Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1896. MR REEVES IN AUSTRALIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7543, 25 January 1896, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1896. MR REEVES IN AUSTRALIA.

The new Agent-General, the Hon. W. P. Reeves, is now on hia way to London* and the cable hna informed us that both in Sydney and in Brisbane ho was interviewed by representatives of tho newspapers. He is credited with declaring that " the financial position of Now Zealand was good and sound, that the colony was prosperous and in a hopeful state, and the people were more cheerful and confident than they had been for years past. The unemployed difficulty had practically disappeared, and there was every indication of an unusually fine harvest. Ho was especially sanguine of the marked revival of goldmining," etc. This coulmr do rose, view of tho colony comes somewhat unuxpectodJy from the source whence it emanates, for tho Hon. Mr Reeves hna the imputation of being a pessimist rather than an optimist. His cheerful framo of mind may have been induced by the fact of his appointment to tho office of Agent-General at a salary of LISOO per annum. There is nothing to justify his assertion that " the financial position of the colony is good and sound." On the 31st March, 1895, the gross public debt was L 40,386,964, involving an annual charge of interest and sinking fund of L1,(i5b\970. Within twelve months over half a million (L 560.549) has been added to the debt, i and the rate of net indebtedness per head of population now stands at L 57 17s 4d. There are only two Australasian colonies in which this sura is exceeded —in South Australia where it is L 62 10s 2d, and Queonsland L7O 17s 6d. Tho people of this colony can juso about pay the intoresb as it comes duo, but the Government have no funds for public works, and there is every rjrobability that before many months are over, they will have to negotiate a loan on the London market. Nor is there any justification for Mr Reeves statement that "the unemployed difliculty has practically disappeared." The hon. gentleman is credited with having i\ retentive memory, but on this occasion it has apparently failed him —for only a few days before ho left llui colony ho was requested by a number of unemployed in the South to find work for them. Wo doubt so far /is Mr Rdcvih in personally concerned, tho unutnployud difliculty has "disappeared," for he has left the colony for at any rate two years, and his successor to the position of Minister of Labor wll have tho task of coping with tho unemployed difficulty next winter. That there are more numerous openings for workinsj men just now is readily admitted, but it musb bo remembered that a great many are only employed temporarily, and will iv all probability be thrown out of work as soon as the harvest is gathered in. If Mr Reeves desired the unemployed difficulty to become more acute than ab any previous period, he could not have done more to bring it about than by his injudicious utterances in Sydney and Brisbane. Ho has practically told the

people there that the New Zealanders are prosperous, happy, and sanguine, and that there are no unemployed. What may we expect will be the consequence 1 Would it be surprising to find thousands of the unemployed in Australia flocking to a colony that has been so favorably spoken of by such a reliable authority as the AgentGeneral? "Distance lends," etc., and, those workmen who find a difficulty in securing; permanent employment in Australia, when reading tho account of the interview with Mr Reeves, and noting the sanguine nature of his utterances, may be expected to entertain a belief that he haß rather erred on the side of modesty in his description of the condition of this colony, instead of exaggerating it, and that there ia a better field here for tho exercise of their various callings than really exists. If the unemployed cry is heard in New Zealand next winter, and the Government find the number of applicants for employment on co-operative contracts more numerous than in past years, they may thank Mr Reeves' sanguine statements for it. A German proverb has it that " Speech is silver, silence is gold," and Mr Reeves would probably have been more guarded in speech had that old saw occurred to him when he was being interviewed by representatives of tho Sydney and Brisbane journals.