Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1888. AN ENGLISHMAN ON NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6162, 6 February 1882, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1888. AN ENGLISHMAN ON NEW ZEALAND.

There has beon so nmcli misrepresentatiou of this colony that it ia qllite refreshing to come Across an article on the subject written in a fair spirit. In the Contemporary Review for September Mr Arthur Mills contributes a paper entitled " New Zealand in 1881 " in which, there is an evident desire to do justice to tbe colony, and to depict, without the slightest exaggeration, the natural advantages it possesses and the progress it has made since becoming a British possession, about forty years ago. Mr Mills was only in the colony about four months, *.nd the limited nature of his experience betrays him now and then into views which with a longer residence in the country he would find to be unsound ; but oa the whole he appears to have made good use of his opportunities, and to have succeeded in grouping together a number of facts of considerable in terest to persons at Home contemplating coming out to New Zealand. As a matter j of course, like all other writers on the ' colony, Mr Mills has something to say about our indebtedness. "It startles even an Englishman," he remarks, " to be told that this infant dependency bas so far emulated parental extravagance as to bave piled up already a national debt of nearly £30,000,000. . . . The present financial position of the colony may be said to attract at tbis time especial and even anxious interest in England. Under the powers given by the Public Works Act of 1870 more than twelve millions and a half have been spent on railways and other public works and in immigration, and the debt of the colony has of course been largely increased thereby. The policy of these proceedings has been gravely challenged in some quarters, and doubts have been expressed aa to the power of New Zealand to meet its obligations." Mr Mills does not, however, deem those doubts well grounded. He thinks it probable that some of the money has been unwisely expended, and he questions the propriety of making railways where no traffic which could cover tbe working expenses »eemed likely to arise, but taken as a whole be considers that tbe railway operations of New Zealand can hardly be regarded as a failure. "If New Zealand," he adds, "has in these matters gone ahead rather rapidly, it has been in accordance with the precedents of almost all our free colonies whose ruin has been frequently predicted, but which, nevertheless, still survive." Mr Mills devotes a considerable portion of his paper to the land question, and the difficulties settlers have to encounter, not the least of which is, in bis opinion, the rabbit pest. He decries the notion of endeavoring to plant industries for which the colony does not afford special facilities, and points out that, taking together all the manufactories in New Zealand, the number of hands employed in them scarcely exceeds 12,000, while nearly 50,000 are employed in occupations connected with the land. Still, he does not seem to regard the prospects of the New Zealand farmer as over brilliant. Speaking of a run of 100,000 acres in Canterbury which he visited, he says that if it were cut up into small blocks of two o r three thousand acres each for " smiling homesteads," and each owner had to bear the cost of buildings, labor, cartage, wool-sheds, wire fencing, &c, it is doubtful whether the semi-pastoral, semi- agricultural competitors of the old "squatter" would even make a livelihood of the business. Nevertheless he considers that as a field for emigration New Zealand offers strong temptations to those who can take out with them a fow thousand pounds to buy sheep, and also to those able to work for wages as laborers, &c. "Young gentlemen," he remarks, " who have never been able to buckle up to anything at home, but fancy that with a gun and a pipe and a spirit flask for their stock-in-trade they can find a sphere for their indolence in New Zealand, had far better stay in England and sweep crossings or break stones on tlie roads." After reviewing our political system Mr Mills arrives at tho conclusion that, for all practical purposes of government, New Zealand, like all her sister colonies in the Southern hemisphere, is a llepublic. The Governor has no real power. His instructions from Home must in nearly all cases give way to tbo vote of Parliament, as conveyed to him through his responsible Executive, and vast questions are removed from his cognisance, on tho right solution of which the well-being, if not the safety, of the colony depend. "There 'are, perhaps," he adds, "few communities owing allegiance to our Queen wliich are by their personal and natural advantages better calculated to weather any future political storms thoy may be called on to encounter, than the colony which has been christened the ' Britain of the South.' "