NEW ZEALAND'S REPUTATION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9180, 9 October 1888, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND'S REPUTATION IN ENGLAND.

The European Mail of August 20th has the following :—So the Britain of the South is advancing again. At last ib is being admitted that New Zealand is slowly but surely getting through all financial troubles, and that an era of solid prosperity is again ab hand. One thing seems certain, and that is that owing to recent depression much valuable and "real" property has been bought up by astute Victorian capitalists, and now the inevitable reaction has set in strongly, and the "bargains" of the last few years cannot be repeated ad libitum. Often and often during the period of the late depression have I discussed the subject with New Zealanders here, and I can freely say that one and all have assured me that all the printed " Bearing " remarks regarding the material state of New Zealand have been based on the desire of those who know a good thing when they see it, and who hoped to buy cheaply, against the happy time, now at hand, when all classes of investment in New Zealand should be decidedly " looking up." How can things be otherwise? " The Colony," as an old Canterbury man remarks to me, " has borrowed largely, and as the public works are all on a democratic basis, worked practically by the people for the people, how could ib be reasonably expected that a really high rate of interest could be secured ? Take the railways. Fares are made as moderate as possible for the benefit of the colonists, and per contra the pay of the working staff is put up as high as possible. Well, this is all right enough, bub naturally the earnings could nob under such a regime exhibit any remarkable increase ; and," as my friend went on to say, "the same principle runs through everything." The net result is that, although on the statistics of the public expenditure and income the state of the colony was unpromising from a financial view-poinb, the people individually were doinw remarkably well, and, after all, is nob that tho main thing? Now this individual progress and prosperity begin to tell, the truth cannot well be concealed; and a so-called discovery is made that New Zealand is doing very well indeed. Why, we old-experienced colonists have known this all along, and smile at the " discoveries " now making by the various financial Solons of the City of London !