The Press. MONDAY. OCTOBER 29. 1888.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7190, 29 October 1888, Page 4

The Press. MONDAY. OCTOBER 29. 1888.

Sir Robert Stout has paid the customary penalty of visitors to the Melbourne Exhibition, and been interviewed on his return. The result ia a very readable column and a half in a recent number of the Otago Daily Tinw. Sir Robert agrees with everyone else, that so far ad meets the eye Melbourne is jnst now in a state of phenomenal prosperity. There is brisknees of trade visible on every hand, frantic buying and selling, and a general atmosphere of hopefulness, what Sir Robert calls " a bigness in the air," which makes the New Zealander feel like a country cousin from the provinces. Upon those facts all are agreed, the controversy is as to its cause and its consequences. Its cause one might h&ve expected Sir Robert Stout to say roundly was protection, but we notice that protection is spoken of with careful reservation. He does, indeed, affirm that the tariff hae given Victorian manufactures a start which the other colonies will with difficulty overtake, but he dees not attempt to deal with the statistics, which prove that so far as factories go New South Wales has already overtaken her. In some of his remarks there is a significant dissent from the protectionists' ideal, which we welcome from the lips of die ex-Premier of the Stout-Vogel Ministry. Thus, though protection is generally commended by hinij he agrees that " it has its drawbacks in many ways," and he condemns the undue forcing of manufactures unsuited to the colony, of which Victoria furnishes examples, and the concentration in the towns of people who would be better employed in the country. This last, feature seems to us to be the- fly in the-Victorian pot of ointment. The colony, in spite of all her buoyancy and commercial hopefulness, is rapidly running to towns, or rather to town, for Melbourne is now Victoria. The producers are becoming distributors, and the fortunes that are being made are being made neither out of the soil nor out of labour, but out of traffickius: with one another. We doubt, very much whether the aggregate wealth of Victoria is greatly increasing amidst all these prosperous times, and Mr. Hatter's statistics, which we commented on the other day, show that tae balance of trade is going decidedly against her. Imports are exceeding exports more and more, and that according to protectionists is one of the worst symptoms. The general opinion is that the boom in Melbourne will be followed by a very acute reaction. We have had the experience in New Zealand, and are justitied in expecting that like causes will produce like results. Sir Robert Stout, however, is of the contrary opinion; he does not think that there will be any sudden collapse, but he gives no reasons for that optimistic view. The concentration of population in the town's he says is one'of the features of modern civilization, and is . manifested to a greater degree in the Old Country than in the new. It is one of the revolutions that railways have effected. That is in a measure true, and in .European countries it is not altogether a sign of decadence, for they import their raw material and their food supply more cheaply from abroad, and succeed best as exporters . of manufactured goods. With the Australasian-colonies it is different. They are and ought to be exporters of wheat and wool and dairy produce first and of manufactured goods afterwards, and the neglect of the country districts cannot be adequately compensated by the influx of population into .the towns. On the vexed question as*tb what protection does for the workine man Sir 'E&BiBRT Stodt has something to say. He does not think that wages, as a rule, are higher in Victoria than in I New Zealand, whereas the coat of living , is higher. That is what we have always ; aificmed. , To the interest of whomsoever it may be to have a high tariff, it i 3 not to the interest of the working man. There are local industries in plenty, no doubt, and md ustries mean work,-and work means wages; but, on ; the ( other hand, the labour market is flooded with men who would otherwise be employed in the country, and the increased demand for laboor in the ttfwne is more than compensated by the increased supply, j Competition determines the rate of wages, and M%ljbourne '^agfs fall to as low a point as in Christchurch. "Eente are" higher, and the tariff taxes

