A CONTRAST.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 237, 25 March 1876, Page 12

A CONTRAST.

The Southern Cross of a late date has an article contrasting the financial position of the colony in 1844-5 with its position in 1875-6. The contrast is certainly remarkable. The revenue of New Zealand, from all sources, for 1845, was £13,387 ; while receipts in aid of revenue, £38,745, brought up the total to £52,132. The Consolidated Revenue for 1874-5 was £1,605,002 ; while provincial receipts in round numbers may be said to foot up another million. In 1845 the public debt of New Zealand amounted to the enormous sum of £20,000, which elicited a rather vigorous protest from Lord Stanley (afterwards Earl Derby), and led to the recall of Governor Fitzroy. In 1875 New Zealand staggered comfortably under a debt of £18,000,000, of which at least six millions were incurred in suppressing a Maori rebellion precipitated by Imperial policy, and which Downing-street patriotically left us to fight out and pay. for or abandon the country at our option. We did not run away, wherefore we were compelled to fight and pay, and England afterwards magnanimously guaranteed one million of New Zealand stock, to be raised on conditions entailing an observance of the strictest principles of economic finance. The change from then to now —from 1845 to 1876 —is certainly a remarkable one. But the mere test of revenue is not in itself sufficient to mark its extent. One must look at the vast increase of wealth in the country —to the extent of cultivated land, the number and value of live stock, its foreign and domestic trade, its manufactures and mining, to railways and telegraph and steamboat lines, to its banks and insurance companies, its educational and charitable institutions, and to the other manifold adjuncts of a highly opulent condition of society, before the contrast between the hard times of the pioneer settlers of 1845 and the pleasant times of New Zealand citizens of to-day can be fully realized. By what energy and integrity of purpose was this great change brought about ? How many failures are to be noted, how many triumphs ? The ups and downs .of colonial life have been pretty equally distributed in this country, and many a conspicuous downfall and as signal an upheaval might be mentioned in New. Zealand between the dates mentioned, illustrative of the conditions of life in a new country. It is well to lookoack on the past a little oftener than men £*re willing to do. It has its lessons, which may not be unheeded with safety, and one of the lessons which the history of New Zealand teaches is the virtue of self-denying industry and perseverance. Without these qualities in the ascendant the pioneers of civilisation would have failed. They would have lost heart, and abandoned the country before the dawn of prosperity broke. But they persevered and have had their reward. If similar qualities are displayed by New Zealand colonists in the future the prospects of the country are indeed bright ; but undue confidence, over-speculation, or a flagrant departure from economic laws, will bring about temporary disaster.