The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1893. " Our Captious Critics "

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 118, 25 March 1893, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1893. " Our Captious Critics "

In our last issue we dealt briefly with the adverse criticism of this colony by the Financial News, in England, and since then we have received the Review of Reviews for last month, in which we find a quotation from a speech made by Mr G. D. Carter, the new Treasurer of Victoria, on the same subject. In dealing with the mischievous criticisms with which the colonies are assailed by a clique in the English Press, Mr Carter argued that the Australians have no reason to be asha.ned of their history or doings. The amount of bullion and coin in the colony (Victoria) amounted to something like £20,000,000 sterling, while that in the Bank of England itself only reached .£24,000,000. Mr Carter also said : "We imported, from tho years 18-")2 to 1891, three hundred millions of value in goods, which were all paid for. We owed Great Britain forty odd millions of money now, of which we paid the interest punctually and with fidelity. In the year 1840 the whole exports and imports of the great motherland only amounted to 1 13 millions in value, while those of Australia last year amounted to 114 millions. That was from the small, despised Australia, which men could write down from some obscure garret in London. The libeller of the individual was worthy of punishment, though he only injured the family ; while the libeller of a nation did incalculable injury." The article concludes with the following trenchant paragraph : "As a matter of fact, Englishmen in the colonies are just as honest as Englishmen in Middlesex or Kent : they are even better able to pay their debts than their kinsfolk on the other side of the sea, and are just as clear in their intention to do so." It is public statements of the above description, made by men of admitted knowledge and ability, which not only controvert the. slanders circulated against the Australasian colonies, but confirm the colonists in their own belief of their capacity to further the prosperity of the land of their adoption, and to meet every liability which they may incur to the Mother-country. As regards New Zealand, more especially, that splendid compilation of facts and figures made by Mr Gale to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago, airp 1 / proved that no country in the world surpasses New Zealand— and few equal her — in the magnificence of her resources and the capability of the people to develop them to the fullest ext-nt.