THE PROGRESS OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5299, 9 November 1878, Page 6

THE PROGRESS OF NEW ZEALAND.

The earnestness with which Sir Julius Vogel, in his recent address to the Colonial Institute, pointed out the advantages of all our Australian Colonies, and of New Zealand in particular, for the safe investment of British capital, will not have been forgotten by those who give attention to such matters. He very forcibly showed how much more satisfactorily that capital could hare beou, and can be, employed there than in propping up rotten States and in assisting foreign nations to maintain huge armaments. If tbe money which we lent to ligypt and to Turkey, he asserts, had been invented in developing our colonies, the Eastern Question would never have reached its present critical stage. Without discussing this point we can admit Ilia general conclusions that more of the national attention should be, and must bo, „|ven to the development of our colonies. That development has been wonderful enough hitherto, but it is nothing to what the future may do. It is marvellous to think of the advances of New Zealand, for instance, since the Dutch skipper Tasman first sighted its shores iu 1G42. What cause we have to thank his memory for not planting his national flag upon its cliffs, and so depriving us of one of our most valuable safety-valves ! Our übiquitous Cook, 130 years later, was more practical; he Dlanted both the potato and the British flag, and both have taken root and flourished ever since. Captain Cook proposed colonisation there even in his day but not until 1539 was any real attempt made. Iu that year the first cargo of urn"rants was sent j within twelve months thereafter the number of colonists were 1200; in 1577 it was over -iOO.OOO ! To peo pie a new country in less than 40 years with ■100,000 souls, importing and exporting to the extent 12 millions sterling, possessing in round figures 100,000 horses, 000,000 cattle, aud 12,000,000 sheep, and employing over GOO miles of railway, is aa accomplishment the like o£ which the world has not seen before. It has been thought, indeed, that New Zealand has been advancing too rapidly that to be sound her progress ought to be more gradual. Wo confess to having to some extent shared tlii3 feeling, but the particulars of the Colonial Treasurer's Budget for the current year, recently telegrapuud, are very reassuring. _ We learn that the revenue lor the past financial year exceeded the estimate by £7.30,000, -reaching the total of £3,900,000. Such a revenue from a population two thirds of that of Glasgow seems incredible, until we tind that £1,900,000 of it was obtained from land salts ; but even the remainder is truly amazing. Including tho previous year s lxilauce and items received on behalf oflocal bodies, the total receipts reached £-1,415,000 —being an increase of £1,080,000 on the corresponding.total of the previous year. The railways have earned £5-IG,OOO, leaving the handsome proiit of £143,000 : the surplus for tho year over expenditure is £120,000. For the current year the revenue is estimated at £4,250,000, aud tho expenditure at £4,190,000— the railways being calculated to yield this time £; 10.000- lhe exports of the colony for the year / were to the value of £0,300,000, making tho very satisfactory increase of £700,000 on IS7G. Some changes are proposed in the tariff; cttl cahrcm duties are to be made specific and cert.iiu duties remitted aud reduced. The reduction on Customs revenue >vi:l_ be thus to tiic amount of £117,000, aud ngainst this

i>, land-tax and some o trier smaller taxes arc to bo imposed, which arc expected to produce fUI.OOO. This Budget U certainly remarkably satisfactory as far as one can judge, but the iiscal authorities of the colony should keep well before them the tiiuo when the territorial revenue must rapidly dwindle away, and ultimately disappear altogether. Tliey canuot go on for ever a million or so annually for the sa.e of lands, and how do they mean to make up the amount when this item is no longer available ?

Sir Julius Yogel said that there is practically unlimited occupation for Kritish capital in Keiv Zealand. Doubtless there is, but is it, therefore, desirable that the colonists should act it too quickly and too readily Public works have been pushed on "with untiring energy —railways are still being constructed, and ere long there will be 1000 miles in operation, and altogether there i 3 an unmistakable lt go-ahead" spirit abont the colony. But it must not be allowed to go too fast. It has already the enormous public debt of £20,000,000, and we think it would be wiser to allow the comitry to

-» J.- —i.-1 l. „ „ than to keep pushing on in anticipation. The older colony o£ New South Wales, with a population one-half more, has a public debt of only £12,000,000, Prosperous though she appears now, therefore, it behoves New Zealand to be cautious in her further advances. She waits more emigrants, and has authorised her Agent-General in London to send 1000 additional this year. That there is plenty of room for these is certain, notwithstanding that now and again -we hear of disappointed and disheartened ones who return home no better than they went. Men who go to New Zealand must go prepared, not to make their fortunes in a year, but to rough it, and to work hard perhaps for several years. They must not expect to find there the Fortunate Isles described in a French posm, where geese go roasting themselves through the streets, where the rivers run wine, where bubble the fountains of perpetual youth, and where one finds a now suit of clothes every month. If not exactly a land flawing with milk and liouej*, it is one which oilers a good cliuiato and plenty of scope, with promise of fair reward for hc-aithy, well-directed energy and properlyapplied capital.—G/asgow Hci'ald, August 20.