COLONIAL PROSPERITY.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 105, 14 July 1876, Page 6

COLONIAL PROSPERITY.

In the Vice-Regal speech at the opening of Parliament, his Excellency said : " The prosperity, of ,the Colony continues unabated. The prospects of the agricultural and industrial industries are satisfactory; and there -are notable evidences of improvement in the results of mining of all descriptions." Some exception seems to . have been b_en taken to this- statement by members of the Legislative .Council during tbe debate on the address in reply. Mr Waterhouse, one of the. able and sensible men to be found in the Council, referred to the prosperity alluded to by Ministers in the following, terms :-—•- --" I may be allowed to say, that the passage bearing upon the prosperity of the Colony is one that, I do not think is warranted by the circumstances of the Colony. I cannot regard the present condition of the Colony as one of prosperity. When we see the depressed prices of our principal products, whether wool or giain, and when we remember that these are the chief .articles of produce, it is evident that it' is out of place to speak of prosperity to thosje who are suffering from the effects of the great depression which exists in the articles I have mentioned. I entirely dissent from the idea that the condition of the Colony is one of prosperity. I admit there is in many respects . an outward show of prosperity ; but no person can carefully go through the figures which are from. time to time published in reference to the financial position of the Colony, without seeing that the exist* ing prosperity is of a most fictitious character, due at the • present time* whatever it might have been two years ago, entirely to the expenditure ot public money, and certain to collapse ad that borrowed money approaches exhaustion. I deny that we are in a state ot real and solid' prosperity. I admit that there is on the part of ths Colony progress — great progress. My honorable friend the Colonial Secretary says ' Hear, hear.' I may add; that it is an alarming progress ; that it is the,^ progress of shooting Niagara ; that it v is the progress caused by our being in those rapids which are fast bringing us nearer and nearer to a financial catastrophe, unless the bark of State be managed in n firmer 'and more prudent and. cautious manner that it is at the present time. The more we look into figures, the more we , shall realise for ourselves that the prosperity of the Colony has not been upon a safe or satisfactory basis. May I be allowed to state for the information of honorable members. what is the position of matters now as compared with the position of .matters six years ago, when * the policy of public works was first initiated ? There are some marks of progress, and. of great progress. The' population of the country has' increased in six years from 248,400 to '376,956, : or about 50 per cent. There 'is great progress likewise in the debt of the Colony. That has increased from £7,265,000 in 1870, or £20 19s 9d per head, to, inclusive of the unexpended loans which are already encroached upon, if not raised .in the : market, £19,500,000, or £51 17sner head. There is great progress; there, Sir— from an average indebtedness of .£2O 19s 6d to £51 17s per head. Our indebtedness to the banks, over and above deposits, has increased from, one million and a-half to over four millions. But on the other hand, our exports, '! which are, after all, the test ofthe pro- / ductive capability of the country, have V decreased from £19 8s 3d per, head to ;• £15 10s 2d per head ; and the .real decrease in our exports is even, greater V than this 5 for if our wool were valued iat the same rate as it was valued in the A year 1870, and if allowance were made S. for the extra quantity of wool shipped y in the last quarter of the year, in con- ;> sequence of the increasecUprodUction of. :; the Colo ny, it would be shown f that our J , exports have not only relatively, out J actually, not increased during the whole A of that period — that our exports practi- ) cally remain the same, while ! our in- y debtedness has increased muOh more 'y than 150 per cent. Then let \ us look V at other points. If we look at the set- A tlement of the country which has been V proceeded with during the. last six years, j we find the same unsatisfactory cvi- 5 dences. We find that during; the lasfc V six years no efficient provision has been V made for the settlement "of our population upon the cdurttry, !! and there is the .-• alarming prospect before /us of having s these public works brOtight to> term'- y nation without any proper provision X having been made for the settlement | upon the land of the large population *| which has been brought to these shores. | Our population has during the last sixjg years increased 50 per cent.; ; %^7ysl land under grain crop, of whim^ff§ hear so m uch, lias increased something;"! like one- third, while our population bai| I increased 50 per cent" f|