The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1893,

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 9652, 20 March 1893, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1893,

New Zealand, we are pleased to learn from the Financial Times, is once more looked upon by our friends at Home as being financially sound. _ Shis is very satisfactory news, for it is not so very long ago we were being donounced in unmeasured terms, and told we were going to ruin fast; that tho whole colony was mortgaged over and above its value — " the habitual condition of New Zealand land " as The Times said ; and further that tho (> English companies were showing very plainly the view they took of the situation by instructing their agents to call in all capital realised." These words appeared not eighteen months ago in tho leading paper in England ; and smaller journals like the Financial Times followed in the same strain, intimating that in a few years not a penny of British capital would be bit in New Zealand. But tho capitalists at Home are beginning to find out that wo continne to prosper without their aid, and, the.eforo, do not requi o their money. Perhaps they think we are getting independent, and hope by apologising to got our people to start borrowing from them again ? The Financial Times, which has published, perhaps some of most untruthful statements ever written respecting New Zealand, is now apparently tr>ing to explain why it did so, and in a late issue says :— *' Ono of the notable characteristics of our colonial friends is that they are i xtremely thin-Bkinned. The Finun il 'limes is very well known in the colonio ', and when wo Imvo occasion to comment editorially on colonial topics, the cable and Her Majesty's mails convoy it to our cousins over-seas. If the 'comments are unfavourable —which we regret to say has recently Doon necessary in many cases — then our contemporaries are good enough to point out to their readers that we do not know what wo are talking al>out ; that we are piejudicod; thut wo reflect tho opinion of disappointed operators ; or. in fact, anything of a disparaging nature which suggests iteolf to the various writers regarding a journal whoso comments, nevertheless, ura considered worthy of transmission at leng h by cabl>. But if, in the exercise of our privilege of honest criticism on current events, wo have the pleasure of saying anything complimentary, then the Financial Times has to he patted on the back, roferred to as ' the first finan cial auihoiity in London,' and generally treated as a most estimable an i thoroughly impartial critic. With all respoct to our colonial contemporaries, wo care equally little for their abuse and their eulogy, 7 ' Our contercporary need not Hater itself that tho people of New Zealand caro very much what it says—whether good, or bad respecting the colony, for it has in the past shown such a want of knowledgo of Now Zealand affairs that wo out hero have long ceased to feel annoyod at any remark which may havo appeared in our contemporary and caro as little for its praise. Tho Financial Times sayß " Now Zealand has reformed ;" but hore it is wrong; the colony has in no way changed during the paßt two years. It is tho Financial Times that has reformed.

A handsome olectro-platod eporgne has been giyea by "Fish Ho ! " as a winning trophy for the Cominitteeinen's race at the Easter sports.