18 GENERAL REMARKS. [CHAP. I. 



time, an entrepot of commerce a depot for transit 

 trade, and a manufacturing country, none of which 

 it is at present. 



Nothing justifies the system of those high prices 

 for land in New Zealand, even if a sale by auction 

 were advantageous in other colonies ; for it is more 

 than doubtful whether a land-fund will be raised 

 by these sales of crown lands, since it is well known 

 that the greater part of the land is already disposed 

 of to private individuals and to the New Zealand 

 Company. 



It is also doubtful, from the nature of the coun- 

 try a bold shore with numerous inlets and har- 

 bours, and inhabited already at all these points by 

 European adventurers whether any revenue will 

 arise by a regular system of customs, as smuggling 

 is already carried on to a considerable extent. It 

 is a question of great importance, whether Govern- 

 ment could not effectually prevent all sort of land- 

 jobbing by taxing uncultivated and unoccupied land, 

 both in the towns and in the country ; whether this 

 tax would not be the true source of a revenue, and 

 the means by which the land may return again to 

 the Government. Such a revenue would not injure 

 the industrious colonist. The position in which 

 New Zealand stands as a colony is quite a new one. 

 A country as large as England and Wales, and 

 nearly as mountainous as the latter, is being peopled 

 with Europeans from many different points at once. 

 The intercourse between the various settlements, 



