NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3095, 7 January 1871, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

[From the Illustrated London News.] What a startling difference in a man's prospects oftentimes follows a change in his mood ! Who has nofc met; in with an instance of the fact p Take the case of a merchant, once moderately prosperous, then rash and extravagant, afterwards overwhelmed by disaster and debt, until he has sunk into a settled condition of self-mistrust and despondency. The depression of his spirits paralyses his will, sours his temper, debases his whole being. He leans upon his friends, and looks upon it as an intolerable offence if tbey do not help him in every way, he desires. AU things, he imagines, go against him. His, misfortunes are nofc sufficiently allowed for. His susceptibilities are not generously considered. His faults are exaggerated. Hia enemies are too formidable for him to cope with them singlehanded. He deems his very relatives to be.lacking in sympathy for hem j misinterprets their efforts to rouse him as insults, and scrutinises all their acts by the lurid light of his own suspicion that they wish to cut him. At last Borne gleam of good fortune lights upon his endeavors, and lets in upon his pathway a ray of hope. He shakes himself free of despair, and sets aboufc some enterprise of promise in a new spirit. The life that is yefc in him, instead of sullenly succumbing under its responsibilities as a burden, uses fchem as a motive — like a fresh-lighted fire which, perhaps, a too great weight of fuel threatens to extinguish ; but whioh, gaining ascendency, ends by feeding upon that which would else have smothered it. Tho direst calamity which can overtake either an individual or a community is to lose heart. The colony has passed through some such experience as described above. It had lost heart. Ifc is a question of trivial importance of this moment whether its depression of spirit was caused by unfortunate ciroumstances, by the disappointment of expectations that ought never to havo been cherished, or by unkindly and contumelious treatment of the mother country. The less the past is brought under discussion between the parent and child, the better, perhapß, for both parties, Our reference to it, whioh will be bufc cursory, . is made solely for fche purpose of giving a tone of reality to our congratulations. It was aboufc this time last year, we believe, tbat we criticisdd fche relative position of the New Zealand Legislature and Government to the Coloniol Office, and, if our memory serves with fidelity, we urged a slight deviation by Earl Granville from a policy of strict logio in favor of one of one tempered, to some extent, by generosity. Tho colonists had upplied somewhat indireotly to fche Government at home to be allowed to , retain the only remaining regiment of her Majesty's* troops then in the islands, lest; the removal of ifc should be misjudged by the Maoris, and should tempt them to rise en masse against the sefcfclers. Tbe application was not complied wifch, and, in duo course, the regiment returned home. It is nofc necessary fco describe the temper excited ih the minds of the New Zealand whifce population by this event, nor to bring forward minute evidence of its effect upon their future volicy. Upon fche Maoris ifc had no effect, whatever. Bufc the attitude of stern negation resumed by the Oolonial Office towards the supplicatory approaches of the New Zealanders has stirred deep indignation in fche bosoms of several genfclomen at home, who took upon themselves to expand the grievances of New Zealand into a broad ground of objection to our general colonial policy, and who, with greafc energy and some ability, proceeded fco organise a machinery for combining fche political influence of all fche British colonies, for fche purpose of bringing ifc to bear in a concentrated form upon fche Parliament and Cabinet of the mother country. Founding fcheir agitation upon the gratuitous assumption tbat her Majesty's ministers aimed at a severance, as soon as possible, of the ties which unite fchese infant empires with the United Kingdom, and fchafc they were preparing the way for tho realisation of that design, they appeared to the Colonial Government and peoples to aid thera in resisting a policy 80 fatal tO the Strength and' prestige of the "British Empire, The response evoked by this appeal was substaptially to the effect that, as there was no serious apprehension on tbe part of tho communities appealed fco that the connection between tbem and Great Britain was actually threatened ; and as, in any ca.e, the colonists believed themselveß competent to manage affairs for themselves without the intervention of a central representative body, fche services of the alarmists at home would not be put in requisition. Ifc may bave been anticipated that New Zealand, in whose supposed interests especially this apprehensive mebhanism was devised, would hail with gratitude. That was not the case, however. The motion submitted to the Assembly, "that the Imperial Government had failed in its duty to the Colony," was keenly debated, bufc was set aside by a majority for " fche previous question." Tho Legislative Council oarried three resolutions — the first expressing a desire to remain an integral part of the British Empire ; the seoond affirming its disbelief that the people of England wished for the disintegration of the empire ; and tho third, while declaring regret at the course pursued by the Home Government towards the colony, insisting upon the undeairablenesof making any further reference fco past understandings. Wo have been looking over fche columns of the " New Zealand Examiner," and wo musfc say fchat the information we collect from its last number shows that the ruin which the colonists last year bo gloomily anticipated has proved to be bufc a phantom of imagination. The Maoris bave nob nofc risen en masse. On the contrary, Te Kooti, the rebel chief most dreaded for his sinister influence, although not captured, is wandering aboufc, in the North Island, with but five- and - twenty adherents. Indeed, ifc may be said that all fear of the rebellious natives has passed away. The queßtionß which now occupy the minds of our kinsmen in the antipodes are those not of approaching massacre but of colonial developement. Including the million sterling loan guaranteed by Act of Parliament, the New Zealand Legislature has resolved upon borrowing, on its own credit, three millions more for publio works. Immigration, railroads, local roads to be made by the employment of native labor, waterworks and telegraphs will receive their proportionate share of outlay during the next ten years from the capital sum fco be thus raised. There are numerous and extensive gold-fields to be worked. Gold, flax, and fcallow, and ofcher resources are on a course of promising developement. The trade returns laid before the Assembly for the three quarters of the year ending March 81, 18*70, show the total amount of imports to be £3,894,118,- and of exports, £3,393,834. We have given our readers the barest outline of tho facts, whioh prove a most gratifying revival of enterprise on the part; of fche ~New Zealanders. They have fcaken their destinies, into fcheir own hands, and already the prospects of the oolony are brightening beyond all expectation. We congratulate them upon having discovered the true secret of success. Doubtless the young community has yet muoh to learn, as indeed, all communities haye j but at least fchey have learned this lesson hy painful experience, that nothiug tends to prostrato a country more completely than a depreciafcive estimate by ifcs inhabitants of what they oan accomplish by fcheir own powers. Henceforth, we trust, a kindly and confiding disposition will grow up ono towards the other in both the parenb state , and her distant offspring. " Help yourself, and Heaven will help you" is 'a maxim no less of religion than of philosophy; ': Having faith in the principle {whioh underlies this maxim, we rejoice, in the belief that New < Zealand is now on the way to a peaceful and prosperous future.