172 report — 1877. 



manufactures which our producing power enables us to send to the countries with 

 which we trade. 



Since 1872 each year has been worse hi this respect than its predecessor, and the 

 present year promises to be the worst of all that have yet passed. Every succeeding 

 year the home resources afford a less amount of food per head of its population, 

 and every year the money value of our exports is also less per head. There 

 are those amongst us, whose judgment is entitled to respect, who view this state 

 of things without anxiety, believing either that the growth of our income abroad 

 advances at least in proportion to our draughts upon it, or that the present de- 

 pression of trade is but temporary, and will soon give place to returning prosperity. 

 There are some, too, who really believe that, despite all adverse tokens, the profits 

 in our manufacturing and trading operations are really greater, and so compensate 

 for the larger supply we draw from abroad. With the soundness or fallacy of 

 these different views it is not the business of this paper to deal ; but we have to 

 consider what bearing these circumstances have upon the continued increase of 

 the mouths we have to fill, the wants we have to supply. 



Let it be granted, again, that there is a real evil to be overcome, what does it 

 mean ? that we must interfere with nature's laws or natural results ? or that 

 we must learn the lessons these results are designed to teach ; that we must 

 obey the other laws which nature enacts P Is it impossible to bring increased 

 supplies to our people ? And if it be so, is it out of our power to carry our 

 people where they may find scope for the employment of their productive power, 

 in making provision for their wants, and securing possession of comforts and 

 luxuries ? 



When Abraham and Lot found the land too small to pasture their flocks, they 

 agreed to extend the borders they occupied. When Solomon wanted the wood of 

 Lebanon and the gold of Ophir, he exchanged the surplus products of his own 

 land for those of others. We in times past have done both, and we must still 

 do both in larger degree ; for we have this advantage, that the two go hand in 

 hand — the one helps the other, and thus lessens the strain on both. Every family 

 which goes forth to cultivate an unoccupied space, to render the earth pro- 

 ductive where it has never hitherto yielded fruits, or to make two blades grow 

 where only one grew before, furnishes additional customers for our industrial 

 class at home, and enables our land in comfort to hold increasing numbers. 



It is probable that there never was a time when colonization was so easy as it 

 might be now. We have capitalists who can prevent our emigrants going out 

 empty-handed, and cau prepare the way for them with the certainty that the 

 investment will pay. We have ships that can carry them with speed, safety, and 

 economy. We have broad acres under our own sovereign's sway where we may 

 plant or consolidate cur laws, our customs, our principles of justice and religion; 

 or we have peaceful relations with other nations who will be only too glad to 

 receive our people. We have scientific means for lessening the hardships inci- 

 dent to a new life, and we have still brave hearts and true to go up and possess 

 the lands. We have, then, mechanical skill, industrious workers, rich capitalists 

 and manufacturers at home to receive the products of industry abroad, to cheaply 

 convert them into articles of utility and luxury, to speedily return them in their 

 useful forms to those who have raised the raw materials ; and we have facility of 

 intercourse to prevent the entire rupture of family ties, to cement old friendships, 

 and to create new tastes and inclinations in those who are in reality less sepa- 

 rated in time and distance than were our forefathers when actually within the 

 borders of our own little island. 



Again, colonization in the present day may be different in its character from that 

 of previous times. We then went forth to conquer, rob, oppress, and exterminate 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of the settlements we chose. We now go, or ought to 

 go, to them with the open hand of friendship, teach them our laws, instruct their 

 ignorance, help their weakness, carry to them the blessings of civilization and 

 Christianity, and thus make them at once our friends and our customers. 



In all these several ways a small exodus from home may serve to restore the 

 balance and to furnish the means of subsistence for the many who remain behind. 

 By so doing a rcdunduncy of population will become the means of producing re- 

 dundant food, health, happiness, and wealth. 





