Public Opinion.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1553, 24 February 1874, Page 128

Public Opinion.

MR VOGEL AS AN ADMINISTRATOR. Otago Guabdian. , Mr Vogel, in his speech at Nelson, said many plain things to the Superintendent and the assembled company, who met to do him honor. , Hi 3 tone was jubilant, as it might well be, seeing that Nelson was for long the head-quarters of the old Conservative party, led by Mr Stafford, which permitted the colony to stagnate, while its chiefs added " country " to "country,"in the vain hope'that they could " found families" in this young Democratic State. It is quite true that, so far as they are personally concerned, they managed to acquire vast tracts of the public estate on their own terms, and to a very great extent retarded settlement ; but the whole policy of the colony is undergoing a change, the result of which will be to split up those large estates, and to locate men upon the fertile plains of Nelson and Marlborough, where now the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle are the only signs of occupation to be encountered for great distances. Mr Vogel is the present instrument of that change of policy, although we doubt if he fully realizes his position in the movement.by which it has been effected. He is professedly Conservative, and hangs with affection to the skirts of the old English Tories, who yet manage to make their voices heard and influence felt, owing to want of coherence in the Libera! ranks, and of a well-defined programme of Liberal reform. Mr Vogel, there fore, stands in an anomalous position, and to a certain extent baulks the legitimate expectation of his supporters ; but marked as this was in his Dunedin speech, it is still more strongly marked in his Nelson speech, a brief summary of which we published yesterday by telegraph. He wants to assimilate the personal policy of the past with the colonial policy of the present—for it is a colonial policy which he is engaged in administering ;—but that is clearly impossible. He will fail in it as signally as the Conservative leaders.in England fail to do more than temporize, and carry out the behests of the Liberal majority.in Parliament and in the nation, when they chance to get a turn of office. Indeed, during the last session of the Assembly, this was somewhat the experience of Mr Vogel; and we write in the hope that he will at length shake himself free from a delusion which we are aware has influenced his whole political career, and march at the head of the Party of Progress, untrammelled by the traditions of the past, and without respect for the feudal dreams of his predecessors. He told his Dunedin audience, and through them the colony at large, that "the Government are quite conscious that it is absolutely necessary that, concurrently with public works, immigration should be stimulated to the utmost. Depend upon it" he added, " that it is a cardinal point in the policy of the present Government." Now, this is quite true as to intention ; but how as to performance? Has the Government kept up with the requirements of the colony in the matter of immigration; and have Ministers taken care that there should be ample laud available for the settlement of immigrants on their arrival? These are questions which the Government should consider with care, and an earnest desire to do that which is right by the country. These are questions also which every colonist, whatever may be his acquired wealth, should intelligently consider, for the matters involved must afi'ect them and their offspring in no slight degree. With regard, to the loyalty of Ministers to the colony", we cast no suspicion upon it. They are earnest, no doubt, in doing what they conceive to be best for the public good; but in practice they tern poize continually. Now, we hold that the Government has temporized when it should have stood firm. Ou the matter of provincial borrowing, this was conspicuously the case. The same remark applies to the Agent-General's mismanagement of immigration, when personal influence, and perhaps p litical consideration were permitted to impair the efficiency of that very part of the Ministerial programme which Mr Vogel declares absolutely necessary to be carried out to the utmost possible extent. And with regard to the railway estate, on which government might have settled immigrants, and lied a producing population to the soil, what happened? Why simply this: it was necessary to conciliate the provincial magnates, and the idea of acquiring a railway estate, in itself practical and politic, was abandoned. And now we have Mr Vogel narrowing down the whole of these important issues into the absurdly inconsequent one of the advantages derivable from high-priced Crown lands. "Only sell the waste lands at £2 an acre, as Canterbury has done, and' you are certain to prosper." That was the burden of his speech fa Dunedin, so far as it bore upon the administration of the public estate; he took up the same parable' in Nelson; and we expect, when he arrives in Auckland that he will advise that province to abandon its policy of giviDg.away its lands which has been so far successful, and fellow the example of Canterbury, although the circumstances of the two provinces are entirely different. Does any one suppose that Canterbury, if its land had been covered,with heavy bush or thick scrub and fern, requiring an outlay "of £3 or £4 an acre to clear, and lay it down in grass—as the bulk of the Auckland land does—would have sold at £2 an acre in the rough? Or is any one prepared to maintain that, hut for the colonial demand for its agricultural produce, the uniform price of £2 an acre even could have been maintained in Canterbury? Circumstances favored Canterbury's land policy; but like conditions do not apply to Otago, Nelson, Auckland, or any other province. We believe also that a great part of the public estate in <Jauterbury would have fetched more than £2 au acre, if the land had been put up to ■auction, after due publicity. In like manner, we think the land law of Otago by no means perfect, and that a very considerably . larger revenue might be -derived from its public estate if a different system of dealing with it were adopted,

