A VISITOR’S IMPRESSION OF NEW ZEALAND,

Dunstan Times, Issue 1235, 30 October 1885, Page 3

A VISITOR’S IMPRESSION OF NEW ZEALAND,

The Sydney 1 Evening News’ thus recounts the impressions gained by a Mr Ingles, who recently visited this Colony after an absence 0f.20 years. He says Notwithstanding the prevailing cry of dull times the streets were thronged, with costly clad and well fed crowds ; the shops were full of customers ; the theatre was well patronised ; and a general well-to-do air was apparent- everywhere! i.T dflty found one croacker. He complained- bitterly of the bad times ; but when I asked him where lay the blame he was rather hazy how to allocate it. “ Was it the Government ?” “ Well, no. He. believed they were doing their best. "Of course, there used to be more public works going on.; but then these are finished, and ’ no Government- could always be puttipg-up -public buildings.” “Was it the banks!” “No; he didn’t know much abont the banks, but he believed they were pretty liberal, too.” “ Was it the employers ?” “ Well, no ; they were just as bad off as anybody else.” “Would he like to go back to the Old Country?” “ No fear,” very energetically. “ Times was bad, no doubt; bat, Lor bless ye, they wasn’t anything like as bad as they was at Home ” And so, boiled down, it all came to this- times were bad. That must bo true, because everybody said so. But how bad were they ? Men had fair wages, comfortable homes, wore well clad Well fed, could afford to spend, and yet they were not happy. The fact is, as it seemed to me, just about this : People were too extravagant while the good time lasted. Fat contracts and big public works cannot last for ever. The time must coma when steady industry must apply itself to reproductive

works. Lands must he tilled, ingis not as showy as tunnelling and bridge building. Grasses and cereals must be sown, but returns are slower than from big contracts. “ While the dollars roll in let us spend them. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof ” Such seems to me to bo the general philosophy of these recurring hard times. When wages are high and work plentiful the fat kiue are slaughtered and eaten right off, rump and stamp, and not even a scrap is salted down to eke out the scanty fare that must inevitably follow, when the evil days of lean kine come upon ns. I believe that while there is a certain amount of depression in New Zealand at present, it is but temporary. The resources of New Zealand are only in the birth throes of exploitation. Well for all concerned if the lessons of thrift, self-denial, frugality, and the necessity for hard, continuous effort be learned now, from temporary .depression, than from the dry rot and stagnation of widespread national deterioration and exhaustion. Christchurch has stirring times, and a bright, busy future before it, beyond a doubt, else the Anglo-Saxon is played out, and there is no more virtue’ in' beef, wool, and grain. So long as grass grows and water flows, and industry merits-suc-cess, so long will Canterbury flourish, and the cry of bad times from lazy oroackera will have as much effect as the idle wind that wastes its energies on the sands of the desert.