in 1872. When Sir Julius was at the height of his reputation as the most brilliant Colonial Treasurer of the Southern Hemisphere, he told the colonists that their needs were roads, railways, and immigrants. The colonists had no hesitation in accepting the note he struck as a true one. The country was badly roaded; the railway lines covered less than fifty miles. It was almost impossible for large numbers of settlers to get their produce to markets, and quantities of it were thrown away.
The people was fascinated with Vogel’s vivid pictures of the things that would be done when capital and population flowed into the country. Parliament authorised the flotation in London of a loan of ten million pounds and the sale of two and a half million acres of land for carrying out public works and assisting immigrants. The money was borrowed, the immigrants came, and the public debt rose rapidly from seven millions to twenty millions.
There was frantic speculation in land. Values rose to absurd figures, which, in many cases, would not be realised now, twenty-five years later. Money was spent with a reckless hand. The colony bounded ahead with breathless speed; but the furious march was checked, and the colonists, who had spent their days in prosperity and had come to be in want, were staggered at the suddenness of the stoppage, which jolted all industries, and left many of them complete wrecks.
Every winter saw a fresh outbreak of the unemployed agitation. Men who were not loafers, and who were capable of doing a good day’s work, begged the Government to afford them relief. Hardly a public meeting of any kind was held without some reference being made to the depression. It was the general topic of conversation. It made its presence felt at all times and in all places. Trade became utterly stagnant. Employers dismissed their workers, factories ceased to operate, farmers turned away their “hands.” The reports of the proceedings in the Law Courts show that each winter there was an extraordinary growth of wife desertion cases and other crimes that arise from extreme poverty.
In the centres of population leading citizens were forced to take active steps to relieve pronounced cases of destitution.
