The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-24

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source of revenue.
| The government is now developing the
fruit culture of the colonies along SINH
lar lines, All the apples for export
passing through its hands are carefully
selected before shipment. Bounties are
being paid to all horticulturists who
plant and maintain orchards. The gov
eminent experts tell them that trees to-
plant and how to take care of them.
One of the unique contributions of the
government to the development of in
dustry in Victoria has been the educa-
| tional campaign. The government
is now teaching people cooperation,
The government printed little PAM
phlets. which We're distributed through
the colony, reciting the method by which
cooperation had been developed i'll
| England and on the continent of Eu-
rope, and lecturers We're sent out to give
practical instruction on the same sub
ject. The result was that the farmers
of Victoria are magnificently organized
comparatively in the dairy business.
A great deal has been said in the Uni
ted States about the advanced institu-
tons Of Australia and New Zealand.
The idea seems to prevail that the peo-
pie are extremely socialistic. AS mat
ter of fact, l have never seen people
among whom there is less professional
socialism or less socialistc propaganda
of any kind than there is in Australia
and New Zealand. There is no socialis-
| tic party there. Whatever advanced
legislation they may have is not the re-
suit of any theoretical or utopian judg-
ment, but merely and specifically
| practical step taken by democratic peo-
| pie to meet an evil or accomplish pur-
pose, as in the case of the development
Of the export business, which / have de-
scribed.
Being a new people, in new country,
free from the vested interests, preju-
| dices and conventionalities of old coun-
| tries, and being tremendously more
Anglo-SaXon than perhaps any other
community in the world, these people
are able to do The things which other
communities appear to be only able to
| talk about doing.
Old-age pensions, for instance, have
! been not only subject of discussion,
btt one of the issues Of practical poll
tics in Great Britain for some years,
and they bid fair to remain thus in the
air for a great many years more.
! Meanwhile, the New Zealand govern
ment goes ahead, without any fuss or
| feathers, and establishes old-age pen
sions. Among the most interesting
| things I saw were the hearings before
the magistrates of the applicants for
old-age pensions. Oldage pensions
have been established. not as what Jo-
seph Chamberlain calls 'the ransom to
be paid by the wel-to-do for their
| wealth." but simply on the ground that
| citizen who has lived respectable,
productive life and has reached the age
of sixty-five, is entitled as matter of
| right to be maintained by the communi-
| ty in which he has given his life.
Another thing which other people are
talking about, and which the New Zea-
landers have meanwhile gone and done,
is compulsory arbitration. l attended a
session of the arbitration court in which
employees and employers appear to dis
cuss their differences. The scene was
most impressive. Instead Of the factory
locking the men out, on the one side, or
the workingmen being on a strike, on
the other, the industry was in full
swing, while the representatives of both
sides were submitting the issue be-
tween them to the arbitrament of a dis
interested judge.
After a decision has once more been
reached by the court, it is not advisory,
but binding, and can be enforced like
any other decree of the court. Such
decision gives stability to the business
affected and for two years no new va
ration in the terms of the award can be
asked for by either side. The effect is
to give a certainty and security to man
ufacturing operations in New Zealand
which are possessed by no other coun-
try in the world.
On the surface many of the New Yea
land manufacturers seem to be bitterly
opposed to the arbitration law, but it is
easy to see that underneath. the real
sentiment, led by some of the shrewdest
of their number. is rapidly gaining in
favor of this extremely successful and
wealth-conserving measure.
The subject which is now agitating
America so deeply is heartily recognized
in Australia as being one that affects
them. l found in several different d.
rections very strong tendency toward
the formation of these monopolistic
combinations. and it is safe to predict
that New Zealand and Australia in a
few years will be in the same struggle
as ourselves only in much less acute
form.
They have an enormous advantage |
over US. The railways are practically
all owned by the government. The CIV
ing, therefore, of secret preferential
rates to one shipper to enable him to
appropriate the business of his competi- |
tor is absolutely unknown there, and
this, as all students of the question
know, has been one of the great sources
through which the trusts have OBJ
tanned their power in America.
They also have another advantage |
over us. The enormous fortunes which |
have been built up in America by rail- |
road operations and their resultant |
trusts do not exist in Australia, so that |
reforms intended to prevent the devel- |
opment of trusts, or, if not, to national |
ize them, can be much more easily car
ried through there than here.
The way in which the New Zealanders
have met the land monopoly question is !
a case in point Finding that through |
the foolish wasteful policy in the begin
ming Of the colony, most of the best land |
has been held in large blocks, and that |
there was no land to be had by the late