THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4137, 24 June 1874, Page 3

THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND.

[Prom the Adelaide Ohservcr t May 3T] Under the spirited leadership of its energetic Premier New Zealand is fast pushing itself into a foremost place amongst the Provinces of the South. Mr Vogel lias set before himself the patriotic task of helping to the utmost of his power in promoting it to the position of the first Colony of the Australasian group, and nobly is he fulfilling his voluntary engagement. Possessing some of the most needful attributes of the genuine statesman —a vigorous intellect, a comprehensive grasp of mind, and abundant self-confidence—he has committed himself and the country to a grand programme, and is carrying it' out with corresponding fearlessness. Although not formally recognised as Dictator, he has by the force of circumstances been virtually forced into that office. Amongst his contemporaries there are few, if any, able or willing- to supplant him at the present juncture, for the power that lie wields is associated with immense responsibility. The policy to which he is giving effect is but in its infantile and experimental stage, and sanguine as he may be of its ultimate success it cannot reasonably be expected that he should be able to shake himself free of wearing anxiety during the course of its development. To all appearances his policy so far has been productive of eminently satisfactory results. The least that can be said in its favor is that the country has made progress of the most reassuring character. In the flood of prosperity that has prevailed of late throughout the whole of Australasia, New Zealand has participated in full measure. Her imports and exports exhibit an enormous increase for 1873 as compared with 1872. Her revenue has expanded to an extent which throws into the shade our own surplus of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds. During the last six mouths of 1872 the Consolidated Fund received =£401,000 ; during the like period of 1873 it netted £025,000, the increase being at the rate of £202,000 for the year. This and much more did the jubilant Premier, who lias evidently no fear before his eyes of provoking Parliamentary jealousy by speaking freely upon political topics whilst addressing meetings of electors, tell the people of Dunedin at a splendid banquet given in his honor a month or two ago. Referring to the state of the bonded debt be was particularly severe upon outside critics, “who, claiming the right to speak potentially upon financial questions,” took upon themselves to accuse the Colony of not knowing the extent of its own indebtedness. For the benefit of these presumptuous cavillers^Mr. Yogel explained the total debt on the 30th June last, exclusive of the amount invested on account of the Sinking Fund. £14,000,000 is not a trifling burden for a Colony numbering less than 300,000 souls, and we are content to believe that the Premier has in his figures come pretty near the mark. It is only due to Mr. Yogel to say that the extent of the debt occasions him no visible alarm. He has discovered that after making certain deductions—very ingenious deductions they are, too, in their way—the annual charge upon the people is not more than I*2 per cent, of their average earnings, and he consoles himself with the reflection that this is considerably below the proportional indebtedness of the population of the United Kingdom, America, Russia, France, and Austria. That, however, is not his only solace, for the fact that the Land Revenue has increased from £194,000 in 1870, £230,000 in 1871, and £500,000 in 1872, to £1,116,000 in 1873, seems to afford him unbounded satisfaction. Amongst other subjects to which Air. Vogel drew attention in the course of his speech may be noted the different modes of disposing of the waste lands of the Crown practised by the different Provincial Governments, the propriety of conserving forests, and the wisdom of fostering by all legitimate means a trade with the South Sea Islands. His remarks on the firstnamed topic proclaim him to be anything but an ardent land reformer in the sense in which that term is understood in this Colony. He roundly upbraided the Otago authorities with being blind to their own interests in disposing of land at a lower price than about £2 per acre on a system of free selection after the model of that in force in Canterbury Province. Upon the forest question his remarks were instinct with a warmth and vigor worthy of the cause. “We protect oysters, we protect ducks, we protect all sorts of birds and fish, which are brought to maturity in little more than a year or two, but these grand woods, which require for their perfection scores, or even hundreds of years, we deem beneath a moment’s consideration.” Alluding to the unconquerable prejudice existing in a certain class of minds against the interference of the State in matters capable of being dealt with by private enterprise, he exclaimed “Can any doctrine of any school convince me that it Is not the duty of *4ie Government—the representative of the whole people—to step forward and say that it is against the most sacred laws of God to allow these grand works of Nature, the trees of the forest, to be wastefully, profligately cut down, not for use, but for riotous waste, as has been the case in this Colony V With equal pertinency the inquiry may be made here, and the answer must be the same. “Itis a desecration of principles which we ought to revere to allow any such thing.” A passing reference to the Land Transfer or Real Property Act—- “ one of the greatest blessings ever afforded to New Zealand”—formed a fitting sequel to Mr. Vogel’s observations upon the immigration policy, which, in conjunction with the gigantic public works he has inaugurated, forms the crowning glory of his administration —the chief evidence of his statesmanlike qualities. To promote the development of the resources of the Colony by means of railways and other undertakings of general utility, and concurrently with this to stimulate immigration to the utmost—these arc the cardinal points in Ids programme, and it is this which raises his policy above the petty parochial groove in which some Colonial politicians—and notably some of those in South Australia—are content to remain.