"NEW ZEALAND AFTER FIFTY YEARS."

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8637, 25 November 1889, Page 3

" NEW ZEALAND AFTER FIFTY YEARS."

The next chapter is devoted to "Tho Colony as It is. ' It is full of valuable information to intending; settlers, giving, as it does, a graphic account of the daily life of the ordinary settlers, of how they live, and what sort of people they are. All sorts of facts, familiar to ourselves, but most interesting to immigrants, are set forth in striking light. The writer concludes by saying that "it will have been said in vain, if it has conveyed the impression that they are a people living in great splendour, or rapidly acquiring riches, or so situated as to be capable of compassing, or even aspiring, to any sensational objects of worldly ambition. Thero is more wealth in one street of London, Paris, or New York, than all the people of Now Zealand possess. But there is also more poverty and misery in one street of any one of those great cities than the people of Now Zealand could by any process be made even to picturo to their imagination It would not be too much to say of them that they enjoy moro and suffer less as a community than any other civilised people upon earth." Passing over the chapters devoted to volcanoes and earthquakes, and to our fauna and flora, and to the "Maori people," all of them most interesting, we come to that dealing with " tho white population." This chapter is in reality a description of the population in their industrial aspect. The conditions of life in the north of Auckland district are first described, and it is pointed out that this part of New Zealand is destined to be the home of a large population pursuing the industries of the South of Europe, growing olives and oranges and lemons and grapes, and every sort of semi-tropical fruit, rearing silkworms, cultivating flowers for perfume, and, in short, reproducing here, under the most favorable circumstances, the industrial conditions of the South of Europe and the Levant. A graphic account is also given of bush life in the south part of the North Island. The writer seta forth the drawbacks, as well as the advantages. "It is in the bush settlement, and in this alone, that the hardy, hopeful life of the pioneers is still to be seen in its premature integrity. . . . The situation of the bush settlers to-day does not differ at all from that of the first people who came to the colony; except in the improved security of life and property, the greater cheapness of all sorts of necessaries and comforts, the incalculable progress in means of access and the existence of steady and profitable markets which were not dreamt of in the early days." The other pursuits of the colonists are also described with great fidelity, but it is unnecessary for us to enter upon details. Spaco does not permit of our giving even an outline of the chapters devoted to " trade and commerce," " business and transit," " politics and laws," and " taxation," and we conclude this brief notice of a most fascinating book by re-producing a few sentences from the chapter headed " the future of the colony." Referring to the common remark that the heavy indebtedness of New Zealand was a burden which the colony would never be able to stagger under, the writer points out that this is a mere temporary check upon our onward progress. " What should be looked to in the case of New Zealand are the main causes which have influenced its past, and which are operating more actively than ever to influence its future. These are its situation and its natural features which make it the ideal home of an English people — the most unmixed Anglo-Savon community outside of Great Britain — its marvellous productiveness, the full extent of which is only yet vaguely discerned ; and its total freedom from any circumstances which can interfere with the development of its wealth or the increase of its population. It is the strongest wish of those who love it best, that New Zealand may never be flooded by a promis cuons immigration of the dregs of old countries ; or attract such a greedy rush of capital as to make it a mere gambling hell of speculators and monopolists. But it is their firm belief also, founded on the data of the past and present and on all reasonable calculations of the future, that it is destined within the next half century to be the most populous and prosperous of all tho British colonies in the Southern Hemisphere."