THE Thames Advertiser. Monday, June 2nd, 1890.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIII, Issue 6625, 2 June 1890, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. Monday, June 2nd, 1890.

Ir is undoubtedly tine that New Zea» laud possesses splendid capabilities. How many of her people/ however, fail to recognise it; or, being aware of the fact, deliberately close their eyes to it? Take the colony from one end,to the other, its fertility canuot be gainsaid. Its agricultural and pastoral productions prove the fecundity of the soil. 1!li9 salubrity of the climate is unquestionable. The .colony, enjoys au' extra.ordinary immunity ' from virulent

diseases aud decimating epidemics, and the low rate of mortality establishes, the purity and vigour of tho climate, Pew countries cau surpass New Zealand in 'the picturesque and wonderful ia Jfatute Yet, it is only when distant, from all these treasures that the New Zealander discovers their beauty and value, and laments his absence from

them, He then learns that his own colony is more esteemed by outsiders than it is by those at home. There ought to bo nothing to complain of here. Were we ,a contented people it would bo impossible to find cause f»reasonable complaint, Mew Zealandhaa often been designated the Paradise of the workingman. There is much truth in the term, though not now found in the application of it as was formerly intended; it was as often used ironically and in an unkind spirit by class politicians. New Zealand/ if not a politicals certainly a paradiioof another description';- ■Australians/ who suffer periodically from terrible droughts, famine and floods, may picture this colony as air actuality of the poet's fancy; a land of mountains and torrents, perennial green pasturos and delicious temperature, We do,'indeed, possess a goodly portion of smiling vaUeye and broad tablelands impatient for the active colonists to settle upon them } there is hidden wealth, gold, silver, coal, arid other valuable deposits, waiting for the time when human energy and industry will unearth them. The error New Zonlandera made has been the abuse ;of these manifold blessings, When they took to the borrowed millions of foreign capitalists, they in reality turned from the real to the visionary ; they forsook the substance for the shadow. 'All the troubles that have accumulated in con« sequence, have been-of our own seeking and not the fault of our beautiful couu« try. The. infatuation, however, has been , thrown' off, aud the people have begun again .to realise those

ti'ue'priuciples by which alone they can expect to become a righteous and contailed iiatiou, It is now p'aiu to tbo common-seuao of the people that we must freo ourselves from Jail those fevered aud fictitious elemeuts which

threw a false nnd transitory glamour over our national life, Wβ can only' up all our energies to the political nnd industrial institutions of the colony, iu orclw to place thoia ou a

foundation of rook that will endure fof all time/ We: have a great burden o taxation upon us, but when we compar 9 our .circumstances with those of the Australian colonies, we may even become' reconciled to heavy taxation without the presence of droughts, with famished herds .and flooded homes. Let us determine honesty to remedy the evils our own folly created, and not com tinue to add to them. It must bo always uppermost-in our thoughts that we are making a home for our children who will live aftor us, To amass fortunes in our own flootiug day should not be the absorbing passion, Our children should be taught by precept and example to love the land of their birth and be patriotic. It is time we fully realised our duty in that direction, for the country will) shortly have aaother op. portunity, perhaps one of the moat favourable that has ever presented itself, to secure the services of tho best and wisest men to put our-national affairs in order and pursue an honest and righteous course of legislation in future. When we have performed that work as our portion, wo shall see it continued by another and honorable generation.