New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4200, 5 September 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1874.

Some New Zealand matters have been receiving attention of late in Sydney and Melbourne, but we are unable to congratulate some of the smaller of our critics either on the accuracy of their information or the feeling which inspires them. The Sydney Morning Herald , which should have been better informed, and might have been able t.p take a larger view on the subject, when writing on the Polynesian scheme which the Premier at one time pressed on the attention of Par-liament-in the session just passed, remarks : There might, perhaps, be some justification for this ambitious desire to take the Polynesian race in hand and civilise it, if New Zealand had made such a marked success with the Maori race as to show that it had learnt the art of bringing the two races into contact with the result of preserving and elevating the one without deteriorating the other. But the fact is that Maori wars have been a constant trouble to New •Zealand, and the trouble is not over yet. This difficulty is represented by millions of debt, and by hindrances ,at the present moment to the spread of colonisation. What reason have we for supposing that New Zealand could make a greater success with the Polynesian Natives than it has done with the Maoris ? Nothing loss accurate and more illogical could possibly have emanated from the most ignorant and unthinking of newspaper writers. It is foliy to say that New Zealand is burdened with “millions” of debt on account of the Maoris. The total debt of New Zealand is not represented by “many millions, ” and is nearly all accounted for by public works that are becoming of a reproductive character ; will be thoroughly so when the whole scheme is? completed ; and they will be a credit to the Colony long before that date. The Maoris have pretty well paid in full by their confiscated lands for the mistakes of Governments in past times. It is an equally ignorant assertion that the Maori difiicnlty still stands in the way of the spread of colonisation. Something like twenty thousand souls have been added to the population of the Colony since the immigration policy of the present Government was actively entered upon, and not the slightest difficulty in settling them has been experienced through any Maori trouble ; some fourteen or fifteen thousand more are coming, and the fear of the Maori, or any obstruction caused by him, will not stand in the way of their settlement upon the land, or of finding profitable employment. The “ Maori •difficulty,” in short, has been most successfully grappled with by the present Government, and is extinguished in almost everything but name. The ■Herald's argument, therefore, might be turned against it ; for it is the existing Government which has drawn “ the two races into contact, with the result of preserving and elevating the one without deteriorating the other.” There is, therefore, some “justification” for the present Ministry of New Zealand takings in hand—all things) else being propitious —tho management of a South Sea trade. “Atticus,” in the Melbourne Leader, also favors New Zealand with occasional attentions, always—no doubt—with the best intentions, but with characteristic indifference to facts so long as he can make a point, and a snobbishness which, among press writers, is “all his own.” Ho sajs : ' I should like to know tho real truth about Mow Zealand, Mr. Vogel’s policy is variously described. Ills admirers regard him as a benevolent fairy, tWio is doing ns much by a firm and vigorous policy in one year as would take under ordinary circumstances at least twenty, and who by ids boldness and courage is converting a Colony into a nation. The detractors of the New Zealand Premier regard him as a financial conjuror who lias played Ida last trick, and is now utterly helpless. Ills immigration scheme is working wonderfully well—for Victoria. The number of really useful men who are gradually finding their way to this Colony is already tolerably large, and is becoming larger. Where the honey is there the bees will dock, and where tho wages are tho highest thither tho men will resort. * “ Atticus” will be happy to learn that hia information regarding tho state of feeling and matters in Now Zealand would be greatly improved by just the smallest grain of Attic salt. Most people undoubtedly believe that tho spirited policy of the Premier has led and is leading on the Colony to fortune ; and the scenes illustrative of progress and growing prosperity which pass continually before them are not the pantomimic productions of the fairy’s wand. Unhappy comparison, tho member for Auckland City East and—a short-skirted fairy! Nor do even tho detractors of tho Premier look upon him as “ a financial conjuror,” who has “ played his last trick and is now utterly helpless.” Assuredly “ Atticus ” is neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. Ho is not even tho seventh son of a seventh, son, and “coming events” do not “cast their shadows' before ” to him. Nor is ho even commonly well read up in tho lato political history of Now Zealand. . If ho had boon a more attentive student of tho chronicles of the times, ho would havo known that tho many who at first discredited and feared tho-bold policy of Mr. Vogel havo, numerically, become “small by degrees and beautifully loss.” Facts havo been too many for thorn. There is still a growl of distrust heard, it is true. There havo beenmen of remarkably great

wealth who have imagined themselves beggars, and punished themselves in accordance with their lunatic fancies. There are some still—but they are very few and: far between—who see every proof of prosperity arising before and around them, whose own wealth has been enormously increased, and who have proof before their eyes that the more the Colony has become indebted in' furtherance of public works and immigration, the bettor able the Colony has become to meet its larger obligations. If “Atticus” could have foreseen ■ the events of the short session Just parsed, would he have ventured upon the idle, thoughtless assertion that the Premier had “ playedhis last card,” and was “utterly helpless !” If he had taken the trouble to look up the figures which represent the passenger trade between the two Colonies ; if he had busied himself to compare the rates of labor; if he had known anything whatever as to the vigor of trade in almost every Province of New Zealand, and the increasing value of land ; and had thought for a moment of the large sums this Colony is continually forwarding to Melbourne for goods which we cannot wait to import from Home, or find it better to buy in Victoria, he would never have written so childishly as to our position and prosperity, or venture so poor a joke as to the effects of our policy of immigration. It is “ ■working wonderfully well for Victoria,” we do not doubt; but it is working so because it has brought with it a great though natural increase of trade, .and Victoria is sharing the benefits of the greater enterprise and expenditure of the much smaller Colony of New Zealand because, for a time at least, wo are in some measure dependent for supplies of certain articles upon the market of Melbourne. But the Leader, in its editorialcolumns, is not less erroneously informed as to the results of the immigration policy than its correspondent “Atticus.” This is what is said in the columns more particularly controlled by the Editor : Altogether, the immigration scheme of New Zea, land has, ns far as its original design is concerncdutterly broken down, and the Colony is saddled with thousands of highly objectionable people, and is also called upon to pay a high price for bringing them there. The story Is one that may be studied profitaby by our own unreasoning advocates of free and assisted immigration. If the true story were studied by the writers in the Leader their conclusions would be of a very different character. A little information, like a little learning, is a dangerous thing. If a few questionable characters have found their way hither, amongst the thousands who have come out to us from England, the fact is not to be wondered at. How many persons of that kind found their way to Victoria when immigration was a part of the policy of that Colony ? Yet that Colony was not ruined because all those who found their way /thither were not spotless in their reputation. New Zealand has had no more than its proportion —and a very small one—of the weeds and waifs of society that will bo found in every stream of immigration. Detractors of the Government have been very ready to pounce upon any little defect that has been found in the system, and have not been candid enough either to recognise the difficulties that attend a large system of free immigration, or the success that has followed it. The proprietors of the Leader —who are also tire owners of the Melbourne Age—have never shown themselves destitute of public spirit. Let them send down a special representative, to inquire on the spot into the effects of the large policy initiated by the present Premier of New Zealand, and now only really in its beginning. It is barely two years ago since the real working out of that policy began, and there is no portion of the no department of the State, no channel through which the public revenue runs, no source of information—always excepting one or two Brovincial authorities—in which . that representative will not find information which, we cannot help thinking, will bo satisfactory to the Journal which he will represent, though it may not support the unfavorable views the Leader has expressed.