N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1890.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 951, 23 May 1890, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1890.

TO DISCERN.

Nq more eorpmendable purpose than that of bettering the condition

of the country eoujd influence any colonist. Indeed, this ought to be the collective aim of all colonists 5 and first of all to correctly gquge the position. It is the position that is agitating the collective mind, and puzzling it, too. To account for things as they are is attempted, and mostly incorrectly. People imagine they know, and jump to conclusions which are as often as not in error. Arid this is because changing circumstances are not sufficiently considered and appraised. \y e have in the past tried to explain the drift of those circumstances, and the altered conditions brought about thereby, and we make no apology for again reverting to the subject, for the stern contest every one is engaged iu with the realities of life tends to withdraw attention from the finer distinctions of those realities. The main &nd grosser objects are only kept in view by the masses, and the harder the winning of them becomes, the more readily is resentment caßt upon the more prominent apparent source of causes —causes

that se6tn to sway, hut which in reality are effects. For instance, the Administration of public affairs is generally saddled with the responsibi lilies of success or failure of national prosperity, and so is elevated into the region of causes, whereas Administrations are simply the effects of certain national conditions, and do little else thau moderately control those conditions. An Administration of the day represents a totality of past effects, and is just what circumstances and conditions have made it. It is no more able to confer prosperity than is the poorest subject of the State. It has’gathered up the threads of public affairs, generally more or less tangled, and its eu.dea vours mostly He in the direction off keeping the cart right-side up. Momentum must bo imparted by the people. Our argument is applicable to any community, but we particularly direct it to New Zealand. After all, what is an A dministration ? Merely an aggregation of finite men, deeply imbued and influenced by human weaknesses and imperfections. To thrust seven or eight human items into office when the affairs of State are in.a. distracted condition and expect them to produce harmony out of hand is more than unreasonable —it is absurd. It may be urged that the members of the Adminstration are picked men, specially qualified by attainments and experience to administrate arid make all right where all was wrong before. Bub do the results of successive administrativeefforisbear this out ? Does not experience ail along the line only go. to show that administration is really nothing more than seizing upon the salient points of the Colony’s condition, and making the most of them. ’Tis but political and ad minis trative juggling after all to make the worst seem the better and. the better best. There are flashes of inspiration here and there, it is true. An Administration without original ideas would be a libel upon the country that produced it, and the inspiration leavens the lump of administrative matter and renders it effective. There is scarcely anything administrative given effect to that is not first hall-marked by the people. From Administrations proceed propositions, which are accepted or rejected by the people, and if t he people err, who but themselves is in fault ? Even as the whole is greater thau ils part, : so is the State collectively greater than its official Administration. That the will of the people may be badly administered goes without saying, and then, and only then, can administration be justly called to account. To thunder denunciations upon an Administration because it does not manufacture prosperity when the constituents are noc there, is puerile and undignified. It serves but one Bnd-~that of party politics. The present position of the Colony is due principally to the Colony’s united action, and not to any particular line of statecraft. For the position of the Colony is governed by its production ; that is the foundation of all administration. The Litter is easy or difficult, according as the material to work with is stinted 01? in abundance. Settlement and production are at the bottom of it all, and it is to the efforts of the past to anticipate and force them that much pt the difficulty of the present situation is to be attributed. Those efforts were not administrative, but legislative ; administration gave effect to them, and even the effects were tinctured by legislation. Was not the burrowing poliolegislative? It emanated from more minds than one, and was stamped with the mark of public approval by a full Parliament. It was anticipatory and forcing, and bred conditions that are now not quite m harmony with their environment. Things are a little out of place ; there is too much here and too little there. Settlement and production have not kept pace with the creation of occupations. The latter are in excess, and friction is set up in the struggle for existence that is both painiul and a hindrance. Naturally an outcry is raised, and bitter plaints for relief from what is the unavoidable outcome of a deliberately adopted arfcificiajity, And this same artifi ciality is still at work elsewhere, and operates disadvaiitageouslv to the Oolouy, It is in full blast in Australia, where artificial stimulants are still provided in the shape of loans to keep the people going. And where those stimulants are, there the people who delight in them will be j attracted, Did not New Zealand in

it s day attract such ? Who rushed the newly-discovered goldfields but men to whom stimulus was second nature; and how many of the goldseekers became permanent settlers ? Only a comparatively small proportion. Who flocked to the defence forces for the sake, chiefly, of the land grants but mostly men of a similar kidney who subsequently sold their “ tickets ” for what they would fetch, and dissipated the proceeds? Thev did not become permanent settlers, but mere hangers-on, ready to drift elsewhere on the slightest provocation. And the Public Works attracted just such other people, who simply bartered their labour for money, with no thought of casting anchor in the land. And as the scope of the public works became con tracted, these men passed on to other regions where the conditions wore more congenial. And this is going on even now. New Zealand has ceased to anticipate and force, and is relying on what the permanent occupation of the soil will do for her Th'is means a comparatively humdrum existence for the great bulk of the labourers, and only those who have really “settled down ” can put up with it. But they are the very bone and sinew of the land, markedly in contrast with the comers and goers, here to-rday and gone to-morrow, attracted by stimulus elsewhere, if they w.ll not stay in the country the couniry is better without them. If they are t>> be retained stimulus must be provided. But there is very wide agreement now that that game is not worth the particular candle demanded Dv if.