The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3039, 14 November 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1872.

Objections are raised to Governments aiding in the development of industries on tho ground that it is not their province to interfere with private enterprise. This is one of the favorite maxims of a certain school of politicians. Were it merely asserted that a Government has no right to compete with individuals in trades and callings to which they have specially devoted attention, and which involve no ulterior public benefit, we consider there would be much force in the argument. A orievous wrong might in such cases be done. But there are many enterprises which are claimed to be private, in which the public are equally immediately interested with those who have embarked in them. Many times have such industrial aids as roads been made, on condition of an individual investor receiving a specified rate of toll. But it would be the height of absurdity, because that has occasionally been done, to argue that road making is beyond the province of a Government. And as every one in the country is directly or indirectly interested in having good roads, it becomes a public duty to see that they are cheaply and efficiently constructed. It is difficult therefore to lay down an absolute rule by which to judge what should be considered private and what public work. Perhaps the best and only test is to ascertain whether that which is proposed to be clone benefits only one or a few, or whether a large proportion of the population will share in the advantages conferred. In the case of roads, there is seldom any room to doubt. Every one is at liberty to travel upon them, although owners of property to which they give access are mainly interested ] and no one would be guilty of such folly a« to object to receive a small share of public good because a larger fell to tho lot of his neighbor. There has, however, been something analogous to this in the conduct of our Provincial Council. Two classes mainly have had the conduct of the affairs of the Province: those engaged in pastoral and those in agricultural pursuits. "VVe are quite willing to imagine that both are inclined to sanction and for ward road ponstfuption to the best of their ability; but wo do pot think they have displayed any extended knowledge hi their system of road construction, and according to general opinion, having different interests to uorvo, they havf) endeavored to forward them without duly appreciating the fact that there are large classes that belong neither to the one nor the other. On no other ground is it conceivable that the goldfields districts have been so long neglected. Most of the goldfields townships are situated on squatters’ runs, and although it would seem at first glance probable that every run-holder would consider that the ready market for fresh meat thus brought to him at his very door would be considered as so much value added to his property, the people hold very generally to the opinion that the squatters do not like road formation, because the more travelling through their runs the more their flocks are disturbed. Whether this be true or not, we are unable to say; but there seems at least a shadow of probability in the theory, taking into consideration that so little money has been spent in tho improvement'of districts whence such large revenues have beep derived. Or if it be pointed out that the runholders have not had the sole rule, although the same reason does not hold good with regard to the farmers, they have not displayed one whit more public spirit when power fell into their hands. Their object has been to have roads made to connect their own farms with the metropolis of the Province, and so leave the goldfields to shift for themselves. There might have been some reason for this when gold mining was confined merely to surface digging. Then the population was a shifting one; and a road that was one of the .utmost use one day, would have been absolutely valueless the next. But all this is altered. The goldfields townships are apparently as settled and stable as Dunedin itself. The system of sluicing enables men to work ground that would otherwise be useless. They are .changing the very surface of the country, washing down hills, and depositing their component atoms in other places, where possibly in ages to come they may in a new form afford sustenance to a population when, by artificial means or in the course of nature, organic matter becomes incorporated with them providing food for plants and plants for animals. This, however, is a slow process. There is no reason why goldfields should become agricultural before roads are made. Goldfields townships may be considered to contain settled anti permament populations. Hitherto the farmers have spent the territorial revenue derived from the goldfields

mainly for their own benefit, in the vain effort to induce settlement on the land; nor can they appreciate settlement in a form to which they have been unaccustomed. It is time that they were roused to a sense of what is due to those who have contributed so much to their prosperity. The tracks on the goldtieds are in a disgraceful condition, adding to the danger, difficulty, and cost of the transit of goods, and preventing many from permanently settling in the country. To remedy this the attention of the Government should be directed; for as much care and anxiety should be evinced to retain as to bring in population.