"SNYDER"

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3623, 21 June 1873, Page 3

"SNYDER"

WANTS TO KNOW SEVERAL THINGS ABOUT nrxrioEANTs and iiijiigeation.—hb is HOT UPON THE DEFENCE MINISTER. I TniNK I have allayed the touching and pathetic anxiety of that thoughtful Editor who, the other day, so beseechingly asked what we were going to do with our boys and girls. He must have felt a heavy mental strain had been removed when he read my receipt, and no doubt acknowledges that he ia under a multiplicity of obligations to me. All that I shall now ask of him in return, is, that he will tell mo what we shall do with all the immigrants we now aro importing when tho railways and other public undertakings are completed or knocked off for want of tho necessary funds to carry them on. That's "what I want to be enlightened about. What :ire we to do with tho thousands of men brought to these shores when the Colonial Treasurer, from his seat in Parliament, declares that, " Owing to the disturbed state of Europe arising out of Continental complications, the London Stock Exchange does not feel inclined to recommend New Zealand securities to capitalists or the larger monetary establishments." Or that, " In consequence of the inability of the colony to meet the interest accrued and accruing on tho loan debentures, the Imperial Government has placed a veto on our borrowing powers." Should one or the other happen, what then are wo to do with our surplus population ? Every man of them has got digestive organs which will insist upon a meat and bread Bupply to grind up into fU-sh and blood, and skins susceptible of climatic influences which will demand clothes and shelter. If these men aro net able to procure these from their thews and sinews, it is certain we or some one else will have to procure it for them. Now then, Mr. Editor, what I want you to answer is this : —We have some thousands of immigrants already in our midst, whilst active, energetic and untiring Featherstone,who wearsaTurkish cap and drinks brandy pawnee while he lounges 011 a sofa smoking a luxurious pipe in his magnificent, ofiices at the west end of London, lias promised that the colony shall be blessed with twelve thousand move immigrants before tho close of the present year. How shall we turn them to account. ? I know that you are a magnificent, theorist, and thai, you are altogether surprising in statistical information. You will explain to us that in England so many thousand pounds per annum are expended in chiekweed and groundseli used as food for linnets und skylarks, and you will be asking why we do not turn our attention to the growing of these valuable and important weeds. You will point out the adaptability of our soil and climate for growing canary seed and you will assuro your readers that when you go down to Parliament-house, next month, you will causo a return to be laid on the table showing the number of canaries in tlie colony, so that the exact acreage of ground shall be ascertained necessary to supply our local canaries with canary seed. You will refer to the necessity for cultivating Turkey rhubarb, and devoting attention to tho castor oil plant, and you will demand information as to the amount of rhubarb pills and castor oil disposed of by chemists and druggists for a period extending over from a certain day to that day ten years, both days inclusive; and moreover, you will refer to our importing of things in general, which you will tell us we ought, not to import as we are very well able to produce t.liein curselves, and you will Write, as you always have written since you have come down this way, an amount, of balderdash which will never explain matters as they are or as t.liey ought to be, because you don't know any better, which, whilo they make intelligent peoplo laugh, confuse and bewilder the ignorant. You have written of the great, want of Labour, but you do not urge the necessity of Capital accompanying; it, when without the latter it is as hard to employ the former as the Egyptians of old times found it hard to make bricks without straw. Of course I know very well in answering my objections you will refer to the large accumulations of surplus moneys in our banks and monetary establishments, but it has not been given you (which is no! your fault) to understand that the kind of capital that has been permitted to accumulate in the hands of men is not that which they will employ to work the waste lands of tho colony with. That sort of thing is not in their line. They prefer to invest it oil interest—in banks and companies and tho like—but not in the land, O, jou unsophisticated simpleton. You thought you wero advocating a beautiful policy when you urged the Government and said you would insist upon the Government granting to every man so much land, either free or at a nominal charge, upon long credit, that ho might work it; and then you talked about men reclining under fig trees and vine leuvee, and all that sort of thing, quite beautiful-like to contemplate, because you wero under the impression that, given the land, everything beneficial would follow. You did not appear to comprehend ; and to give you all due credit, it was only your deficiency of intelligence that you did not see that land without capital to clear it, to enclose it, to stock it with seed and implements, and with horses and cattle, was worthless. Yon did not consider, that the land of a farm or an agricultural holding is useless without the holder possesses tho necessary means to work it before ho can bring his produce to market. Tho want of Labour is all you have written about, but the want of its confrere, Capital, you have Baid never a word. You aro the product of "Sleepy Hollow," which awaits your coming before it goes off into another chronic doze, —then why, O why, do you not return to its welcoming bosom ? If I havo said anything hero that is ill-naturod, pray, Mr. Hnquirer into the futuro of our boys and girls, don't take it to heart. I mean nothing, and am suffering from bile and sluggishness of tho liver. Don't, you go back to Sleepy Hollow, but stop where you aro, and when the time comes, go down to Wellington and record your vote, like a good old man a3 you are, to the order of your " ahuperiors."

