The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3428, 16 February 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 1874

W ith the exception of the section to Green Island the first instalment of Government railways in Otago has been opened : the Mataura line is available for traffic. Constructed through an easy country, no time has been wasted, and now communication is established between a port and a fine pastoral and agricultural district, with a prospect also of developing mineral resources. It is seldom, in these Colonies, that statesmen are permitted to hold office sufficiently long to mature and carry out their plans. Democratic as we are in New Zealand, Mr Yogel has been fortunate enough to do so. Perhaps no man ever accepted office in the face of greater difficulties. How far these, through being overcome, tended to his success it is hard to say. But thus far may be affirmed: the clique that for years, like the Tories in England, had assumed to be the only men capable of carrying on the work of Government, had involved the Colony in difficulties in every department. It is true schemes were devised that would have worked wonders, could they have been carried out. The heaven-born legislators, as it was the fashion to term them, proposed to conquer peace with the Maoris with profit to the Colony. This profit was to be realized by seizing upon the landed property of the Natives and selling it to pay the expenses of war. With the assistance of the British troops, the seizure was effected, and so far the scheme looked well ; but though they obtained the land, the roost important part of the arrangement, the sale of it, could not be effected. The governing clique forgot that, although a strong man armed may defend his goods and property, no strong man will invest his money in a speculation involving such a risk, as a stronger than he might come and spoil his estate. True, the Fox-Vogel’s predecessors had classic precedent to guide them. No doubt they learnt their political economy, like many other of our classical scholars, by studying Roman history; and as they had not realized the fact that modern civilization and science are superior to the highest conceptions of the ancients, the only notion they had of dealing with the Natives was to conceive the idea of establishing some-

Iring like military colonization after the Roman fashion. This veneration for the past is the greatest drawback to advancement, and it is because of his clear perception of the necessities of the present that Mr Vogel’s administration has proved so superior to that of the Staffords and Richmonds. Undervaluing,, or not understanding society as now developed, the grossest mistakes were made by them. Mr Weld, during his short administration, had induced Parliament to affirm the principle of self-reliance. Most probably he understood what was involved in the term ; but his immediate successors gave no attention to the consequent necessary arrangements. The Colony still leant upon the Mother Country, and even after Mr Vogel took office the superiority of civilised over semisavage man was so far doubted as to lead to very absurd propositions; the giant had not tested his power against the dwarf. Colonial wealth, appliances, and courage had quailed before a few Maoris, who, as might have been expected, when fairly grappled with, were easily kept within certain boundaries, and found not to be worth following within them, excepting to teach them that their safety depended upon their good behaviour. Governor Weld, when he assisted in opening the Mataura Railway, celebrated the success of the self-reliant policy of which he may be said to have been the beginner. Showing its advantages in securing peace through efficient organization of a Colonial force, and opening the country by means of roads, it has been further developed by telegraphic lines passing through districts previously not available j and now we have evidence that money invested in reproductive works, instead of being blazed away in gunpowder to propel bullets, adds value to property, which no conquered peace could have effected. Every acre of land wrested from the Natives has proved nearly valueless for settlement, and isonly beginning to give prospect of supporting an industrial population. Every acre of agricultural or pastoral land, within fifteen oxtwenty miles of a railway will have its value immediately doubled or trebled, with a prospect of indefinite increase for years to come. Civilised population alone is needed to give value to it. The inference is plain. Our work as Colonists is to subdue the earth and civilize the Maories; for once civilized, they become producers instead of destroyers. Our past mistakes have been attempts to subdue the Maoxis and let the earth alone. We are now on the right track so far as means of subsistence and attainment of wealth by a large population are concex-ned. Much remains to be undone so far as relates to commercial relations. M r Y ogel has to learn that foreign commerce and protective duties cannot subsist together. It may not, however, fall to his lot to introduce a sounder system than the collection of revenue by import duties. Years may pass befox-e theiuconvenience is felt, because it is impossible to say how much more rapid our progress might have been than it has proved to be: nor are people prepared for a change. It must come however; and perhaps through the altered relations of Victoria and New South Wales, sooner than we expect.