NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIA.

Evening Star, Issue 3437, 26 February 1874, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIA.

We take the following from the Hobart Town 4 Mercury * of the 2nd instant.—“A section of the Sew Zealand Press complains bitterly of the scarcity of labor throughout the Colony, and hints in undisguised terms thiit a ‘temporary suspension of public works Will be* inevitable ip order - to enable farmers to “obtaib the necessity l |abpr fob gathering F apnpun&mentVom such a quarter is tvortby of consideration, more particularly as the astonishing commer' land is at the present the attention of the British public. Until withjn a cqrpparatiyely recent period little was known pt New “gealapd beyond the 'fact' that it w.a* ip a chfopic state qf war—a ■flrar of races, which speaks p war pf extermination. War speedily eptailed poverty; and dpbt subsequently settled dpwn like an incubus on the commercial activity and the political vitality of the country. The influence exercised by the New Zealand Company ip the administration and execution of the laws was ruinous in its consequences. Colonists oi ability and position were debarred participation in the emoluments of office, and were hopelessly shut out from places of responsibility and trust, for no other conceivable reason than to make room l!mt reS vn S of Co “Pany. and to “Pj o d fi the Chl I . l . l “ g , exclusive neBB of ancient and infirm political parties. Under these depressing influences New Zealand continued to languish without apparent chance of extrication or hope of recovery, until the adof Mr Julias Vogel changed (the entire

complexion of things. Possessing the strong force of character and high intellectual qualifications which befit a statesman, Mr Vogel, shortly after his arrival in the Colony, threw himself heart and soul into political life, and by sheer perseverance and irrepressible energy, soon attained the front rank o! Colonial statesmen. Sensibly alive to the immense advantages possessed by the Colony, both as regarded healthiness of climate, fertility of soil, and unfailing mineral wealth, he unhesitatingly dealt a death blow to the 1 old identity ’ principle of political progress, established a new and more vigorous order of things, and ultimately succeeded in placing New Zealand among the foremost of the Australasian Colonies, both as regards its political weight and commercial prosperity. The colonists of New Zealand have not been backward in recognising the worth of the man who, unsupported by outside influence or pressure, has raised both himself and themselves to an envied degree of prominence in the ranks of advancing civilization. At a public banqnet given to Mr Vogel, at Dunedin, on the oth of January, that gentleman gave a curt and explicit recapitulation of his stewardship, and modestly alluded to the great changes he had effected by simply reminding his audience when touching upon the vexed question of prison labor reform as applied to public works, and also the incalculable advantages to be derived from a system of free immigration, that these measures merely kept pale with the requirements of the times that called them into existence. Coming from any other man, the observation might have been set down as the veriest platitude—an exigency of oratorical fluency, or a redundancy of inconsequential palaver. But coming from Mr Vogel it acqtured, and carried along with it the import of an historical truth. From its sequential bearing tho statement amounted to a bold and confidential assertion that the feverish excitement associated with the dreadful question of ‘war, or peace,’ had bien allayed, and ceased to absorb the undivided attention of Ministers of the Crown ; and that the Colony had shaken off its old proveibial lethargy, and had realized its strength and importance by asserting its political, moral, and social responsibilities. Mr Vogel’s scheme of nominated immigration has proved eminently successful, and has marked him as a statesman of no mean attainments. He is proud and undisguisedly joyous of his scheme, oot merely because it has proved a success as far as it has been tested, but also because it has clearly demonstrated the fact that although his scheme was similar in design and effect to the family immigration scheme of Victoria, the former has be come popular and valuable, while the latter was never sufficiently worked out. New Zealand has grown in favor among the industrial classes ; a fact and no insignificant one attributable to the numerous favorable reports sent Home by emigrants, supplemented by the liberal terms, including fre° passages, now offered by the Colonial AgentGeneral in London. Tasmanians can learn a grave lesson from the above statement of f l°i ' Ar-A -°? r a P ath y a PPeara unexplainable. With indefinite resources of wealth at our command, we daily witness the deplorable fact of the bone and sinew of the island quitting its shores for the purpose of following pursuits or means of livelihood in New Zealand that can be fouud at the threshold of almost every homestead in Tasmania. We are not a poverty-stricken community, but it is to be feared we have dropped into the groove of the laisser faire portion of the human race. Tasmania should now occupy the position assumed and ably maintained by New Zealand.”