Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1879. SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 397, 18 April 1879, Page 2

Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1879. SIR JULIUS VOGEL ON NEW ZEALAND.

+ The indefatigable exertions of Sir Julius Voobi» to protect the interests and promote the welfare of the Colonies, and especially of New Zealand, must command the admiration of those who are so largely indebted to those exertions. With voice, pen, and action he is ever foremost and ' prompt in seeking to benefit his former fellow-colonists, and we need not point out what an able and influential advocate he is. Sir Julius is well known in literary circles at Home, and bow, we find him addressing the people of the United States through the pages of the Princeton Review, one of the leading Reviews in America— now in its fifty-fifth, year of publication— in an able article on "the Islands of the Pacific." The article before us occupies 32 pages of the Review, and its purpose is stated to be to let readers in the United States know that " not very far removed from them there are countries sufficiently attractive to demand the study of particulars more extended than could with any reason be given in a magazine article." Sir Julius begins by assuming that 1 " the conditions and progress of English speaking communities m all parts of the world should possess great interest to the people of the United States," as "not alone is there the sentimental interest springing from the faot of their common origin, bat there is the material and substantial interest arising from the probability — not to say certainty — that those communities will grow to large proportions and great wealth, and that their alliance and friendship and custom are boons that even the United States cannot afford to despise." After alluding to the establishment of the San Francisco mail service, Sir Julius commences art imaginary voyage from San Francisco to Sydney, touching first at Hawaii, past the Samoan group and the Friendly Islands, by Fiji to New Zealand, thence to Melbourne, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland, and Sydney, glancing at New Guinea from a distance. A vast amount of interesting general politic*! and statistical information respecting each of the countries; and colonies ifl given in the fewest possible words and in a popular manner. As might be expected, a considerable portion of the paper — some six and a half pages — is devoted to New Zealand, and we have rarely seen the attractions, advantages, history, products, and capabilities of our colony more ably summed up. One paragraph deserves to be extracted: — "New Zealand possesses two distinctive features which must materially affect its future and the pursuits and character of its people. There is no country in the world of any moment so isolated from other countries,

and there is none which possesses, in proportion to its area, bo extensive a seaboard. New Zealand is commonly called the Great Britain of the South) but' -England is twenty mite* from the Continent of Europe —JS'ew Zealand over a thousand miles from the nearest settled country, Australia. This geographical peculiarity cannot fail tq make its people a self reliant and self supporting people. "When a free j way is open to the development of, its re-, I sources and the industries suitable to them,' no artificial system of protection will Tie' necessary. The wide ocean which separates j it from the rest of the world will sufficiently repress all competition bnt that which will bo for the benefit of its people. Its enormous seaboard must make it a maritime country) and ita hardy and selfsustaining colonists, with the remnant of the Maori race which will be preserved; to. grow ultimately'to a large increase, will carry to the farthest limits of the Pacific enterprise, power, and dominion." Further on Sir Julius Vosel says : —"There is probably no country in the world at the present" time in -which, prosperity more uniformly reigns, or in which the inhabitants are more completely contented, than New Zealand." Treating of out* mineral resource*, the following reference is made to a subject in which Sir Julius Vookl has always taken a special interest: —" In various parts springs of petroleum oil well to the surface. As yet no flowing wells have been struck, but it is nearly certain they will' be. The deposits in America are decreasing, whilst the use of mineral oil is largely increasing. At no distant date it is likely that adequate efforts will ber made/ to tap' in quantity the petroleum which there is every reason to Buppoße exists abundantly in many'parts of the Colony. We venture to throw out the hint that it may be well worth the while of some of those in America who understand this industry to turn their attention to its prosecution in New Zealand." We hope the hint .thus offered will be taken up. We have not space"~for farther extracts from what, is said about New Zealand, but from those given it will be seen that much of what is said is of as great interest to New Zealand a* to foreign readers. The other Colonies are dealt with equally fairly and comprehensively, although briefly. One of the suggestions of our Agent-General is of Imperial, as well as Colonial, interest, and opens up speculation regarding vast probabilities. - Sir ,J.ULius Bays^ —" It is strange how unmindful the English and Australian Governments show themselves of the capacity of' Northern Australia to rejieve) overburdened India di^a portioir of/ierf surplus population. If t^e- northern part of-Australia were not Briti»h.^-Writory, India and England would Bigh for its possession. As it is available fno xijpe jis made of it. The. swamps'of: tHe^ greiat rivers which debouch on the north coast would, it is said, grow rice in vasfc< quantities to feed the .famished races of the Asiatic peninsula, and millions of ' these r.acea\"cOuld find on ; A'ustrav Han soil happy homes. Removed from' their present stagnating surroundings, the inducements to work and labor would, be accepted by them, and they would turn a great waste into a thriving country. In the Sonthern hemisphere a cold climate is less distant from the equator than in the northern portion of the globe. In Australia tropical and temperate heat are not greatly separated, and the raced suited for each, other would not be long ia aiding each, other. A railway through the continent would speedily unite them.' The vast mineral wealth of the North, would be developed by the Asiatic races. They would.become large purchasers from the South; they would be the medium,at once of relieving India of Ua p^epent poverty, and of supplying' it with"articles •of consumption-which it now draws from "ISurOJ&e. It is- simply' impossible that trdpical Australia tian fcemain';antenanted whilst tfoploftl Asia is so overcrowded with a famine' stricken .'population,"/ ,'Tke idea here brdachgd' is a -magnificent .conception. Whether its realisation be possible or not we cannot «i^r • More 1 immediately practicable* and praptic'al are the concluding sentences of Sir JuLitrs l- article:—"-lite-rally at the feet of the United, States lie territories peopled, and to be peopled, with populations of the common origin, speaking the same language, owning to the same wants, and with ways of thought not far different. Their mutual trade andcommunicationare as yet meagre in the extreme. The $ime must come* if.- it has not already arrived, when the people of the United States will feel the necessity of cultivating: closer relations with their Australian cousins. The latter are quite able to largely use-and fOonsume American productions, whilst the United States might take from them in exchange in vast quantities at least one of their productions— jwool. It is a wretchedly shorfrsighteq^ policy of the United States to shut oui; by a prohibitive .tariff the wool of Australia and New Zealand.. It is wool of a kind and character not produced in the United States. American manufacturers greatly benefit by its use. We throw out this hint as a suggestive step of a course which might greatly promote friendship) and mutual good offices between the countries concerned." There can be no doubt that the concession here suggested, the admission to America of wool duty free, would be a great boon to these colonies and no doubt an advantage to American manufacturers. It is a hopeful sign of the probability- of such an arrangement when we find the ad visibility of it urged by an Agent»Genqral in the columns of an American publication of sucK high, character and acknowledged influence aai the Princeton Review. I | < ! I | I !