and varied soils of the possessions we share in common with Australasians, Canadians, South Africans, Indians, and they with us, are capable of producing every single article any one of us may require for the sustenance of life, the luxury of fashion, or the pursuit of our callings. We provide capital, industry, experience in manufacture, iron, steel, coal, cutlery, machinery, and ships; Australasia gives wool, meat, excellent wine and oil; Canada furnishes corn, beasts, and timber; South Africa sends diamonds, feathers, corn, and wine; India supplies corn, tea, rice, silk, and cotton; while the West Indies provide sugar, coffee, and tobacco. If, then, all the rest of the world were closed to us, and our condition reduced to that of only trading within our own empire, we should only be sufferers in degree, provided we had not lost sight of the necessity of material force, especially on the high seas as of old, in the days present and to come of might and right.

Addressing the London Chamber of Commerce, not long since, Mr Colquhoun, a gentleman who, the Times said, has had unrivalled opportunities of studying British commerce abroad, declared that: "An examination of the total trade of the fourteen principal States of Europe from 1860 to 1881 brings out the significant fact that, while our trade has increased 85 per cent., that of the fourteen countries combined has grown 162 per cent, or nearly twice as fast as our own; and these figures are becoming more and more unfavourable. In the growth of the European continental trade we have failed to participate, except as carriers. We have up to the present time proceeded on the old, comfortable, easy system of permitting things to arrange themselves, and the only policy, or what has taken the place of a policy, has been laisser aller. This was possible while markets were to be had at will, and customers were more numerous than producers. But now, with overstocked markets at home, our population increasing, and hemmed in by competition and hostile tariffs on all sides, we must not only reverse this easy-going policy, but throw ourselves into the struggle with our utmost energies. There is room here in abundance for drastic reform. The only remedy for this state of affairs is to discover new customers, who are to be found in new markets, and in developing those already existing. These areas for the extension of our com- page 17 merce are to be found in the colonies and in the unopened markets of Asia and Africa. The value of the British colonies and possessions is not even yet recognised by the mercantile and manufacturing classes of the country, and still less by the working man. They are by far our best customers."

I agree in this view. The mutual trade of the British Empire is only in its infancy. It behoves us to increase and develop it by every possible means. We must throw ourselves into the struggle with increased energy.

All patriotic Britons are now seeking to bring about that Imperial Federation of our glorious Empire which will secure that united action, that general concern of each individual in the welfare of the whole commonwealth, which are the only pillars of stability, prosperity, and might. But, at the same time, let us put aside all prejudice, and by the persevering instruction of our youth in practical geography, the science of trading, and foreign languages, fit them for that commercial life which is the pride of the country.

Let us inquire into the openings British men and women can find in Greater Britain. During the last thirty-two years, no less than 5½ million persons have emigrated from the mother country. Of these, 20 per cent., or one-fifth, have gone to Australasia, 10 per cent, to Canada, and 60 per cent, to the United States of America. Is there a true patriot who can look without sorrow at the emigration of nearly four million British subjects to another flag? It is not only because in their oath of naturalisation they "particularly, absolutely, and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland;" but also because they do the friends they leave behind a grievous wrong.

There can be no true relationship without a common nationality; and who would not sooner cut off his right hand than lose his British citizenship or take that oath, while there is British soil equally attractive and offering better prospects crying out for population? The four millions of emigrants who have gone to America may not only one day have to take up arms against us — pray God that it may be in the very distant future, if at all; but they only consume, as we have seen, £2,000,000 worth of British manufactures per annum, instead of £32,000,000 worth, if they had gone to Australasia. It is much to be regretted that past Governments have not recognised this matter, and taken steps to prevent the cheaper passage to America deciding the page 18 choice of a new home. Nobody wants those to emigrate who are doing well here. But if times are hard, trade bad, or competition excessive, why hesitate? There is no reason why a man should go for good. The journey for a single man is nothing at all, and if he does not like it he can come home again. He will find a glorious climate, plenty of work for industrious hands, the telegraph tells him every day all that is passing here, and every week brings letters from "Our Home." The laws are the same, the customs are the same, the sports are the same, and the openings are unbounded. But do not misunderstand me. There are openings without number for capital, for enterprise, for intelligence, and for hands. But there are none for "ne'er-do-wells," or for mere clerical aptitude. Hands are wanted—not heads. There are too many heads already, and all the vacancies are filled up from the well-educated ranks of born colonials.

Now what are the class of men who are wanted and who find ready employment? Chief among them, come men with a knowledge of machinery, who can drive a stationary or locomotive steam engine, understand its mechanism, and do the repairs themselves. Then carpenters, plumbers, masons, and bricklayers are in constant demand. But most of all, farm labourers and handy men are in request The wages vary in the several colonies, but they may be generally taken as fully half as much again as at home, and with every prospect of advancement in life. House rent is dearer in the neighbourhood of towns, but living is not expensive, and in most parts of Australasia 4d. or 5d. a pound for prime meat is high. It goes without saying that for men with large or even small capital, say £1ooo, the chances of very favourable investment are innumerable if they will only bide their time, look before they leap, gain colonial experience, and unlearn much of their old-world knowledge. But those who want to get on must work desperately hard, perhaps harder than they ever did at home, with many ups and downs; they will have to undergo many hardships in all probability; yet in front of all there is wealth, position, and influence. It is attainable by the most persevering of the very humblest.

But I must not forget the ladies. They must pardon my want of gallantry if I tell them that females are greatly in excess in England. They are, however, greatly in the minority in the colonies. The demand for female domestic servants is far greater than the supply, and wages are excellent They are page 19 well treated and fed, and in addition to all this, they will probably be able to exercise much freedom of choice to what fortunate man they will say "for better, for worse." In spite of the great areas wanting population, and the constant demand for good hands in Australasia, the Colonial Governments have to be very careful of their popularity in assisting immigration, as, of course, the tendency is to reduce the rate of wages by increasing the supply of labour. But the Governments of Queensland and New South Wales still offer considerable facilities, as does Canada and the Cape Colony.

It is not my purpose to recommend anyone to emigrate, and still less to recommend any particular colony. But if there is any single man under thirty-five years of age, any single female under thirty, any married couple under forty years of age, who think for any reason of seeking a new home, then the best advice I can give them is to get the "Handy Guide to Emigration to the British Colonies," published by the Central Emigration Society, and then write to the Agent-General of the Colony they select, in Victoria Street, London, for all the latest particulars as to passage, and information as to free grants of land, etc. But whatever the decision be,

"Hold with Britain heart and soul—
One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne—
Britons hold your own,
And God guard all!"

C. E. Howard Vincent.