VICTORIA, ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT POSITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5670, 2 June 1879, Page 3

VICTORIA, ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT POSITION.

(From Colonics and India.)

The paper upon the Colony of Victoria, rear] before the Statistical Society on Tuesday evening last, by Mr. Harter, the Government statist, was one that, it it ibd not throw much light upon the present condition of the country amongst those who have been attentively watching it for years, nevertheless formed an admirable digest of information most useful to all who are not thoroughly posted up in Victorian affairs. Mr. Hayter’s reputation as a statistician stands deservedly so high that a paper prepared by him on his colony would be sure to be valuable, and the one read by him on Tuesday was all that could have been expected in anything like a reasonable compass. Victoria has recently attracted so much attention at Home that it was scarcely surprising that many of Mr. Hayter's audience would have liked to have heard remarks upon certain points which he touched upon very slightly. At the close of the paper, questions came thick and fast ; and to have replied to them all as fully as the inquirers desired, would have necessitated the preparation of a paper many times as long as could be expected to be placed before a learned society at one of its ordinary meetings. That so much information was asked for, must betaken as a highly gratifying proof of the growing interest in colonial matters, and the tribute of praise awarded ou all sides to the Victorian statistics, and especially to the Year Book issued by Mr. Hay ter, is another proof of the willingness of the Home public now to recognise colonial excellence. As was remarked by more than one, the Victorian statistics of the present day are brought out in a manner that must compare most favorably with those of any country in the world. But, whilst all were ready to give this meed of commendation, nearly every speaker at the meeting strongly animadverted upon the protectionist policy now followed in Victoria. Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, M. 8., who presided, Mr. Giffen, of the Board of Trade, Mr. Lionel Cohen, and others, who felt bound to acknowledge the great progress of Victoria, as stated by Mr. Hay ter and proved by his figures, could not refrain from expressing their belief that under a free-trade policy Victoria would have advanced far more rapidly than she had done with the millstone of protection round her neck. Some o? the speakers charged Mr. Hayter with being a protectionist; but he pointed out that it was not hia business to express political views, and that he had carefully abstained from doing so ; and it would certainly be unfair to accuse him of being a protectionist because he pointed out the fact that during the years that protection has existed in the colony the number of manufacturing establishments had increased. The fact cannot be denied ; but it may perhaps be averred, with equal truth, that there would have been a similar, or even probably greater, increase had free-trade been in the ascendant. We cannot follow Mr. Hayter throughout his paper, but it deserves to be disseminated widely through the United Kingdom, as containing in a small space very complete particulars of a colony that no one who is personally acquainted with can help regarding as one of the brightest jewels of her Majesty’s Crown. Regretting as we do the policy that is being pursued by the Government of the colony, both in respect to protection and on other questions, we have every confidence in its resources and in the energy of its people, and are satisfied that it is destined in the future to hold as pre eminent a position as it did for many years in the past. Changes of course take place. The yield of gold has fallen off enormously, hut the population is more settled, aud branches of industry are constantly being developed, which more than atone for the diminution in the precious metal. As to its attractiveness, notwithstanding that, unlike the other Australian colonies, it holds out no special inducement to the immigrant, it is impossible to ignore the fact that whilst it only forms a thirty-fourth part of the whole Australian continent, the number of its inhabitants is forty-four per cent, of the total. Its revenue, excluding the proceeds of the sale of public lauds, is far larger than that of any of the other colonies of the group, aud yet its taxation per head is almost the smallest. Mr. Hayter dwelt strongly upon the fact that whereas 70 per cent, of the New South Wales revenue, the only one that exceeds the Victorian in the aggregate, was derived from land sales in 1876 and 1877, the proportion in his colony did not exceed 17 per cent.; but he omitted to mention that both the late Government in the older colony as well as the present one have set their faces against the continuance of such a pernicious aud suicidal system, aud that the reckless aud extravagant alienation of the public estate in New South Wales has been put a stop to. As to the trade of the country, it is probably unexampled that a land which less than half a century ago had for inhabitants savages in the most primitive state, should now have imports and exports amounting together to close upon £32,000,000. Of the enterprise of Victoria in the construction of railways and other public works, of its postal and telegraph systems, of its diffusion of education, we need not speak. What it has done in these respects is well known, and has been accomplished with a view to the future as well as to, the present. What is to be the future of the colony remains to be seen. The diminution in the yield of gold necessarily tends to lead the inhabitants to turn their attention to other pursuits than the search for gold. The farming and pastoral interests are becoming more thought of; and, if no unfair as well as unwise excessive burthens are placed upon the proprietors of sheep and cattle stations, improvements in these will undoubtedly add to the prosperity of the country. It was urged on Tuesday evening by several speakers, who apparently only derived their opinions from a knowledge of the results of farming in England, that farming in Victoria could never pay, as the return of wheat to the acre did not give half the number of bushels gathered from an acre in England, and not much more than half of what is obtained in New Zealand ; but there is another Australian colony—namely, South Australia—that obtains even less to the acre than Victoria, aud yet it is one of the finest wheat-producing countries in the world. Professor Pearson, a colleague of Mr. Graham Berry in the mission to England, who was present at the meeting, pointed out the fallacy of supposing that the great heat of the climate was a bar to thegrowth of wheat, showing how, in the face of all prognostications to the contrary, even from those supposed to be most capable of judging, the cultivation of wheat in South Australia was gradually spreading northwards, and splendid crops were being reaped on land that was a few years ago thought to he almost worthless. What has happened in South Australia may also be looked for in Victoria. Notwithstanding the small extent of its territory, when compared with the other Australian colonies, it must he remembered that it is within a few hundred square miles of being as large as Great Britain. It possesses considerable variety of climate, its resources are magnificent, and if the majority of its population has for a time decided upon carrying out a system believed in this country to be most injurious, we have every hope that ere long the error will be recognised, and there will be a return to that Free-trade which Professor Pearson told his hearers on Tuesday evening he was still an adherent of, though acting with the party that is doing all it can to promote Protection. When that comes to pass, we firmly believe that the progress of Victoria, great as .Mr. Hayter’s paper shows it to have been, will he even still more remarkable.