THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1881. THE VICTORIAN CENSUS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2231, 31 May 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1881. THE VICTORIAN CENSUS.

The revelations made by the Victorian census form a very hard nut indeed for the Protectionists to crack. The “ Argus ” has calculated that, during the last decade, allowing for the natural increase of births, the statistics show an actual loss to the colony of 21,000. A correspondent to that paper, signing himself “Observer,” has made the further discovery that more than the whole of the loss has occurred in the male population, and that the significant conclusion has been arrived at that the present suicidical policy has driven out of the colony 4000 more wealth-producers than the whole actual deficiency. The journals who support the present regime are using many ingenious theories to escape from the dilemma. The most amusing one is that, although it is undoubtedly the fact that a largo number have left, yet they are not lost to the community. They have merely gone over the border to New South Wales and elsewhere, and will continue to use Victorian goods. Victoria has by her protection policy established a number of manufactures, and the fruit of these endeavors will now be reaped. The population may diminish, but what of that ? Pastoral pursuits mean poverty, and no country has become rich unless it has become a commercial one. Victoria is now a commercial country, and will consequently increase in prosperity. It seems to have escaped the individuals who have used this argument that perhaps their friends over the border will not have had the feelings of patriotism so strongly emplanted in their bosoms as now to buy Victorian goods to their own disadvantage. When they were living in Victoria they were forced to trade there by a high tariff. Let them once get into a colony where a more liberal tariff prevails, and matters will be very much altered. The prices of the luxuries and many of the necessities of life have in Victoria been pampered by Government to an abnormal height. The wealth producers who have left the colony will bejlittle likely to look back on what they used to pay for goods with any feelings of satisfaction, SIR GEORGE GREY’S ADVANCE AGENT, It is notified in our shipping columns that Mr. Speight has left Wellington, and is proceeding South. Opinions differ considerably as to whether he is, or is not, an advance agent for the ex-Premier. In matters theatrical, as is well known, very much depends on having a thoroughly competent man preceding the show in the above capacity. The advance agent prepares men’s minds, and raises their expectations to the fever point. Even when the “ star ” is a well-known one, the duties of the agent are not on that account the less onerous. He has then to clearly prove that his principal has not fallen off in capacity or popularity. Flaming bills are issued, and paragraphs are judiciously inserted whenever possible, describing how the “star” has been welcomed by enthusiastic audiences, declaring that the number of his appearances will be but limited, and that any one who loses the chance now presented, will regret the circumstance to the end of his natural life. Looking, as we feel inclined to do, upon Sir George’s present performances as more or less theatrical, we cannot but think that the member for the City of Auckland Bast is accredited with some such mission. Sir George appears to have left the realms of genuine colonial politics for vague generalities about the condition of the British Empire. He is becoming more and more dramatic, and although he has not, as yet, taken to being “ billed,” yet men go to hear him, not with a view to the amount of political instruction they may bo able to pick up, but with the intention of enjoying his delivery and criticising his periods. Mr. Speierht is, we believe, eminently adapted for the post he has apparently assumed. His flow of language is immense, and it has the additional advantage of meaning nothing, so that none of the points to be made by his principal are in any way trenched upon. Moreover, his appearance leads to the belief that the intellectual fire which is consuming the “ star ” has committed severe depredations on the person of his advance agent. But there is one point on which, as a friend, we would wish to warn Mt. Speight. Ho is in the habit of talking of his principal as “ the old man.” Agents should not be so familiar. There is a dignity which hedges round a “ star,” whether he be king or actor, which should not bo broken, least of all by one who should have his interests most dearly at heart. We trust Mr. Speight will therefore break himself of this noxious habit. Some may consider this trick the flaw in this opaline agent that renders him all the more valuable. We cannot look upon it in this light. “ Noblesse oblige ” is an old and very true saying, and an advance agency has its heavy responsibilities.