Tho prospect of a native war is, I think, fading away into the distant vista, and those who were advocating bloodshed — that is the bloodshod of any one else but themselves —are cooling down. Tho meaning of a nativo war, as I take it to bo, is this —Tho destruction of life, tho burning of homesteads, the coming of devastation, l-uin, and misery to many families ; of the retarding of tho progress of tho province for many years, of tho stoppage of many industries, aud of the depreciation of all kinds of property. A native war means temporary prosperity to the sellers of alcohol, to contractors for tho commissariat, to men who wait upon armed forces, and to those hanging round the doors of Government offices, who, unlit for any usoful thing in creation, tout lor that most contemptible of all things, a appointment to some post, for which tho recipients aro altogether unfitted. I may fairly presume that the sugar-and-flour policy has worn itself out, and if our Native Defence Minister does not account for the hundreds of thousands of pounds he has been allowed to handle for patchiug up a rotten peace, the Treasury purse-strings will not again be loosened that moro money may go into the purse for any such purposes as it has heretofore been employed in. Mr. McLean will have £. heavy account to answer to the Assembly when it meets, in a few weeks. He will have to prove to the representatives of tho colony that ho was not aware that while he was crying; peace, peace, there was no peace. If, indeed., it can be shown, and I think it will be shewn, that ho knew tliia to havo Ijeen the I case, then should he be sent to the right-about forthwith for allowing us to remain self-com-placent under so great a delusion. If he did not know this, than his utter ignorance of what was known to so many others is proof incontestiblo that he is utterly unlit for a Defenco Minister. Will it satisfy the people that during all this time of trouble and disquitude Mr. McLean should have remained in the Beclusion of his office at Wellington, while he haß trusted everything to Mr. Mackay, a Government attache. A bold and able general, if he does sometimes keep at the rear of his army, is, nevertheless, always in tho battle-field, on a coign of vantage to guide, direct and inspire those under his command and direction. Will it latisfy the people that Mr. McLean shall be content

I to remain indoors, eomo hundreds of miles away from the scene of the great difficulty, and deem that he has done sufficient, when Inorders aorue doubtful friendly Maori a meerchaum pipe and a purse of sovereigns,to answer because he did not pommit some cold-blooded murder? The bile has not departed from me yet, and will continue intermittent until I see that gen'leman able to give an account of himself. Redoubts being erected here ; armed constabulary stationed there; forces being concentrated elsewhere ; an enormous amount of money being expended, as we shall soon find out to our cost, and the })efence Minister in Wellington. Let it be understood that, Mr. McLean was not made one of the Ministerial team, because he was a statesman ; not because he was an able politician ; not because he could give substantial aid or advice to Ministers upon colonial matters; not because he was an educated, accomplished gentleman ; not because he was a speaker or a debator. His ability was known not to be in excess of the average run of many men, who, for years past, have hung about Maori whares, and acquired a knowledge of a barbarous language. But, Mr. McLean wns selected because it was believed he was able to cope with tho Maori difficulty ; because it was thought he was a brave, daring skilful man, capable of keeping the hostile tribes in subjection. And thorn they are, east and west of tho Waikato, defying us, arming themselves, laying up stores, and Mr. McLean is in After this, people who read will know my sentiments about that gentleman.— Weekly Herald.