NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.

Mr Brodio Hoare contributes to the National Review an interesting article on New Zealand. After a description of those portions of the colony visited him during his receni trip, he goes on to say : I may seem to some to write of New Zealand in a tone of exaggeration. I certainly have not exaggerated the impression made upon my own mind. It is hard to avoid enthusiasm when speaking of or writing of such a country. The old country is overcrowded. Is not the remedy to bo found in the transfer of men and women who have neither regular work, nor hope, to this new land, where labour is wanted, and space is ample for all? England suffers from a surplus of population, Mew Zealand wants people. A temperate climate, a fertile soil, and an easy passage invite the colonists. There is no burning heat and drought as in Australia ; nor bitter cold as in Canada. Bnt who shall go? Not the man who oan make pins heads and do anything else ; they make no pins, as yet, in New Zealand. Not the loafer; there is no room for him there ; his proper place in the scale of sreation has not yet boon ascertained. The idle young gentleman whose idea of life is sport, and who would scorn to work with his own hands, will find himself at a discount. There is not much opening for a clerk unless he is sure of an appointment on landing. The clerk who goes to an opening and uses his opportunities well, will find his position improved. The men who are wanted are farmers not too old to learn, who can take some capital and skill with them. If they have in addition a few stout sons and daughters, so much the better. Working men are wanted who are not afraid to rongh it a bit at first : who will leave thoir families in the towns till they are settled ; and with their swags on their backs seek work in the country, take the first that offers, and do it. They will not long be unemployed. The only capital they need is a stout heart and strong hands. The handy man who can dig, plough, drive,~or do a bit of bush carpentering is a treasure there. The wages are good but the standard of work is high, the labourer mußt not be afraid of making his back ache, or af rough sleeping accommodation. He will get plenty to eat as compensation. Best of all he will be able to save money, and in time own his small freehold and be independent. My readers will begin to ask whether there are no drawbacks. Not many but there are some. To the educated man society is small in quantity, and interests apt to be too exclusively local. The newspapers deal ably with local affairs, but seem to regard contemporary history outside New Zealand with something approaching to contempt. The English and European telegrams are meagre, and often inaccurate. The suspension of Sir Pope Hennessy from his place as Governor of Mauritius was announced as the suspension of Hennessy and Co. One could not help thinking that the teetotal movement had seriously affected the demand for brandy. The Government is undoubtedly too expensive ; the members of the House of Representatives, with their £200 per session, the numerous ministers, and expensive machinery, seem to the stranger a costly luxury. All this elaborate and costly machinery is the sacrifice annually demanded by the great god Demos. And the result, is not good. Sir Henry Maine, in his essay on the " Nature of Democracy," says, " Of all the forms of Government, Demosracy is the most difficult." In New Zealand the Government is a pure democracy, and it gives a very apt illustration of this saying. Every man has a vote. Sir Julius Vogel is reported to be about to propose to extend the franchise to women. Parties are divided into the inns and the outs, not by any intelligible difference of opinion. Foreign politics there are none. What is the result ? Every man tries to use Parliament for his own interest. Eo man has a chance of being returned as a member unless he will pledge himself to further local interests. No Minister has a chance of retaining his place unless he oan secure the votes of members by helping them to attain their local objects. And all these local interests to be thus advanced may be summed up in the words — expenditure in the distrrct of public money. This is the whole secret of New Zealand's financial position. The objects may be, very often are, desirable, but the process by which they are attained can only be characterised by the disagreeable word corruption. Let me tell a story to illustrate the process : It was proposed to get up a memorial in the House approving of a step taken by an English Minister. A member who had a Bill for a local work before the House was asked to sign it. He declined at first, but afterwards did so, on the promise that the promoters would vote for his Bill if he did. He entirely disapproved of the memorial, but he signed it to pass his Bill — which he lost, by-the-byo, and serve him right. I have the story on the best possible authority, that of the member himself, who added, "I never did a thing in my life of which I was more ashamed." Sir Henry Maine quotes Alexander Hamilton, the American statesman, as saying, in conversation with a friend, "That when corruption comes to an end the British Constitution would fall to pieces." When corruption of this sort comes to an end (as it must do now from the difficulty of the New Zealand Government borrowing any more at present), what will become of the New Zealand Constitution ? I believe it will survive, and be the better for the trial. The people are as fine, straightforward a set of English men and women as can be found anywhere ; and when they find that they have to depend on themselves alone they will do it, and fight through any temporary difficulty which msy arise. The sooner they face-the facts, and set to work to meet them the better. The educational system is comprehensive,

