The Otago Witness DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 26.

Otago Witness, Issue 878, 26 September 1868, Page 13

The Otago Witness DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 26.

Those who are disinclined to take any deep interest in the political questions just now so freely debated in the Assembly — and to judge by the quiet state of the public pulse there must be many such in this Province — will be glad to learn that some questions of much deeper interest to the future of the Colony than any mere change in the form of its Government can be, are occasionally — thanks to the more enlightened among the members of the Opposition — discussed by our legislators. Moreover, however indifferent a section (apparently large) of the public may be to the efforts which are being made to unseat the very worst Government that ever ruled in, New Zealand, so long as the fight hangs only on the special question which distinguishes the so-called Country Party from the Constitutionalists, we think they will not be disposed to carelessness if they take the trouble to notice how Ministers deal with any wide and great question when it is forced upon their attention. To such, persons we earnestly commend a perusal of the recent debate in the House of Representatives on Mr Vogel's motion in favour of permission being granted to Provincial Councils to set apart permanently a portion of the land revenue for Immigration purposes. These politicians without a policy, whom the divided purposes of our representatives permit to hold the reins of power, never give a serious consideration to any subject but the retention of those offices which, for its sins, the country has bo long seen them hold. Their adroit rhetoric, and skilful methods of concealing their real purposes, long practised as they are in them, are still too transparent to conceal their absolute incompetency to consider any really great subject on its true merits. How it, or the manner of its introduction for debate, may affect them, is the only question of which they have any grasp when an important proposition is brought up for discussion. No one can acquaint himself with what goes on in the Assembly without seeing that this is the case. It is worth the while of the people of Otago, who form the only community in New Zealand that aeems to be utterly careless about its political affairs, to take some pains to ascertain what style of men they really are whom untoward circumstances have set up to rule over them.

On this great topic of Immigration, which was introduced by Mr Vogel in one of the most interesting speeches ever made in the House— a speech fnU of infor-

mation which it must have coat no little labor to accumulate— the Govern- j ment had literally nothing to say that was not beside the mark. To the people of Otago, however, no subject can possibly be more interesting. The progresa of the country depends at this moment { more upon the carrying out of a ■wellconsidered and extensive scheme of Immi- j gration than upon anything else. It i 8 of no use to open the land, if those who will take it up for loiva, fide settlement are not induced to come upon It. What we want in Otago at the present moment ! is an influx of people disposed to take tip land for agricultural purposes, and of such a supply of properly-qualified farm labourers as will enable the settlers to cultivate their land with a profit. Towards the accomplishment of both these ends, the scheme of the Provincial Government, for power to carry out which Mr Vogel was applying when he moved the resolution we have referred to, more especially tends. The Council has no longer the power to make appropriations extending beyond the current year, and it is manifest to every one that no large scheme of Immigration can be inaugurated, unless arrangements are made for extending its operations over a series of years. The motion, we are glad to say, was agreed to, but from the manner in which the subject was treated by Ministers, it is only too probable that some difficulty will yet be experienced in carrying the principle affirmed in all its integrity into actual operation by means of a Permissive Bill. We are, however, disposed to hope that, at any rate, so much as is necessary to enable the Provincial Council to do justice to the subject will be obtained. If so, we cannot doubt that a very much needed change in the condition of affairs in Ofcago will be inaugurated. Our progress during the past few years has been very slow, presenting a marked contrast, not merely to the times of the gold fever, but to the years which preceded it. In those years, there was a steady increase in the population of Otago, of from twenty to thirty per cent, per annum, and every one who has been here long enough to remember them knows that they were years of real and solid prosperity for those who were settled in Otago, such as have not lately been seen here. Such an annual rate of the increase in the population by Immigption, if it could be restored, would represent a yearly influx of ten or twelve thousand people to the Province. We are not sanguine enough to hope that such a result will be attained, but if the proposal of the Government to introduce 5000 per annum be carried out, we shall see them accompanied by a large unassisted immigration, and Mr Macandrew's vision of seeing the population of the Province doubled in a few years may be realised. To those alarmists, who ask how so large an increase to the population is to be absorbed into the country, •we would reply by the question, how were the arrivals of 1858, 1859, and 1860 absorbed ? Within three years the population of the Province was more than doubled. At that time three-fourths of the country was unexplored, and yet 'the absorption of this large number of people into the limited area then settled, was effected easily enough, and those three years were amongst the most prosperous the Province ever knew.

We cannot better close our remarks than by quoting the eloquent words with which Mr Macandrew closed his speech when this question was before the Assembly, with the purport of which we are sure all our readers will join with us in agreeing. " They had heard," he said, " a great deal lately about statesmanship, and he must say that he did not despise that idea. He believed that statesmanship was a -very noble aspiration, so long as it was exercised for the freedom and happiness of humanity ; but in this Colony, the noblest work of a statesman was to bring labor into the country, and to develop its

resources. They wanted not theoretical, but practical statesmanship. It was not the statesmanship which delighted itself in enrolling and controlling standing annies — they had had enough of that ; and it was not that statesmanship which

revelled in diplomacy, and rejoiced iti framing despatches. What they required was a statesmanship which would \ ridgo across the 16,000 miles of ocean which separated them from the Mother Country. That was the direction of the motion, and that the true statesmanship which would land people on their shores — which would cause the desert to rejoice and to blosßom as the rose."