Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1881. POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 79, 5 April 1881, Page 3

Evening Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1881. POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

♦ Several very interesting speeches on the position and prospects of this Colony were delivered at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, held in London on the 4th February. It is gratifying to notice that the speakers all expressed the most unbounded confidence in the future of the Colony, and gave substantial and practical reasons for that confidence, so that this constitutes very satisfactory testimony to the real soundness and solvency of New Zealand. The bugbear of which so much has been made by our detractors—the large public debt —was very pithily disposed of by one of the speakers, Dr. Drysdale, in ono sentence. "In England." he said, "we have a large public debt for wars, whereas in New Zealand the debt was incurred for railways and other public works." He admitted it was large in proportion to the population, but declared his firm conviction that in 20 or 30 years New Zealand would have a population of " several millions." Perhaps the moat interestiig speech was that of Sir Edward Stafford, who, as a very old New Zealand colonist of high distinction and an ex- Premier of the colony, is entitled to speak with considerable authority. Sir Edward said: —"When you speak of the largeness of the debt and compare it with the amount of the population, you should consider the character of the population. Now, I say, taking man, woman, and child in New Zealand, and in the United Kingdom, the people in New Zealand aro infinitely wealthier on the whole than those in the United Kingdom. It is true that we have got no Rothschilds or Barings, although we havo somo persons there with £30,000 or £40,000 a year, but, at the same time, we have no poor rates, nor a large amount of hereditary paupers, as unfortunately you have in this country. It is true that latterly there have been meetings of the unemployed, and that the Government ha 3 given employment to the people at lower rates of wages. But I, from my knowledge and experience of the country, can say that while the great majority of these people who are unemployed in the towns could get work in the country it they chose to accept it, they prefer to remain in the town and take government work. Why, one of the last papers I had from New Zealand showed this curious fact, that while some hundreds of people were in the employment of the Government, making a railway toward the north from Canterbury, there was in the same paper an advertisement for carpenters at 12s a day wages, and that advertisement had been standing in the paper for some weeks and had apparently not been responded to. When we remember that the hours of labor in New Zealand are only 8 hours a day, I think wo must say that an ordinary mechanic can not be in a very bad position when he refuses work the pay for which iB Is 6d an hour." Remarking on the large aud increasing exportation of grain for Now Zealand, and the price it brought in Great Britain, lie argued that a comparatively low price would pay New, Zealand farmers, owing to the simple and expensive method of cultivation employed. Ho said :—": —" It ia the uniform system that the virgin soil which has never seen a plough before, i 3 scratched —for I oannot call it anything else —to the depth of two or three inches, and as much as 40 bushels an acre have been got from that simple process, so that the cost is not much. Then again, it is to be considered that the great majority of the people who farm pay no rents, but the farms which they cultivate aro their own freeholds, which they have purchased at from £1 to £2 per acre. I admit that they have to pay high wages, and I am glad of it, because the payment of those high wages contributes to the prosperity of New Zealand." A further strong point in our case was brought into prominence by another speaker, Mr. Farmer, who remarked: —"The fact that tho exports from New Zealand are of the value of £15 a head, man, woman, and child, is a proof that the men there do work. There is no other community which exports so much in proportion to the population. They aro quite a different class from the agricultural labourer in England." A letter from Mr. Larkworthy, the ManagingDirector of tho company, at that time on a visit to New Zealand, was also referrod to, in which Mr. LarkwokThy wrote "in language full of praise of the country — more enthusiastic than the most enthusiastic of tho Colonists." A remark was also quoted which had been made lately at a bank meeting in London by a gentleman of high position in that city and in financial circles. He said —" Tho Colony of New Zealand has been lately much decried here on account of its large indebtedness in proportion to its population, and its bonds havo consequently suffered somewhat in value A change, however, is beginning to come over the ideas of the people here. They begin to see that retrenchment is tho order of the day in New Zealand ; that her engagements are punctually met; that the taxation necessary for making head against the interest of her large debt is well responded to ; and that her vast resources aro rapidly developing 1. She is the only one of the Australian coloniea where English grasses flourish, and which, with a trifling help from turnips or lucerna, in her short winter of three months, will carry four, five, and six sheep, and in Napier and other favored spots even ten sheep to the acre, against Australia's two acres to each sheep " Allusion, too, was made to tho official report of Mr. M'Mullkn, the General Manager and Inspector of the Union Bank of Australia, who, perhaps, was still more qualified to speak on this subject. That gentleman, tho chairman said, " lies lately written that ho has great faith in her agricultural prospects, and thinks she will evidently outstrip the Australian Colonies and become the future Great Britain of the south." He adds, "Her climate is splendid, and her resources—pastoral, agricultural, and mineral —are all but illimitable." On that statement, the chairman of the Union Bank remarked, " This testimony from Mr. M'Mullen in favor of this much-abu3ed Colony is the more valuablt, as, from his long residence in Victoria, his prepossessions ought to bo in favor of Australia I need say nothing in favor of the Australian Colonies. Their prosperity is so great that they require no oulogium from me. It is only on account of New Zealand's state not being so satisfactory as that of Australia that 1 have confinedmy remarks to endeavoring to show that, although at present under a cloud, she posscssob all the elements of future greatness." It was justly observed that this is " a pieco of evidence unique and forcible, and, coming from a quarter more likely to be prejudiced against New Zealand than in its favor, is very remarkable." Certainly such strong and direct testimony to the inherent financial stability and progressive prosperity of this Colony ought to do much to clear away the misconceptions which have been so sedulously fostered in England by persons interested in depreciating the credit of Now Zealand. Mr. Thomas Rossell, who presided at the meeting under notice, also made some forcible and well-timed observations tending in the lame direction. It is very satisfactory to find that however active and persistent the detractors of this Colony may be, they are invariably met and th'iir slanders completely demolished by the irresistible logic of stubborn facts and irrefutable figures.