The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3861, 9 July 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1875.

It is amazing what an amount of nonsense is written concerning the doings of Sir Julius Vogel. There is a forgone conclusion pn the part of the Canard manufactory and its branches that he has committed himself to something not very straightforward, or at least unbusiness-like, in the matter of the Rothschild loan. According to Canard number one, he has pledged his word that no further loan shall be asked for New Zealand during a defined period of time. That is to say, a Prime Minister, whose tenure of office may not be that of $ day after the meeting of Parliament, has taken open himself to tie the hands of future Ministries, no matter what their necessities, and to pledge the Colony to confine its expenditure within certain limits, no matter how profitable it may be to enter upon a new series of reproductive works. We should like to be informed by those easily gulled Solons who have given publicity to the rumor, what such a pledge would be worth if given, or what Messrs Rothschild were dreaming about in asking it ? We are quite sure that no such authority was given by the General Assembly to the Premier, and that no condition of the sort would be endorsed by them. It is not at all improbable that Sir J. Vogel may have stated that the sum he asked for was the balance of the loan authorised to be raised under the Public Works apd Immigration scheme, and that until it was expended it Avas not his intention to go into the money market again. There needed no special manufacture for that, as be stated it in Parliament last year. It is therefore nothing new so far as he is concerned; but his intention cannot be binding on Parliament or a new Ministry, although it is not by any means probable that a further loan will be required until the completion of the present railway scheme. Canard number two is discussed very cautiously this morning by the managers of the branch manufactory in Dunedin in an article on immigration. Evidently they are dumb-foundered at the success that has attended the efforts of Sir Julius Vogel in obtaining a loan, and cannot believe the Colony has credit to secure it without some special security. What security those capitalists could derive ■ through restricting immigration to those who can promise to pay their I passages, is not very clear. When 6ir ' Julius Vogel could show from results that every passenger recouped his { cost of transit to the Colony in three years through contributions I to the revenue, leaving out all con-1

sidc ration of profit through his labor, financiers so astute as the Roths- ' Childs would scarcely see their way to checking immigration although free. To our thinking, if Sir Julius Vogel has consented to the degradation of being dictated to by a foreign firm as to the manner in which the affairs of this country should be conducted, he has laid himself open to grave censure. Their best security is increase of the adult population of the Colony. We apprehend there are other reasons of a more substantial character than are woven into canard shape that have led to the refusal of free passages. For instance, only a limited sum was appropriated for the purpose, and that amount must be approaching its exhaustion. Next, in all probability there is not the same necessity now for offering special inducements to men to emigrate, as theft.• was at the time the system was adopted. Most of us remember well that the greatest difficulty was then experienced in inducing intending emigrants to turn tfieir attention to this Colony. The <l wretched past” raised visions of Maori murderers at Home who were supposed to mam at large throughout the Colony ; the Canard manufactory and branches sent Home by every mail long articles bristling with figures, proving the Colony to be in a state of hopeless insolvency, and telling that the people were crushed with the weight pi taxation and could not find work. It was not, as now, a taxation to come, according to the canard clique, but present and intolerable ; and people abroad had no means of disproving the pretentious falsehoods so malevolently circulated Although able men were sent as immigration agents, instead of being supported their characters were assailed and their abilities ridiculed; and had not free emigration been adopted, the well-conceived sch.emp of which increased population formed a part seamed likely to be frustrated. The skilful management of Sib Julius Vogel making immigration free, secured a supply for the labor market enabling the prosecution of the Public Works scheme, as well as providing for that expansion of industrial enterprise which has necessarily resulted. Undeniably, from one cause or other, the I selection of suitable emigrants was not always judicious; but from accounts received of emigration to other Gqlonje.fy ’ pretty nearly like complaints are made in them. The time has, however, come ■ when, through the difficulties which originally beset the scheme being oveiv come, the Colony is in a position to select its future inhabitants, and feeling i thus, in all probability Sir Julius Vogel thinks free passages may be dispensed with.