but very costly. Each district has every temptation to extravagance, and no inducement to be economical. The Government pays, and the money is spent in the neighbourhood. The moro that is spent the better the people like it, forgetting that the same process going on all over the country makes the cost per child over £4 per head, and leads to financial embarrassment. Why should not the people who use the schools pay school fees ? They are well able to do so, and it is generally admitted that people value most what they pay for. And why should not the inducement to economy be given by charging part of the cost on the local rates ? While on the subject of Now Zealand finance, it is only fair to remember two things : ono, that New Zealand is handicapped, as compared with the Australian colonies, by a war expenditure. The amount has been variously estimated, but the expenditure was absolutely necessary if New Zaland was to become a home for Englishmen, and the amount, whatever it may have been, is burdensome on a community not yet fifty years old. The second, that if New Zealand has borrowed unwisely, English capitalists must have lent unwisely. All the blame must not bo left on the shoulders of the borrower. But has New Zealand borrowed unwisely ? Roughly speaking, there are three classes of New Zealand borrowing — Government loans, municipal and Harbour Board loans, aud private borrowing. I beliove that the interest on the Government loans is as certain to be paid as the interest on consols, but not the less do I think that loans have followed one another with undue rapidity. Much of the money has been well spent on roads, railways, and other public works directly or indirectly profitable. New Zealand rivers are peculiar they cover immense shingle-beds, at all times dangerous to ford, in flood impassable. Till these streams had been bridged progress in New Zealand was impossible. They have been bridged in the worst cases, and the bridging has cost money. The railways were a necessity; thoso in the South Island pay about 4 per cent, on the outlay. A public works policy is a legitimate policy in a new country, but it must be kept clear from corrupt political influences. I would not put a stop absolutely on New Zealand borrowing, but I would suggest that the Bank of England, or whoever is responsible for issuing any fresh loans, should see that the money is allotted to really useful works before they publish the prospectus ; that the works to which the money is to be applied should be clearly stated in the prospectus; and that the Government and New Zealand Parliament are pledged to expend the money on these works and for no other purpose. Municipal and Harbour Board loans are of very varying quality. I am not going to advertise the merits of any of them, but it is obvious that a harbour with great natural advantages must increase its trade, and may fairly rank among the first-class commercial enterprises of the world. The same may be said of loans to be expended by municipalities or public companies on supplying gas and water, or paving streets in wellestablished cities. The small towns and harbours less advantageously situated must satisfy the lender that they have good security to offer. Private borrowing is large, and the cause of much of the trouble in New Zealand. If the lenders, who are generally groat joint-stock companies, cannot take care of themselves, I am afraid nothing I can 6ay will help them. The population of New South Wales is a million, and one-third of the whole is collected in Sydney and the neighbourhood. One-third of the population of Victoria is collected in Melbourne. In New Zealand there are four large towns, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, but no large city. In the future this will very probably be an advantage to New Zealand. Now, it is to her disadvantage. The four towns are jealous, and apt to decry one another. If public money is spent at Dunedin, Auckland thinks she ought to have an equal slice of the cake. A public work or an industrial company started at Christchurch must be rivalled at Wellington. Wellington is the Beat of Government, but there is no capital, and the influence of the educated classes and of the press is frittered away in comparatively small communities. Sydney and Melbourne are magnificient cities, and a good advertisement of their respective countries. New Zealand has no such advertisement. One word more on New Zealand politics. It seems as if every crude theory was taken up on the authority of some magazine article, and foisted upon the country as a supreme effort of enlightened statesmanship. Female suffrage in a country where there must be few women householders ; nationalization of land where the one thing wanted is to induce capitalists to buy and improve the land ; artificial settlement of men without capital on lands which take capital to bring them into cultivation ! Wby cannot they let it alone ? I suppose because hon. members must talk about something to earn their £200 per session and they have nothing else to talk about. Sir George Grey once brought the whole weight of his eloquence and authority to bear to try a,nd exclude matches containing phosphorus from the country, and drew touching pictures of the lingering agonies of poisoned children. The leaders of both parties are tampering with protection, not realising that the only result must be to take the people from the land where they are wanted, to put them in the towns where they are not wanted. To sum up my impressions of New Zealand, it is a country which cannot be beaten as a home for Englishmen. It must increase in prosperity; The progress of the next fifty years should surpass a hundredfold the progress of the past. The depression from which Bhe is suffering is in the main agricultural de.pression from which her varied resources will enable her to recover more rapidly than less favoured regions. The Government is not all

that one could desire, but the common sense of an educated well-to-do people will do much to rectify what is amiss. The borrowing has been too rapid in the past, and the check thus administered will do no harm. The partnership between English capital and New Zealand enterprise is a legitimate one, but the capitalist , partner must do his share, and see I that the working partner uses the firm's money wisely. I I can only, in conclusion, echo the , words which appear as a trophy at every New Zealand public gather- 1 ing — " Forward New Zealand."' i