The Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2221, 20 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1870.

Thb telegram published in the Evening Star on Saturday evening is calculated to give unbounded satisfaction throughout New Zealand. It proves that our Commissioners are determined their errand shall not be a fruitless one. Sent out for a specific purpose which they cannot achieve, they have used the opportunity for more useful negotiations. From the first we never supposed that the British Government would sanction the errand on which they were despatched. There was a quixotry about the whole affair that was nut likely to commend it to the approbation of Statesmen at Home. What can be more like poltroonery than for a Colony to allow itself to be abjectly terrified by a barbarous population inferior to them in numbers, wealth, and physique ? No doubt it is very inconvenient to be postered with

troublesome neighbors. No man now-a-days likesl to give up following his lawful calling to encounter the risk and chances of war, whatever advantages he may possess in arms and appurtenances. It was not with that view that those in the North located themselves on their sheep runs. But it is the penalty they have to pay either in personal service or money, tor the benefits they seek to realise trom their holdings, and ought to be one of the elements entering into the calculation of occupying them. The annoying part of it is that our Northern fellowColonists, after getting into a difficulty, contrive to saddle the Southern Islanders with the task of getting them out of it. Earl Granville, however, considered the danger not greater than is quite within our means to grapple with: and lie has proved himself right, notwithstanding all the abuse heaped upon his head. In their maudlin terror all manner of wild schemes wove hatched in the North. Old Indian officers on their behalf fancied Goorkas were to be the safeguard : others with a shade more wisdom wanted to raise regiments at Home, and sent commissioners to fetch them ; but it did not seem to strike our sapient legislators that before either the one or the other could arrive, either the Colonists would be safe or have their throats cut. Hie action required was immediate: the good sought for was prospective. What a howl of indignation there was throughout the British Empire when Earl Granville told us we were old enough, big enough, and strong enough, to take care of ourselves ? At Home, in Australia, at the Cape, in the West Indies, there was a cry of shame at leaving poor little New Zealand to the mercy of the black, blood thirsty llanimus; and different journals in different places, and amongst them one in Dunedin, published a lot of tall talk about independence, although they had just before been humbly parading their dependence, and about forsaking British protection to place the Colony under that of the United States. But what England will not do for war purposes, has been consented to for those of peace, and herein is a marked advance in human thought. It is not quite a century since the shaking among the nations caused by the French Devolution burst the fetters that had bound the human intellect and set thought free. The world before that time had subsisted for the few. Hie struggle between right and might was fearful and deadly, arid amongst the heaviest sufferers in the war of repression was England herself. That dreadful struggle saddled our native land with a debt of nearly a thousand millions of money, besides hundreds of millions of revenue —ail of which was wasted in destruction and blood. But the cost of moving armies and fleets, and fighting battles, was as nothing compared with the distress of nations, the ruin of cities, the misery and destitution caused by war. To this frightful development of evil must be added the cost of the armed peace which has continued from 1815, with occasional interruptions, to the present time. Had one-thousandth part of this enormous expenditure been devoted to education and public works, who can even imagine the advance in morals, religion, and material wealth that would have been the result ? Those who will take the trouble to investigate the origin of many of our present prejudices, will find they have them root in the notions encouraged at that time and inherited from our fathers. They pervade our songs, our literature, our notions of honor, and in not a few instances they lead us to say, “ Evil, be thou my good.” Even our theology is tinctured with them, and will be until it becomes remodelled upon sounder views of revealed truth. It is to the honor of Great Britain that she has taken the initiative in the repression of the war spirit. She has stood aloof from European politics, and joined in none of the intrigues of later years. She has taken the position of a peacemaker, and has had the glory of having stood between adverse powers until they have accepted peace. And now what was steadily and firmly refused for warlike purposes has been granted to the Colony for those of peace. Exhausted by the cost of the Maori insurrection, production has languished, internal improvement has been stopped, immigration has come to a standstill. It is a new era in flic Colonial history of Great Britain that the Home Government has guaranteed a loan for public works and immigration. Instead of the money being wasted, it will be reproductive; instead of burdening the Colony with taxation, it will lighten it in proportion to the increase of population and of wealth ; and instead of reducing the value of our fields and pastures, each pound spent in internal communication will add to their worth. The Commissioners went out on an errand of folly, but they have made a wise arrangement, and will have the glory of partaking in an act calculated to bind the Colony move closely lu the 31cther Country.

We do not know whether the loan is to be of general or particular application. It may be specially designed for the Northern Island, to be employed in opening up the country, and in giving so decided a majority to the European population as to set the question of superiority at rest for ever. If so, care must lie taken to compel the North to hear the full charge of interest. It, on the other hand, it is for general distribution among the Provinces, Otago, as the largest contributor to the revenue, is entitled to the largest share. Let our members see to it.