The Globe. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 34, 9 July 1874, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1874.

It appears that there are some people in New Zealand, who do not regard the country as being in the great state of prosperity that we are so constantly assured it is. Mr’Waterhouse’s speech in the Legislative Council last night, was full of alarm for the present state of affairs, and of woeful predictions for the future. He first of all found fault with his Excellency’s speech, which he observed contained nothing; but then the speech delivered by the Governor at the opening of a session very seldom does contain much. He then fell foul of the Premier and Ministers on account of their having been feted during the recess, and (under the genial influence of these fetes we suppose) having promised large sums of money to the various provinces. He next predicted a great fight, and then ho proceeded to touch on the question of immigration. He charged the Government with having broken through constitutional limits on this question, and stated that on the ground of £250,000 having been voted for the introduction of 12,500 immigrants up to the end of the year 1874, the Ministry (and in this case the Ministry means Mr Yogel) had ordered 35,000 immigrants, which at the same rate per head would amount to £700,000. After denying that the introduction of these people into the country lowered the price of wages he made a statement which seems to us extraordinary to a degree, viz, —“ that every imrai- “ grant required to. be housed, and “ for the first twelve months demanded “ labor instead of supplying it.” We can hardly swallow this; is it to he supposed that, even allowing the Agent - General and his subordinates, have not done their work to the satisfaction of the colony, the great majority of people sent out hero do not buckle to work in this country, until they have, been housed for a twelvemonth at Government expense, and are so speak acclimatised; if so we are indeed paying dear for our immigrants. But we cannot go with the hon member as far as this, and from what we have seen, in this province at all events, one month would be a far more reasonable time to fix than twelve, as the time for which the newly imported labourer requires shelter; of course there are some trades whose representatives require a longer time, in consequence of the demand being but limited, but the agricultural labourer need not, here at all events, look for a job for more than the time we have mentioned, provided he is willing to work for what in these colonies is fair day’s wages, and in the old country would have seemed a small fortune to him. After then predicting a crash, which ho believed to be very close at hand, Mr Waterhouse went on to explain his belief in what where the real sources of the temporary prosperity of the colony. It has been the usual cry for some time, more especially by the newspapers in the Yogel interest, that our present prosperity is owing to the grand scheme of public works initiated, and now in the course of being carried out by Mr Yogel. Mr Waterhouse with some show r of reason however, states it to be principally from the rise in the value of our natural products, and secondly from the confidence established thereby whilst he only places the public works policy third in his list of causes. But it must not be forgotten that the natural products of the country in which we may of course include minerals, and timber, could not be developed without the aid of a comprehensive scheme of public works, and as the second clause of Mr Waterhouse’s causes of prosperity binges on the first, so the first may be said to owe its existence in a great measure to the third. After saying, however, that we are prosperous, the hon member explains it is in appearance only, and cites in proof of his argument the fact that we are owing £lO a head all round, and that tightness is observable in the money market. Ho does not, however, expect any fall in the revenue, but merely a stoppage of private enterprises of every kind • but surely the revenue derives great additions from the prosecution of private enterprises, in consequence of the large quantity of imports that are required to carry out the various schemes afloat. The hon member wound up his speech by declaring the Polynesian scheme to he a problem. In this case we can thoroughly agree with him, and hope the problem may bo satisfactorily solved in the course of the next few years.