"What you say," replied Dr. Graham, "may be all very well with regard to people that have families and live in towns; but you must remember that squatters are the stay of the colony, and must be supported. What would the colonies be but for their exports of wool? and how, I would like to know, is that staple commodity to be obtained if the squatters are not enabled to procure labour? At present we pay higher wages than any other country in the world, notwithstanding which we cannot get sufficient labour to do our work. It is a question that affects the entire country; for if we do not get labour our staples will decrease, and that, you will admit, will be a public calamity. The long and the short of the matter is simply this, we must have labour, and the government must exert itself to procure it. If it does not, we ought to advocate a return of convicts."
"Well, sir," replied Moffatt, "I don't pretend to dictate to you personally, presuming that you are the best judge of your own affairs. Wages in the colonies are certainly high, but then the employers can well afford to pay the high rates; and, but in these remote parts, I have heard few complaints of the scarcity of labour. Until your district becomes more settled you will have to expect it, for it is one of the inconveniences of an unsettled country; but as soon as it becomes better known and more occupied, I think you will find that labour, as in everything else where there is a supply and demand, will find its own level."
"That's very true," said Brown, "but, remember in the meantime, we are sufferers; what are we to do?"
"I can scarcely tell you," said the other, "but fear you will have to put up with it. It is, as I have said, a contingent incidental on your remote location. You can't force labourers to settle in a country, of which they know little, and that little disparaging. You must offer some inducements to tempt men out into these wilds other than high wages. What militates considerably against you, I imagine, is the current belief that the blacks are rather dangerous neighbours."
"It is all very well for people that are not affected as we are, to tell us we must put up with it," said Brown; "but, assuming that labour would find its own level as you state; that is, I imagine, by offering security against the blacks, if we admitted that the blacks were dangerous (though we deny it); does it not follow, that we, in these districts, are entitled to some consideration on the part of our rulers? We contribute to the support of the state, and are therefore entitled to protection from the government; but are we likely to get that? I don't believe it. We are just allowed to struggle on as best we can. But it will result in this; we will have to take the remedy into our own hands; labour we must have, and if our own countrymen will not accept our employment, even at exorbitant wages, we will have to procure it from some foreign source."