The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880.

Southland Times, Issue 3886, 3 December 1880, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880.

We gave our readers the benefit yesterday, without comment, of a strange paragraph, which, with all its strangeness, may turn out to have something in it. The Christchurch. Press devotes a leader to the scheme said to be in contemplation for taking over the £28,000,000 of New Zealand debt by a company, under the auspices of Sir Julius Yogel. The Press, while not knowing everything, hints that it is so far behind the scenes, and can tell the public something about .the terms of this wonderful conversion. The consideration for the relief to be granted the colony is to be, accord - "ing to the Press's authority, " the railways and a sufficient area of Crown lands to make up in value the balance of the sum total of the debt." Very properly, our contemporary sees in such a conception all tlie marks of Sir Julius Vogel's peculiar genius. "It is, in fact, quite in his style." But carrying it into effect is quite another thing. With great humor the Press connects the recent doings of Sir Julius with this great project, and professes to regard them indeed as its initiation. The gifts of toys and prizes, and, if the present Ito the Agent-General's staff of 10 per cent, on their salaries be not a fiction, then that too must be taken as part of the preliminary game of generosity that is to give the name ot Sir Julius a sweet-smelling savor in the colony and all its connections. " Open-handed liberality and genial goo.l nature are his line at present." Speaking of the features of the scheme and its allurements, our contemporary says — " The prospect of being relieved of taxation to the extent of a million and a half a year would of course be a very pleasing one to the inhabitants of New Zealand just now ; but that would not be the most seductive of the inducements offered. The completion of all the lines of railway which have recently been abandoned or shelved for the time, would be made part of the project, and settlement on a grand scale on the lands to be acquired by the promoters, would be a natural consequence." " With a Parliament elected for the sole purpose of selling the colony to a syndicate in London represented by Sir Julius Yogel and a few others, the thing might undoubtedly be done. It is true the Legislative Council could not very well be packed for that purpose ; but they might easily be made subservient to it nevertheless by a little cajoling, a little bullying, and perhaps by a little unobtrusive packing too." This is a very brief outline of the Press's half playful, half serious way of looking at the unique design, which may or may not have any existence, even in the fertile brain of the great schemer who is credited with it. Our contemporary is, at least, -- charmed by the boldness and bigness of it, and would dearly like to see it tried." And now comes the conclusion, which has a grit that delights us, and we are sure will delight our readers — " If anything would bring out of the people ol this country the good stuff that is in them, that £the tpial of tfce project] would. We BhouKl have

something like a political struggle then, something worth struggling for — the life and soul of the colony as a free and independent community." Yes !we will keep our debt, and along witli it, that in the colony which will one day make the burden of the debt a light one.