The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1198, 18 February 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1880.

The increased demand which has lately sprang up for colonial coal has already had the effect of augmenting the supply of that product. It is illustrative of -the richness of the Colony in this valuable fuel and basis of numerous industries that scarcely a week passes over that is not signalised by the discovery of fresh folds. It •would appear that, nature has been alike kind to all parts of the Cplony in its distribution of a mineral that has played a prominent part in raising the nation of which we form an integral part to the position of commercial supremacy which she has so long enjoyed. In conjunction with its valuable companion, iron, it ha 3 saved the population of Great Britain either from famine or decimation by Wholesale emigration. It may yet work as much good for us. This Colony i 3 yet in its swaddling clothes. " What shall we do with our surplus population"?" has not yet become a burning question | with us. In our primitive stage we enjoy the incalculable blessings of | peace and plenty. But every year jwe are growing more • like the com- | inanities of the Old World. It must be so whilst our population continues to increase. Whilst we should not attempt to arrest such s symptom of national progress, we should be prepared to meet the changes which it will work. Population is only a blessing when it is profitably employed ; otherwise it is a curse. Development of our natural resources and the establishment of manufactories should follow in the same ratio as our increase of population. We have not yet committed ourselves to any policy that will very seriously affect the carrying out of. such a programme. But we sliall;have to beware. The tendency of our administration is to render impossible a healthy and unfettered national life without purchasing it by national struggles. Prevention is better than cure; and, if we would avoid the shoals upon which others have become stranded, we should profit by the lessons which others have learned at so much cost. Wise administration of our land and the fostering of our natural wealth underlie all national prosperity. But politicians are too self-interested to adopt the first, and too careless of the interests of others to trouble about the second. " Take no thought of the morrow" is the axiom that guides them in their conrt"*** thp (jolnn^—_o.»nataiifclu thini. of yourself is the law which guides them when they see an opportunity of serving themselves. Representative Government has been a greater failure than it ought to have been. With all its defects, it need not have been so disappointing. We have little left of our darling institution but the name—at least it is so at the present moment. No one having any pretensions to knowledge oh the subject can assert that the construction of the Hall Government was based upon any desire to represent the people. 'We' need only point to the liberal franchise which the propertied classes enjoy under the electoral measure which they thrust down the throats of members of Parliament. If the Colony had been governed by a Commission of disinterested and independent men. it would to-day have been in a more satisfactory position than that which it occupies. It is not sufficient that a leading politician should be rapidly travelling on the high road to independence. If he is not absolutely beyond the allurements of his official position, the only difference that exists between him and a poorer man placed in the same position, is that his sins are likely to be more serious. Our system of Government leads us into channels from which it is difficult to extricate ourselves.. Monopolies growranklyandnndisturbedly, fostered by political support. The late administration struck a blow to such corruption, although, in some other respects, a3 we have previously confessed, it was far from perfect. This brings us back to the subject with which we started. Who does not know of the difficulties that were encountered before the produce of our colonial coal mines was placed upon the footing that it merits. For. years it was. asserted that it was unfit for anything but fuel for our houses and coasting steamers. Politicians, in the interests of their political patrons, steadfastly promulgated this view, and the heads of our Railway Department, for the sake of peace, and, pcr-hapSj-pLme, -did not.venture to. differ from their masters. The fallacy once exposed, the whole truth dawned upon those outside the ranks and influence of . Ministries and Parliaments, ■ swathed as | they have been in questionable tactics. Little by little rulers have been compelled to give way, and to-day the bustle of our j railways and of our workshops i 3 mainly I produced by the coal of our oa'n mines. : Where are the evidences of its unfitness ? Like the inferiority of the soil of the Piako Swamp, they existed in the imagination of men whose scrupulosity was too sadly over-weighted by ambition, greed, and unholy friendship. .Now that there is a good local market for the produce of our eoal mines, the growth of this industry will daily bacome of greater interest to us. It is io be hoped that it will continue to grow, uninterrupted, by acts of the enemies of general progress, until it becomes infhis Colony, tho parent of numerous ptanofaciuroaaiul of. our national health and greatness/