Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1884. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1051, 18 June 1884, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1884. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

The address of Sir Julius Yogel to the electors of Ashburton on Friday evening in the Arctic climate of present depression and discontent is wafted like a warm and fragrant air, heralding the approach of spring. There is a cheerful tone of confidence throughout, which indicates unmistakeably that he, who so long conducted affairs and raised the Colony to a high pitch of prosperity, by no means despairs of the commonwealth, but has perfect faith in the future, tracing the present bad times to causes which it is in the power of the people themselves to remove or modify. Mischief has been done, and more mischief, he thinks, is imminent by the disposition manifestsd by certain leading politicians to frighten away capital by legislation, solely in the assumed interest of the wages class. It is a truth capable of as clear demonstration as a mathematical problem that if capital is refused in any country its just rights, it will be withdrawn and invested elsewhere. Sir Julius says on this point : "If labor j were so idiotic as to drive all capital away, all work would be driven away with it, and the working classes would feel the greatest want in the dearth of capital to employ them." He proceeds to say that the great want of New Zealand just now is more capital for tHe employment o£ the -working-classes in various works, and he expresses the conviction that everything that is done in the direction of checking the influx of capital is, to a vast extent, injurious to the interest of all classes. " What you want is confidence and capital, and when you can secure these, I believe you will see such a sudden rise of prosperity, an advance by leaps and bounds in the improved value of property, that you would not know the Colony forthe same. . . . Restore confidence, and have nothing to do with political fads ; do not play with government, but deal seriously with questions that affect the settlement — that affect the well-being, that affect the happiness of the country — and I believe that you would not know the country after the lapse of a few months." These are words of wisdom, which it behoves every colonist of New Zealand to take to heart. There is real and earnest work to our hands in the settlement of the country and the development of its natural resources : why waste time, energy, and thought over "political fads," tinkering the constitution, altering the tenure of land, and so forth ? Sir Julius further speaks to the point in asserting that the people of this Colony do not devote the attention they should to local industries. The people do not, he says, make enough for themselves ; the producing power is not suflicient. " There has been a great improvement made in things generally during the last two years, but there is still room for a great deal more to be done. Now I find, for example, that you are importing no less than £196,000 worth of boots and shoes in the year. You have got now, since 1882, more than twice the population you had in 1870, when you imported £251,000 worth of boots, and there has therefore been a great improvement, but there is room for more. . ... I will not burthen you with the relation of the various items, but I am of opinion that there is room for a great deal more of home production than there has been." It may be recollected that the Hon. Major Atkinson, speaking in Dune4in recently, took exactly the same view. What we want, he said in effect, is to turn our attention to work. Capitalists and merchants should look carefully to the Customs-returns and see what articles can be manufactured in this Colony. They should make up their minds and apply themselves to this — that " nothing this country can produce to advantage should be im? ported into it." Increase of produc?

tion in absolutely essential if prosperity is to be restored and maintained. There is not only a large field open in the superseding imports by local manufacturers, but the land at present in occupation by the farmers and runholders is capable of being made at least doubly productive. Differing as they would seem to do on many political questions, it is satisfactory to find Sir Julius Yogel and the Premier at one in regard to what may well be considered the most vital question of the day. It is altogether impossible, within .the limits of an article, to do more than refer to a few of the more salient points in the Ashburton address, which is a masterpiece in its way — comprehensive, exhaustive, admirably arranged, logical, and decisive in tone. "What Sir Julius has to say about the public works and immigration policy, which he himself initiated fourteen years ago, is especially worthy of notice, when certain captious politicians would endeavor to trace to the operation of this policy the financial perplexities and commercial troubles which just now afflict the community. He clears himself altogether from the imputation of having launched the railway scheme without regard either to consideration of future finance or of justice to the various parts of the Colony. "It was the wish of the Government which I represented at the time when the policy was brought down that the lands of the Colony should be made responsible for the cost of constructing the railways. We proposed that a railway estate should be set apart, arid that the increased value which would be consequent on the construction should pass to the Government. "We were defeated on that point. "We also proposed that land should be raised in price, so that the increased value should pass to the Government. On that point also we were unsuccessful. In respect to lands which had passed from the Crown, and which were in private hands, and which would be benefited by the railways, we proposed that there should be a rating power. These points were not approved." Notwithstanding that these proposals or any of them were approved, Sir Julius holds — and few will disagree with him — that his policy has been most successful. He repudiated the idea that the railways were tc be made immediately profitable. "No one denied that in the early days it was the duty of the Government to construct roads, and that it was right that they should make a charge by way of tolls for their maintenance. Now, what are the railways but equipped roads ? and why should a Government say that they should make it a condition when population is small and settlement not advanced that they should not construct railways without exacting to the last penny the interest they cost." It is hardly necessary to say that Sir Julius is in favor of the vigorous prosecution of the railways already projected and authorised ; whilst he further declares that any line " which would not press on the Colony to a greater extent than about 2 per cent, would be worthy of construction." The Otago Central, he thinks, should be pushed forward to completion without delay. In regard to immigration, he asserts that the Colony is " immensely underpopulated. ... I say it is a most serious consideration that of the regulation of capital and labor, so as not to bring into the country too much of I either one or the other. They Bbould follow on side by side, and then you would have unquestionably, as the result, genuine prosperity."