THE PREMIER AND MR EELLOWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3774, 30 March 1875, Page 2

THE PREMIER AND MR EELLOWS.

In the February number of ‘ Fraser’s Magazine appears a letter by the Premier, occupying nineteen columns ©f that magazine, in which he exposes misrepresentations contained in Mr heUowss communication. Mr Vogel defends the Colony from the charge of “ applying borrowed money to maintain the regular establishment of the Government,” and declares it to be quite untrue. He presumes that no one will dispute the right to charge the cost of engineers, surveyors, draftsmen, and other officers 4ng&g6d in labors connected with the construe* txon of works, as fairly includable as part of the cost of such works. He describes as a scandalous perversion of fact the statement that the borrowed money is used to pay interest on the public debt. He controverts Mr Fellows’s statements as to immigrants and immigration, vindi* cates and explains the policy of public works as reviving confidence in trade and increasing land sales and settlement, as well as largely augmenting the wealth and revenue of the Colony. He meets the charge of extravagance in public buildings by showing how much New Zealand is behind other Colonies i n th ese matters and how careful the expenditure on them has always been. He exposes Mr Fellows for th© stress laid on Southland and other failures and public works that are old and forgotten things, and have nothing to do with the Government. He refutes his statements as to the Port Chalmers railway, and deals with all his assertions most fully, and in detail, quoting facts and figures it. support. He shows what the great resources of the country really are. Ho ridicules Mr Follows as one who came to iSew Zealand prolific of complaints against Vancouver s Island, the Colony from which he then came—as one of those persons of whom France produced so many, who find it impossible to be contented with any Government under which they live. He concludes • —- i4 l have answered Mr Febows under ciicumstances of difficulty I received your number contain mg his article at Florence several days after it was published, and my reply has been written amidst the weariness attending a slow recovery from severe illness, and with but few books and documents accessible. I should hj .ve liked to do more justice to New Zealand—a Colony as prosperous as any country in the world, which has immense resources, and is sure of a great future. But not only on its resources does it depend. lam a comparatively recent colonist, but I may without egotism say that, far above climate, soil, and other capabilities, the strength of New Zealand depends on its people. A country may support population in spite of original sterility, as witness Utah, not to mention many spots in Europe. Upon its people depends a country’s success, and the colonists o f New Zealand have those virtues of frugality, faith, industry, and energy which ensure success and happiness to their possessors. The New England States—the grand qualities of the early Puritan founders show themselves in their remote descendants. Generations will live and die in New Zealand, and still the virtues of its Pilgrim Fathers will be reproduced, and will gain for the land a great place amongst the dependencies of the Empire to which I believe they will, like their ancestors, glory to belong. To the people of New Zealand who hav© won their way to success through so many difficulties that happy phrase “ The heroic work of Colonisation,” is peculiarly applicable.