The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 448, 5 October 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

The progress of the nations is more now than per.laps at any previous period, the favourite subject of students and philosophers. Statistical science more than all else affords facts and figures upon which we can generalise ad lib~itum7 Such studies are more p-'ofound and much more philosophic than mere history. The latter lies upon the surface ; the former beneath it: History ha? to do with the externa world chiefly, its rise and progress, the march of its armies, its discoveries, its literature, its material and economical progress. The physiology of his tory, if we may so call it, has to do with the inner life of a nation, its internal fires, its motives, religious, moral, and intellectual. History from this very cause has ever been the most popular of all branches of knowledge. It exacts from the reader so slight an amount of thought while it carries him along the centuries so buoyantly that its popularity among the busier class need excite no surprise. It is for the same reason, the superficiality and lightness of the compositions, that light literature is so extensively read. Thus it is that popular opinion will give its laws to literature, as it d >es likewise to the forms of government and the laws by which alone m 'derOL-.nations are to be ruled. It is not our intention to purine the interesting study, and we have alluded to it mere'y as illustrating. the superficial tendencies of the age—an age in which men are in such haste to become rich, in which the liiirhpressure speed of modern existence leaves neither leisure nor inclina'ion for profounder studies, and in which the thoughts and energies of our race are being carried for-, ward as by an irresistible torrent. We, however, are not philosophers. Neve' the the moral we desire to point out is not without its significance, and to i - we crave the attention of our readers. Netvrpaper writers are all more or less, by the exigencies of their lot, contemporary historians. . We must perforce chronicle the evidences of our progress in commerce or agriculture, and in other ways, even if sometimes we chronicle "smallbeer " Ourinvestigationslieverymuch on the surface, and newspaper renders are not often in danger of cudgeling their brains by the profundity of our observations. For some time, however, we have been painfully conscious of a considerable amount of grumbling and dissatisfaction 011

the part of both the tr;tdiiig fraternity and the working classes. Commerce is not in that healthy state which we all so much desiie, nor are the working classes so tuily employed as we could wish. There is 110 disguising or denying facts so patent to the most superficial ob ervers. Now, why is this thus? That we have a magnificent country I.eVtind, and on either side of us. cannot be doubted; that there is a vast amount of activity and enterprise amongst our population, is also true. Bur, notwithstanding all thi-, it is transparent to every one that trade is languishing, and thelojuli'y not nearly so prosper ous as it was this time la>t year, or the year before that. Is ihis not so ? Can anyone doubt it ? Endeavouring to get at the reason, we begin to think that much of the commercial activity of some two years ago was owing to causes no longer in operation It was the large expenditure consequent upon such extensive a ldi tions to our public works. Oamaru, with its main trunk line and several branches necessitating such a large employment of labour and consequent increase of trade, reaped its*-full proportion of the good things Government was dispensing so liberally. And we begin to reaLse that the further we get away from this period, the more certainly are we relapsing into our usual condition — a state of irksome impecuniosity for the masses, and the accumulation of a 1 the wealth into a few hands. We write in no disparaging mood, but such we believe to be the painful fact 1 * stnriu.sr us ir the face. Conf 1 onted as we ars with such a state of things, we venture to enquire if there is any remedy? And if so, what is it? We know it is true not only of Oamaru, but of centres of population everywhere, that pastoral and agricultural pursuits, important though they are, doubtless, never contribute largely to the rapid growth or prosperity of a town. In the neighbouring col aiies as well as in the M< th>-r Country, and indeed in all countries, this fact—for fact it is—is transparent. There is no instance on record of a town becoming rapidly populous, and of a wide-spread distribution of wealili under such conditions. In the neighbour-ing-Colonies, apart from the metropolis of any—which, of course, participates in the prosperity of the whole—it is only the miningcentres which afford pro'ofs of rapid growth. Where there is no mining, as in rfouth Australia, there is only the metropolis which presents the conditions we refer to. There is only one exception of which we are aware to this universal rule, aud that is Newcastle, her coal measures affording employment to her large population and creating a large shipping tra.le. In Great Britain, if we wish for instances of such a state of things, we must go to her manufacturing towns —to Manchester, to Glasgow, and others. Surely such considerations are of paramount importance to us all. There is indeed no danger of Oamaru ever relapsing into the state of things which preceded the large expenditure upon public works. But may we not apprv>xin_ate to it too nearly ? That expenditure did for us precisely, but temporarily, what manufacturing industries have done for so many places. It is now done with, and lience sucli universal stagnation. The area of land being cultivated is being increased 'rom year to year; but such progress is necessarily slow. It is steady employment for a wages-earning class we must look forward to if we are to gain in population, and if there is to be a widespread distribution of wealth. Hence the importance we attach

to our local industries and the vast importance of stimulating and encouraging them, and it is precisely for this rea-on -that", wo have urged on previous occasions, and that we ventute again to urge, the importance of such effort? as th it put forth by the promoters of the Stone Company. In its development,' arid that of kindred schemes, \ve see the prospect of our retrogression being averted, and ha growth amongst us of permanent indus' rijs which wi'l take the place of thetempotary activity of the Public Works era. "YViiy should not our stone quarries take for us the plac? occupied by the coal m n s of New South Wales,, and the port of Oamaru rival that .of Newcastle, the intercolonial shipping of which is the largest, we believe, in this hemisphere ? We commend such cons derations at the present juncture, and we cannot help fealing that they a r e neither imc died for nor inopportune. "We speak as unto wise men ; judge ye what we say."