NEW ZEALAND'S PROGRESS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1882, 2 July 1888, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND'S PROGRESS.

Speed) es at farewell dinners are not as a rale of a very high order, but occasionally something above the average is reported. It is a common idea with some people that nothing good is to be found m New Zealand, and when a man of some standing and experience says a little m favor of the colony we live m it is but right we should publish it. There is very little to the detriment of our adopted country bat what it pretty loudly trumpeted throughout the length and breadth of it, sp np apology IB needed for retailing what is favorable to us. Mr G. Bell, proprietor of the " Evening Star " m Dnnedin, whioh is ! known as being a first class property, m a speech at a farewell dinner to Mr Montagu* Pym, who with the Hon Mr Larnach has established a business m Melbourne, said, m proposing the toast of " The Colony," that ho would not epeafc of politics but would fall back on the past, and would say that New Zealand had done more as a oolony during the forty years of its existence than perhaps any other country on earth. Let them take its nine cities, with their churches, museums, and various institution, and ask whero m the same time, among so limited a population, had there ever been so largo qn amount of money so well spent. Look afc th/fir educational system, too. Where else had there been such efforts made m the direction of improving the moral and intellectual wcjfaro of tfyo popple ? They iroro working jfcoo for poitioritfy as as for themselves. Those things were investments, and J*o hoped they would m the future p*ay a good ralto of fotpregt, Furthermore, they 'were, ho thought, a particularly patient people. That must be granted when so small a population, jlepntjent entirely on agricultural and pastoral purajjitp, /spent so many millions of money solely to nurse a fojy industries. They were, he asserted, cwtainiy a patient people. However, m conclusion he might say that, looking at the money they were ftblo to spend on theatres, rinks, football, . ate, ifc must be admitted that New Zealand was not such a bad place after all. The Chairman, Sir Robert Stout, talking of the exodus to Melbourne said : — They must, however, think of this, that after all they were only learning nowa days what m an able magazine article recently wag.calWd 'tyhe Jesson of migration," and considering lii,o rapid intercourse betweon different countries and the centreing of business m some capitals, • they musji expect to Bee considerable migration to what, after all, wan the capital of Australasia — vis., AJolJjo^rne. It was impossible for Now Zealand to rival the largo pi^es of the Australian continent j because, firstly, ft hsd gof

the trade ot a large colony centred m one place. But they m New Zealand ; had advantages m a higher intellectual and political life, and probably alwayß would have the advantage of a more healthful population. He believed it would yet be recognised that the district south of Dunedin would produce the most vigorous Anglo-Saxon people m any of the colonies, and that they would give to the other colonies that vigor and push to help them along, which he believed they would not be able to produce themselves. The Official Assignee m Bankruptcy, Mr James Ashcroft, m giving the toast of Commerce said that a good many years ago a young member of the British aristocracy penned some lines, which, no doubt, he had wished many time since he had never written :— . Let wealth and commoroo, laws, and learn* ing die, But leave us still our old nobility. In this, one of Her Majesty's southern colonies, they had no old nobilit, but there was a nobility better than aristocracy — the nobility which' attached to character, integrity, skill, industry, and enterprise. Of that kind of nobility he thought they had a good many conspicuous examples m Few Zealand. £s to commerce m New Zealand, he might say the colony's external trade had aheady reached the respectable total of £13,000,000— n0t bad for a population of 600,000 who were at the same time under a cloud of more or less depression. Ithad occurred to him that therewas a certain unfitness m his being appointed to propose such a toast as "Commerce" ; it was somewhat on a level with an undertaker being put up to propose the health of the assembled guests.— (Laughter), But though an Assignee, he was something more— a citizen —and nothing would delight him more than to see such a state of things as would sweep him, or rather his office, entirely out of existence, and do away with bankruptcy forever." These sentiments are worthy of the best attention of all classes m the community. There is no doubt that stagnation does exist m some lines of business and m some forms of trade, but with economy and careful management, and increased protection to what we can manufacture locally combined with a schema of settlement of a colonising character we Bball not long be under the cloud of depression, and when we do emerge it will be only to pursue a path of commercial and social prosperity with more brilliancy than can be dreamed of.