the artisan more hesTily in every article he buys, so his last state ia" a good deal worse than his first. Sir Robert S tout tells us that he met in Victoria hundreds of people from all parts of New Zealand, and he only found one niau who did not wish to be back again. That is the other side to the woeful "exodus" picture which bo many of our friends are in the habit of lamenting. Dealing with tho Exhibition, Sir Robeet Stout speaks with a deal of quiet good sense. The New Zealand Court does not set the Thames on fire, but it is very creditable in a email way. Our exhibits are not bulky or sensational, but they are good. They are not such as will impress the casual visitor, but they are excellent enough to make their quality known to those who are likely to be our customers. There in no one in the grain trade who does not carry away with him from the New Zealand Court a respect far our cereals, and so it is with our wool and our timber, aud in a less degree with our minerals. The exhibition of our manufactures is the least satisfa©. Tory part of our show, but that is not so much to be regretted, as we are not likely to be great exporters of manufactured goods to Viotoifc in the immediate future, however well we might have been represented Sir Robert Stout, in tho hands of h« interviewer, does not quite cease to be Sir Robert the politician, and we read with much amusement his final judgment, summing up the New Zealand Court in the light of party politics. He found a good deal to say in praise of it, but nevertheless he could uotbut think how much more glorious it might have been had it beeu contrived and consummated on Vogbuan lines. Standing before it, he felt abashed to think that in the Btately company of the other nations it had the appearance of being the property of a people who looked at their pounds, shillings and pence before they parted with them. "The fact is, that the court to my mind," he says in sadness, "represents the attitude of the people of the colony to the colony. It wears to mo quite a political aspect. We have had it drilled into us during the last eighteen months that parsimony was to save us, and our Court is parsimonious." Aud again— "I must say that tho New Zealand Court, standing as I did before it and comparing it with the other court*, seemed to have stamped upon it ' This is the policy of New Zealand. , " Well, after all, when the bill comes to be paid, the policy is not a bad one, the policy of spending what you can afford to spend and no more. We only wish New Zealand had adopted the policy (t little earlier in her history. It is not a showy policy, but it wears well, and our economical hointapun may yet prove to be better stuff thau some of our neigh* boura' silks and fine linen.

Thosb who were responsible for calling the public meeting in Lyttelton on Saturday evening probably acted with the best intentions. They no doubt considered that they were pursuing a proper course, and actingin the interests of Mr. O'Brien, whose case they met to consider. A little more reflection, however, would probahly have convinced them that they were taking an unusual step, and one which, if generally followed, would lead to nothing but disorganisation and chaos in the public departments of the Government. Let us consider for a moment what the circumstances of the case were. A prisoner in charge of the person responsible for his safe keeping escapee from custody. This priaoner had already rendered himself notorious by escaping from gaol elsewhere. 16 might naturally be expected that, under the circumstances, special pare would be exercised to prevent the repetition of a similar escapade. But, as far as the public are aware, no such special precautions were taken. On the contrary, the prisoner found no great difficulty in devising means of giving the authorities the slip, and up to the present time he has remained uncaptured. The first thing, of course, which the responsible authorities would do was to make a searching inquiry into all the circumstances. In addition to doing this, it was stated at the time that a special inquiry was held by Mr. Beetiiam and Mr. Westenra, whose report was, we presume, forwarded to head quarters in the usual way. With all the facts thus elicited before him the Minister, of Justice has seen lit to take the s'teji which has given so much offence.to the people who attended the meeting on Saturday evening.. Mr. Fergus, it is well known, is a humane and tenderhearted man, whose natural ijutins would be to deal tenderly with the officials under his control. Is it likely, therefore, that he has refused to give full weight to the considerations represented by several of the speakers at the meeting ¥ Especially is it to be believed that, if Mr. O'Brikn had pointed out the danger of allowing lioppif to go to Ripa Island, as one speaker implied, he would have been punished for the wrong-doing of others? It ia not reasonable to euppose that anything of the kind has been done. The contention of several of the speakers on Saturday wg l * W J* that the Lyttelton Gaoler should M put upon a public trial, and hie «"*« we suppose, decided by a sort oMpß»' plebiscite. A little calm reflection will, we hope, satisfy those gentlemen that the proposal is not only impracticable, but wholly subversive of order and discipline in the public service. The business of the country could not be carried on under such circumstances. In the improbable event of a wrong having been inflicted in the case under notice, there is a proper way of havifig it thoroughly investigated. The Government can be called upon* when the House meets, to prodooe the papers in connection with Mr. O'Bbibit's removal. A Committee even can be appointed to inquire into aa the circumstances and report its conclusions to the House. If it is the ll shown that Mr. O'Bsnsir has been unfairly dealt with, or that the action of the Minister has been in any way «*» fluenced by representations fro© political Bourcea, the House will know how to deal with those implicated. M the meantime it is only fair to asaainff that the Minister, with all the facts, of the case before him, has acted in wh«* he believes to be the best interests ot the public service, and with every wim to give full weight to what can Dβ said in favour of Mr. O'Breb* afl » public servant of long standing.