THE "TIMES" ON NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3764, 27 March 1873, Page 3

THE "TIMES" ON NEW ZEALAND.

The " Times," commenting upon the letter of its New Zealand correspondent, says :— He tells a story almost too good to be true. No doubt recent reports from the colony have uniformly pointed in the same direction, and given similar views of its prosperity and progress, but the last account surpasses all. The well-known advertisement of a country villa having its only drawbacks in the abundance of rose-leaves, which littered

the walks, and the songs'of the nightin--^■flglgjs, which almost prevented sleep, is aC^Bjflly exceeded in description by the \of real life here transmitted in sober 'earnest from New Zealand. There

is but a single qualification in the whole tale of happiness — a single exception to the rule of universal success. Moneylenders are not doing well, simply because everybody in the colony has so much money of his own that there is no need of borrowing. Joint-stock banks accordingly issue indifferent reports, and declare diminished dividends. One of these establishments has £600,000 unemployed, and informs its shareholders that the demand for cash

has fallen to that unpleasant amount within the kst six months. Perhaps it is still more extraordinary to find the Colonial Government in the same state of exceptional and fortunate embarrassment. It has now, " in lieu of financial difficulties, to deal with the difficulties of excess of means at its command." A large balance of public revenue stands to the credit of the Administration at the bank, where it is not wanted, and Ministers are compelled to lock up £200,000 of trust funds " because securities in which to invest it cannot be found." Never, even in the hyperboles of Asiatic story-tellers, has such a picture of wealth and ease been presented to the world. There remains, however, it will be thought, an awkward question still. What about the Maori ? Five short years ago this ruthless savage was hovering about our settlements with his tomahawk, and so terrifying the - colonists that an army of British troops was thought all too little for their protection. In 1869 the last regiment of the Imperial -garrison was recalled, and New Zealand was left without a single red-coat. Our readers can hardly have forgotten the outcry or the dolorous prophecies of massacre and ruin, combined with no little menace of retribution, which then crowded our columns. Well, the step was taken ; the consummation occurred, and what are now the results as shown by actual experience ? Since that time " there has not been anything in the nature of rebellion.*' New Zealand wars have already become things of the past, and the "position of affairs has continued to improve." There is now hardly a Maori to be seen, except, indeed, in the Colonial House of Commons. • Abroad in the country he is scarcely to be recognised, save by his skin. He has become an industrious money-making subject of the Queen, clever at making a bargain, thoroughly up to the advantages of a good contract, and wanting only a Trade Union to put him on a level with the most humanised of artisans. He gives no more trouble as a savage, and, what is even more remarkable, no trouble as a reclaimed savage. He has no time for "squatting" indolence or vagrancy, but carries his natural abilities to a new market as adroitly as the cleverest of Yankees. He is now a civil instead of a military engineer, and employs upon roads and bridges the gift of construed veness which used to be expressed in impregnable pas. In fact, he is as good colonist as his neighbors, |and bears no malice on the score of bygones. Of course this wonderful story has not been told without a moral — which, indeed, most readers will ha*e already drawn for themselves. Here is a country twice as large as England and Wales with a climate described as that of this island without its winter and fogs, with land of most excellent quality

selling at from £3 to £5 an acre, with railways, post-offices, and telegraphs all in full operation, with all desirable factories for school education and social intercourse, and with such conditions of

existence generally that " the life of a

country settler is as much like tho life of the ordinary English gentlemanfarmer as it is possible to be." Now, could there be a more perfect paradise for a Land and Labor League ? Labor is so much in demand that "as every vessely laden with immigrants comes to the colony they find good places the moment they set foot on shore ;" and land, as we have said can be bought for next to nothing., In all this spacious and inviting country there are barely 300,000 people — that is to say, not a hundredth part of the population of these islands. It must, indeed, be remembered that in spite of these conditions the capacity of the colony for receiving immigrants advantageously is limited. We have repeatedly explained in these columns that it requires a large settled population to support a constant immigration. Emigrants who go to New Zealand, unless they go with the means of at once bringing land under cultivation and supporting themselves till it becomes productive musfc depend for wages on the wants of the settlers who have preceded them. These wants, it is now evident, are rapidly increasing, and the state of society in the colony will soon be such as to call for many services beyond those of the farm laborer and domestic servant ; but until this occurs the demand will be small, and in the meantime the raMtfjfijjaterial of industry is land. That corapiodity, which is so scarce in this coun. .y, gluts the market at the Antipodes. There is land, and good land, enough to satisfy the wants of millions, but it is not every man who is a born farmer, or who has wherewithal to keep himself till his farm begins to pay. For families who can take out a little capital there is unlimited room in New Zealand ; for farm laborers and servants qualified for the duties of farm houses

there is a strong demand. The limits of the case, however, will be readily understood from the moderate estimate of our correspondent himself, who, after the glowing description of affairs as given above, is content to say that New Zealand could well receive and well remunerate some 15,000 or 90,000 immigrants a year. The single objection to its settlement is its remoteness, and that, no doubt, is often a fatal one. Fewpeople care to go to the end of the earth when they can get what they want by crossing the Atlantic. The voyage to New Zealand is still long and tedious ; the trip to Canada takes little above a week. Yet there is a great relief even in this respect. Though the settler in New Zealand is separated from his friends by a distance of many thousand miles, the agency of the telegraph now renders communication very rapid. A message can be transmitted from the colony to England in five days, and the colonists are anxious to reduce the time to as many hours. Except for this consideration of distance, New Zealand has everything to recommend it, and is now free from the terrors of Maori wars. It is prosperous and flourishing beyond example — almost beyond belief, and its welfare has been immeasurably promoted by the very policy which was resisted so long. We might claim, we think, for ourselves some credit on this score, but we are well content to congratulate our opponents on the established results, and to let past controversies be forgotten.