' But this is merely incidental to the points at which we are driving, namely, the necessity for promoting immigration, and the means which the colony possesses to conduct it on a much larger scale than at present; —“to stimulate it to the utmost,” in short, as Mr Yogel phrased it. The Premier does not connect the introduction of population with the administration of the waste lands, whereas we think the two things cannot be safely separated. He thinks that population should be introduced by means of borrowed money, while the Crown lands should be sold as speedily as possible, and holds out the prospect of a loan for Nelson next session. We think, on the contrary, that the number of immigrants introduced should bo iu a certain proportion to the land revenue of the several provinces, else the public estate will in time be ex-* hausted, and the money spent without securing population to defray the coast of Government, and pay interest on loans, without resort to fresh taxation. The importance of this may not strike persons at first sight, but it is nevertheless forcing itself on the attention of the provincial authorities, Otago and Canterbury have in some measure realized this fact, and have .consequently appointed their own emigration agents to supplement the efforts of Dr Featherson, THE PARLIAMENTARY BUNGLE. Wanganui Chronicle. _ There would bo something diverting in all this were it nut that the circumstances indicate the existence of much apathy and carelessness on the part of the Government. Surely in a matter so simple as this measures could have been taken weeks ago to have the required proclamation signed by his Excellency, instead of leaving the thing to the last moment. Ordinary common sense should have suggested that while his Excellency was on a tour through a rough country his arrival at a particular place could not be accurately timed to a day. It is well known that Sir James Ferguson, unlike his predecessor Sir George Bowen, is strongly disinclined to sign any proclamation or other documents in blank so us to leave them in the bauds of his Ministers to be used in cases of emergency. This is a feeling to be commended, but it is just possible it may be carried too far. Iu the present case it is difficult to see what barm could have resulted from leaving a signed prorogation proclamat ion iu Wellington, when any question of the date to be filled in could have been settled by telegraph. But as such a proclamation was not left, it behoved Ministers to be all the more careful to make the other arrangements iu time. The state of things which has arisen is, we believe, entirely without precedent, unless indeed the occurrence mentioned by the Hou. Mr Hart bears any analogy to it. Mr Hart said that during the reign of George 111, the King being mentally incapable of issuing a proclamation for opening Parliament, that body took upon itself to meet and proceed to business, although not opened by the King either personally or by commission. This, however, was a difficulty arising from unavoidable causes, whereas the present complication in this colony need never have occurred had the most ordinary prudence and foresight been exercised. Otago Guardian. We have an explanation by telegram of the political hotch-potch in Wellington; and a telegram Ims been forwarded to the various members of the Legislature to the same effect. It is, as we anticipated, an irregularity traceable to the peregrinations of the Governer. The opinion of the Attorney-General is in accordance with Parliamentary practice. The two Houses of the Legislature have been duly summoned by proclamation signed by the Governor; but they cannot transact business until the session has been opened by his Excellency in person, or by commission. It is true the Houses have the inherent right of adjourning, and may continue to do so from day to day if a quorum can be got together, but they can exercise none of the functions of u Legislature unless legally constituted. May mentions two cases in the reign of George the Third, when the Parliament proceeded to the despatch of business without the formality of a speech from the King declaring the cause of summons. On both occasions the King was ill, and could not meet Parliament, But these precedents do not apply to the present, although we apprehend they were those alluded to by Mr Hart, in the Legislative Council.