PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING ,GISBORNE, FKIDAY, DECEMBER 22, l&E COLONY'S PROSPERITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8702, 22 December 1899, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING ,GISBORNE, FKIDAY, DECEMBER 22, l&E COLONY'S PROSPERITY.

If' there is one thing more than another that led to the triumph of the Ministry at the general election, it was the prosperous state of the colony. It is in times of adversity more than in prosperity that Ministries fall, and the Government were fortunate in being able to claim a renewal of confidence just at a time when businnss was brisk and things were beginning to boom. Reviewing the reports in the press from one end of the colony to the other, we are struck by the remarkable evidences that are given of activity in commercial and industrial circles, and the feeling that is abroad that prosperity has come to stay. Wool has risen, arid the increase means a million pounds more of English capital to bo distributed amongst our pastoralists. The prices for grain are the best that have obtained duriug the present decade ond the demand is greater than the supply. Butter still continues to command high prices, and many factories throughout the colony are working to their full capacity and producing for the farmers steady and assured incomes. The flax industry has revived, and scutching plants that a year or two ago had to close down are reopening and giving employment to many men, the prices for the dressed article being most satisfactory. Gold-dredging is still booming in Otago, and the foundries of Dunedin nnd Chrißtchurch are working night and day to execute orders for gold-saving plant. Even the West Goaat is in hopes of great things from the dredging of its rivers, and thousands of pounds of capital are being introduced into Westland for the purpose of winning gold by means of this new process, the ironworkers in Greymouth being busily employed in building dredges for the purpose. The railway traffic, we are informed, has never been as brisk as it is at present. The returns for the eight months of the prejB6jjS| financial year Bhow an enormous inofeap over the returns for the cnrrespon^iijr period of JB9B, both in the passeogaiiand freight departments — two excellent indices of colonial prosperity. And everywhere colonists seem to be in good heart. In

i Southland, Otngo, and Canterbury the | farmers have prospeots of bountiful harvests, which, if prices continuo as at present, Bhould place many a struggling farmer firmly on his feet. In those provinces, also, the growers of merino wool are in clover. Canterbury, Mr Rolleston said the other day, was never more prosperous. Merino uool was fetching up to Is lOd, every fattened lamb sold at the highest price ever known, dairying on tho outskirts taking tho place of grass seed growing, and creating a demand for cows and pigs, the most bountiful harvest within the memory of the oldest inhabitant— all these have caused an inrush of capital. Probably, ho said, if it could bo computed, the income of Canterbury has doubled itself within the last twelve months. Who could hf.lp participating in that, ? Dunedin correspondents inform us that times were never better there than they have been for a generation, since, in fact, tho gold boom of the old days. Nor is the wave of prosperity confined to the South Island. The North Island is prosperous, dairying being the chief elemont in that result, in the Wellington and Taranaki provincial districts, though the flourishing flax and timber industries, and the advance in wool and meat values, are other contributing causes. Land is in good demand, and we believe that tho .opening up of the large areas in this district at the present time would result in their speedy settlement by the right class of settlers. Auckland has passed the boom stage so far as its gold mining is concerned, but there is a steady output from the northern mines, the nnmerons factories of the city are busily employed, and altogether the district is 1 in n, prosperous stale. From the North Cape to the Bluff people are in good heart, and are settling down to their enjoyment of Christmas with greater feelings of security and well-being than they have possessed for many a long day.

Both Mr Carroll and his constituents are to be complimented oa his elevation to the full Cabinet rank, because he has only received the position that wo have alwayß maintained he was fully entitled to claim. Now that he is in possession of the portfolio of Native Affairs, he should be in a position to at last bring about the longdelayed settlement of the much-vexed Native land question. Mr Carroll's constituents can now hold him fully responsible on this matter, and we trust he will lose no time in bringing forward proposals at an early hour of the first session of the new Parliament which will result in the removal of the difficulties tlt;it bar the way to the opening up of the Native lands in this district. As to the appointment announced on Wednesday, Mr McHownn's appointment to be Minister of Mines, it apparently hangs fire, the Premier hesitating to make a choice among the several claimants for the Ministerial office,