The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3394, 7 January 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1874

To the list of remarkable conversions to the po'icy of the Premier, we have now to add our morning contemporary, the ‘Daily Times.’, ,Wo congratulate the Editor on this sign of returning health; i nor shall we risk causing a relapse to his : late VoGEL-phobia by drawing comparisons between his present happy state of mind end that from which he has; emerged. With this friendly greeting VoJGSve, him. In the main, r Mr Vogel’s speech was am able one. It is quiteuune cessary to comment upon those portions of it which bore immediately upon the Public Works policy. They were repetitions of what is already known, and refutations of fallacies repeated until people begin to believe them. Neither - need we say much at present of his criticism of the doings of the CbBuEN Club, at a meeting of 'wbich two questions—Free trade and the limits of Government . interference , with private enterprise. wf re discussed, and by one speaker muddled together. Nothing' that has taken place in any part of the word has tended in any way to shake the soundness of the principle of free exchange. In all cases, where for a while protective;-tariffs appear to have. answered the end in establishing otherwise nnremunerative industries, the truth remains that absolutely those who follow them are sustained at a- national loss, and that the same’, labor and capital judiciously employed would tend to enrich rather than impoverish the country. The effects of national policy of that description are not seen at once. Perhaps generations pass before its‘,gpod or evil manifests itself, and large inasses of the population l grow up nurtured under it, rendering return from to true principles difficult.; We know that, in New Zealand, examples abound that may be pointedto as instances of the success of the protective principle, but which, thoroughly investigated, prove its hollowness. We need not. repeat that we never have agreed Vogel in his ideas on that > subject, vHis remarks - upon the throwing R'Way of the Colonial Estate deserve serious consideration.. It may be perfectly true that by settling, a large population on the land abundant revenue is secured, because the annual Contribution ofeach individual in the Cplony is nearly four pounds. But the question really anses whether it is necessary to part with the;fee simple of the land in order to secure settlement. Mr Vogel points to m eiror of belling’ land now at the same fixed price as when the interest of money was much higher, and when there were no facilities of communication between producers and corisunaere. ; He shewed that it ..is, worth much more now than when first the Province was settled, and that consequently it is unjust 'to all classes of the community to alienate it on former t,;rma. It is unjust t«» early buyers, for vinua ly they paid a higher price on aceou-1 of th’ disadvantages they labored under'; and it is unjust to the present populatirn, fjr it tmda j to foster speculation and to withdrawing land [-from cultivation. Thd wayiu whidh tbe sys.

tem works is that capitalists buy large areas, which they either retain lor mere grazing purposes, hold for higher t rices, or' let in smail sections to tenants who pay a handsome rent for the use of the land ; and who, we may observe, would have been equally glad to occupy it on similar terms as tenants' oi of the Governmfent. The question suggested by Vogel must, sooner or later, be dealt with.

1S Fxcellenqy the Governor, we considered most happy in his ; remarks upon our institutions Oiir gaol, however well conducted is not adapted to the purposes for which gaols ought to be constructed. Mr Caldwell has donemore than could have been exptc ed with the appliances at his command. Hut to make a gaol amerepunitiveiusteadofa re'ormative institution, is to lose sight of one of the most obvious purposes for which it should be designed, Equally defective in, means of classification are our Lunatic Asylum and Hospital. *\Nor should we ex- ’ elude our School system from the list of> what may be improved. His Excellency truly said no community improves by looking too far. back ; i. e. by regarding with too great admiration-;wbat'has been done. The way to advance is to look forward ; to see what steps may be safely and immediately taken; to regard what has been done as having answered its purpose when adapted to the phase- of social development 1 existing at the time. But we might just as reasonably have expected to cross the Atlantic with the aid, of the engine that propelled the Comet on the. Clyde, as to assume that appliances suitable to a population’ of twenty thousand are equal to the needs of one of eighty or one hundred thousand, Otago has, done much, as Mr Vogel truly said, in police and educational arrangements; perhaps, too, the prosperity of the Province as a safeguard against crime should not be lost sight of; but our machinery must be adapted to our' requirements, dr we cannot advance. His Excellency’s suggestion is a valuable one ; let us examine our institutions with a view to their improvement.