THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1886.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7787, 5 November 1886, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1886.

Somk people say that the next best thing to being praised i 8 to be abused. The Australasian colonies have been receiving a great deal of the mixed attention of late—admiration even to the verge of adulation, and censure sometimes so forcible as to be downright abuse. Let us hope that we may not lose our heads under the ordeal— that to be so much talked about may not tend to the development of that egotism which is no more wholesome or beautiful in the public than in the individual. It is said to have such an effect on very young communities; and in America what is known as highfalutin, and the spread eagle style, many ascribed to the wonder that used to be expressed at their energy and resources, and the praise of their progress, however tempered by that facetious criticism of their peculiarities which was bo much in vogue forty or I

fifty yearsago. Butsince then the Yankee has emerged from his hobbledehoyhood and his young republic is become one of the great Powers of the world. So the scene has been transferred to a newer group of population with also a manifest destiny, but still only in the gristle, not yet in the bone. Travellers have charged us out here with this infantile tendency "to blow." Mr. Anthony Trollope and Baron Hiibner both complained in their books that their opinions of the great objects of local pride and interest would never be asked but that it was, " Well, we have got a grand cicy herej" or " Oorne, here is a piece of scenery to be proud of." It touched them to the quick—after their familiarity with all the old world could show—to encounter no curiosity as to their impressions, but only a call for acquiescence in what such confident youngsters of yesterday thought of their belongings ! Very likely the tendency to selfcongratulation and boastfulness, natural to young communities, is already cropping out among us. Indeed many things have occurred of late which might help to produce this inflation. There was the spirited proceeding of New South Wales in sending a corps of troops to the Soudan war. The men were not long together, and their training was therefore imperfect; and then the campaign ended so soon after, that the men had not opportunity to perform the part they eagerly went for. None the less the effect in Europe was seasonable and excellent. It was an earnest of things to come, the promise of the future. It showed to all beholders the disposition of the colonies, even at the uttermost parts of the earth, to do their best for the Empire atopportunity or occasion.- The Exhibition at the Imperial head-quarters has been another event very flattering to colonial self-respect. It showed spectators of all nations that Great Britain has, materially, a Greater Britain springing up—if. still only in the bud, not the flower. It is possible the impression made on foreign nations may, in some degree, be seen in the Jubilee Exhibition to be held in Adelaide next year. The German Government, we observe, will assist the forwarding of exhibits; and, in fact, there are more German settlers in South Australia than in any other of these colonies. So too the Belgian Government, also very anxious to cultivate commercial relations with us, have the subject under consideration ; and steps are being taken for a French court suitably representative in the display.

But, while compliments have been poured out over the sending of a colonial contingent to the Soudan, and the colonial progress illustrated at Kensington, and while manifold hospitalities and attentions are lavished on colonial visitors in England, our enemies are likewise busy; and the Standard and Mr. Froude are ingenious and industrious. They would fain discredit the solvency and the honesty of the colonial debtor. It is, indeed, quite true that the New Zealand debt, including the latest addition, now amounts to £33,700,000; and that at the close of 1885, according to Mr. Hayter's Australasian Statistics, the debt of New South Wales reached £35,564,000, and that of Victoria £28,528,000—the debts of the whole Australasian group amounting to £140,970,000. These are very big obligations; and, although we possess a rich inheritance, it is wise to mend our hand in the borrowing line—as in New Zealand, for one colony, we are now proceeding to do. It is not well to play the part of the madcap heir, but as matter of fact it is the greatness of our prospects and the rapidity of the progress which tempted the big borrowing. At the close of last year the shipping of the seven Australasian colonies numbered close on 17,000 vessels, measuring 12,407,499 tons. There were at the same time 8050 miles of railway, and 73,000 miles of telegraph. The imports were set down at the value of £63,000,000, and the exports at £51,500,000. There were over 8,000,000 cattle, and 82,000,000 sheep, of which New South Wales, with its immense area, pastures 37,000,000; while New Zealand has 14,000,000, and Victoria 10,000,000. The increase for the last five years has been 26 per cent, in New Zealand, while only 2 per cent, in Australia. For our staple export of wool the demand will greatly extend. We have already a Continental market in the port of Antwerp, and with the enlarging manufacture in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, none of them great wool-growing countries, they will take more and more of the raw material from us. And we have another such prospect in Japan. The attention now given to the raising of meat in New Zealand is seen in the addition to our cultivated land of two million acres of artificial grasses. The frozen meat export is only in its infancy, and such is also the case with our rising trade in dairy produce, &c. New Zealand, by its geographical position, as well as insular form, is bound to have the great seagoing enterprise of the group, and already its fleet of steamers has a tonnage twice as large per head as that of all the Australian colonies together.