The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1875.

Southland Times, Issue 2088, 19 March 1875, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1875.

The conclusion of the Four Million Loan, in the face of a not unreasonable question (with some) a? to whether we had not already exercised our borrowing powers as far as it was prudent, affords a fairly satisfactory assurance that the present position and probable future of the colony is becoming clearly apprehended in the old country. That confidence in the future of New Zealand will be entertained in proportion as her vast capabilities become known, no one acquainted with her- resources will, doubt for a moment. A recent article in the (London) Daily News deals with the question of New Zealand prosperity m n. matter- of- tact way, oora«i©noing with the humble beginning of the colony, and regarding the colonists mainly as a " race of careful though enterprising agriculturists." It says " from the first the New Zealand settler has been comparitivelv a homely creature, work frig en a limited scale, and looking rather to the support of his own family and to the custom of the nearest settlement, than to exporting and money-getting in the grand scale common in Now South Wales and Victoria. * * * Yet if . life in New Zealand offer but moderate prizes to the class whose only notion of a colony is a place in which speedily to acquire the means of living iv luxury at home, it is found to tiie bulk of those who try it to have large counterbalancing advantages." The conditions of the colony, such as scenery, climate, foundation of settlements, have, in the opinion of the writer, given to it " a character of home life sadly wanting iv tho more luxurious habitations of Australia." the difference being expressed by New Zealand settlers thus :— " They (the Australians) " talk of the time when they sliall get home to England, we of the time when we shall bring our old people home to us here. * * * * This phnse, which has become almost a proverbial truth, forcibly expresses the leading sentiments of these two sections of the Australasian world." In commenting upon the statistics of the colony, the Daily News says *.— " Perhaps the nost important figures of all in the tables are those that show the number of genuine freeholders growing up in this Gheafc Britain of the aniipodea. * * * Of real farmers, small aud large, and neu-ly all working their own property, or :hat which is to become their own, there.afe close on 16,Q00 scattered over the line • provinces which form the official divisions of New Zealand, 580 of .these owinc the beginning of their new and independent career to the single year 1873. Slorfccomings and failures there must be among so many. All colonies coitain an element of the disappointed, * * * but all deductions made, there reaains evident in the figures which we have^ited a basis of manly labor, independent energy, and increasing individual prosperity which may well serve to put, the future of New Zealand beyond the r<gion of doubt." to the efforls of the adjacent colonies to " cry down ' the future of New Zealand, the same joirnal says :—■" Australian writers, but tw or three years ago, were ready to Bner afc the optimist views of the &overnm«nt of New Zealand, and to warn their friends at home against lending money oi the security of 'tlie' bare' word of a struggling coiony ruled by rash, theorists. They are now crying out at the slackress of their own legislature in the causa <f immigration, iand j pointing^ to., the mere natural 'increase of population *3 no proper addition to / the^ labor mirkejts about them. The fact is that wiih the iine _li mate' td '• work in ! , tiltsd- fertile lands available, a coiony needs but the addit ional roads and properly sdected J

mmigr,auts ia New Zealand is inv^allnng her I<%iis to'bjB > sure of a corres^Snding Jacrfkse Jj^yfke meaijs of , ref^ymeht^A i^adition^J^o ° so l^^^jf I ans pracfi&al a| representation fof; tßs eo^ition^d prr^pects of^ew asit&t aUbfe quped is Buper_uoila|7 |7