The Wizard of the South.

Southland Times, Issue 9091, 15 December 1885, Page 2

The Wizard of the South.

The voice of the ohanner is once more.heard in the land. Never were its accents • more persuasive or its promises more seduotive. The gape- mouthed, longieared ' multitude who listen, to the music of it* . enchantment already see a rift in the darfcj cold clouds of depression that hsVef gathered, and still gather, over the horizon of New Zealand, The gradually diminishing population, whose' courage has £ailed r - whose hearts are sore, whose industrial ate V: fast drying up to their very sources, now: . see under this enchanter's wand a wonderful transformation scene. Crowds' of williog workers pour in from every point of the oompass, bringing fresh hope and energy to thojje in whose breasts such « emotioas were well-nigh extinot. Indue* tries spring into existence on every side* ' flourish with.wonderful vigour, and afford sure and abundant employment to the increasing numbers. Thousands of acres, unproductive for ages past—and under , the present conditidn of tfcinga likely \q * be ao for ages to come— suddenly wave ; with golden corn or teem with counties* herds. The rocbbonnd mountains aive / up their hidden stores of mineral wealth j nay, the very river-coursea, ekiifuljy ." turned aside» disclose more gold than baft ever been found before. Who is the wonder-worker that promises all this? J By what remarkable feat of magio is he to perform these miracles ? Is it a dream ? Is it a reality ? Whichever it i«, shall _ there be another transformation scene in turn where everything is infinitely more dear, desolate, and ruined than before? Get thee behind us, tempter, we will have none of thee I The arU tboay hast practised before have already been followed by disaster, and i£ practised again will jq. \j f allibly lead us in the same direction.. Ex* perience is the beet schoolmaster; unfotttt- ■ nately our school fees have been veryheavy, but let us profit by what we have already learnt, or deservedly suffer from wilful ignorance or blindness of eye, By this time we should surely know that there is no royal road to permanent success and prosperity either for individual or com* mamty, and that the effort ,t<K compel these by bounds and leape w ear© to be followed by a disastrous fall, having. US, Icarus like, crippled and prostrate. What have our 30 millions of borrowed capital done for us ? Given m a prosperity of hot-house growth, which, now that the golden shower that foroed it is over, is followed by decline — converted our.:/ electors and law-givers into so many gamblers, fighting and scrambling as to - who shall win the highest stakes, and left us crushed in the folds of a heavy debt, 5 What has been will be, and would not- ■■■* another 30 millions be lavished with the same extravagance, selfishness, carleeeaeaa . of the future, aad wholesale gambling, as % heretofore, • leaving us more heavily weighted, and in plight more hopeless, than ever? " Get thee . behind us, tamntat f»♦ « TTU,oo«»M J_ nT\ mj_ ■ , ' '