The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4043, 10 February 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1876.

The deplorable condition of Victoria, and the degradation into which she has unhappily been plunged by the political quacks who have committed her to a restrictive, and, consequently, retrogressive policy, have never been more forcibly depiated than by the parallel drawn between that Cclony and the adjacent Province of South Australia in a speech recently delivered by the Hon. Mr Boucaut. This gentleman's name may be, and probably is, new to the majority of the New Zealand public ; and we, therefore, state briefly that Mr Boucaut is the present Premier, and that his advent to office was occasioned by a circumstance which reflects honoron the South Australian Legislature and people. The preceding Ministry, in a moment of moral and political weakness, admitted to a seat on the Ministerial Benches a prominent member of the Opposition. Elsewhere —in Victoria, for instance—such a proceeding would scarcely have excited a remark; but the representatives of "the most, conservative of all the British Colonies " —a distinction proudly, and not without justice, claimed by Mr Boucaut for South Australia—-are somewhat more festidious. They regarded the transaction in its true light, as a corrupt and dishonorable transaction, and refused to endorse it ; and by successive votes—-first, of censure for this particular business, and secondly, of want of confidence because thereof—the Blyth Ministry were compelled to vacate their places, and to resume their wonted seats in the cold shade of Opposition. Then Mr Boucaut came upon the scene. His predecessors had grudgingly consented to initiate a system of public works, accompanied by a renewal of immigration, but only to the extent of one million expenditure. The present Premier is a man of more expanded ideas, and he rightly refused to crawl, when the circumstances of the Colony warranted vigorous action. He at once proposed a fcthree million loan, and manfully declared thafc, had he not been trammelled, by his colleagues, he would have proposed a loan of six millions. In defence of bold—and wise as bold policy, he* de livered the speech to which we refer, in which he illustrates the wisdom of his proposals by a comparison, which no doubt must be extremely odious to Victorians, of the relative progress of the two Colonies. And it is not suprising that there should be very distinctly audible a triumphal note in his utterances upon this subject— We (he says) are fdrging last ahead of our once overpowering, because auriferous noi"hb,.r. From 1871 to 1874 the increase of population has been—in Victoria, 6* per cent. •in South Austia'ia, 10 per cent. The area of land under cultivaticn,. 75,000 acres, or 8 per cent in Victoria ; and 285,000 acses, or 27 per cent' in South Australia. Thereve&ue hasincreised 12 per cent, in Victoria, aad 29 per cent, in bouth Australia; the tonnage has increase I iii per cent m Victoria, and 43 per cent in South Australia; and tho imports have increased 17 per cut. in Victoria, and 85 per cent, in South Australh. l

Well may the South Australian statesman (and we use the phrase in its most perfect sense) thus glorify the Colony of which he is the political head. The enormous products of all the goldfields of Victoria have not been sufficient to enable her to retain her once proud position as the premier Colony. And her declension therefrom has notoriously been accomplished by her resort to thesuicidal policy of protection, for which the ignorant demagogues who have been suffered to predominate in her councils are responsible. "With greater judgment, "the most conservative of all the Colonies " has abided by a simple tariff, strictly based on commercial premises and regulated by finanoial requirements, and I

the beneficial result is now apparent, bouth Australia is, at the present day, one of the most prosperous and solvent Colonies of the Australasian group • and, as was well said by Mr Boucaut it is “ able to forge ahead without protection and without Victoria.” Here we have onco more repeated the fablo of the hare and the tortoise. Victoria had a grand opportunity, and she has wilfully thrown it away by her adoption of protective duties, which, although in theory beautifully adapted for the promotion of so called native industries that a « e , n °k na^ VQ any true sense of the word, have proved in practice to be most injurious to the real industries of the country. We know that the special industry of Victoria—that namely of gold-mining—has wofully suffered under the protective system. And this is not to be wondered at, for it has been proved by incontrovertible facts and figures that the extra duties paid by miners upon the articles used and consumed by them in the exercise of their vocation is greater in amount than an export duty of 2s bd per ounce. Indeed the owners of the Ballarat deep-lead mines averred in a petition presented to the Legislature, that the tax on imported candles alone was more heavily felt than the export duty ever had been, and their statements have never been controverted or denied. And os to all other native industries Victoria is a long way behind her less showy l but more judicious, and therefore more successful rival. Thus, Mr Boucaut, quoting from the of&cial returns of the Government Statist, points out that during a period of five years, terminating in 1874, South Australia has increased “in population, 33 per cent.; acres cultivated, 56 per cent, j revenue by Customs, 66 per cent. ; in imports, 45 ; and exports, 48 per cent.; tonnage, 60 per cent.; in railways, 122, main roads, 46, and telegraphs, 359 per cent.; in horses 26, cattle 55, and sheep .38 per cent.” Surely here is evidence enough, and to spare, to convince the most sceptical that the natural industries of a country are best fostered by free trade and the healthy competition thereby induced. Tinder the guidance of Mr Boucaut the Colony, or, more correctly, the Province of South Australia has entered iipon a new and more vigorous stage of development. ‘Within its extensive boundaries there exist all the elements of prosperity and progress-stores of mineral wealth, rich soil, a climate which permits of the successful cultivation of all the products of Europe ; and (which is more important still) she is blessed with an energetic and industrious population, sufficiently advanced in political knowledge to turn a deaf ear to political demagogues, wisely choosing rather to entrust the direction of public affairs to men of acknowledged foresight and ability, of whom the present Premier may be regarded as a fair and favorable sample.