THE Marlborough Express SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1869.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 152, 9 January 1869, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1869.

•• GIVR me the liberty to know, to utter, ami to ergue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties. ’ —MtLTON.

At the present time, when there is a growing tendency on the part of the taxpayers of the mother country, to look with grudging eye upon any expenditure of I British Revenue on her Colonial possessions, we might say especially on New Zealand — it behoves the people of these Colonies to look a little into the future, and to ask what may, or may not, be the fate of these Islands, before even the present generation has passed away. Drifting as we now are into the vortex of National Debt, waging a protracted and expensive war, * and suffering through the whole length and breadth of the land, severe commercial de- * pression, it is the duty of every man who has the interest of his adopted country—and we may say with truth, of his own ■ family —at heart, to study seriously the best means of alleviating some of our present evils, and promoting prosperity for the future. . , , Among the numerous remedies pointed out by State physicians and political economists, there is one to which we would earnestly direct public attention, namely, the developemeuot manufacturing industry. So long as we are dependent on foreign sources for so many articles of necessary 4* consumption, with so few to export in return, so long shall we be in a state, even at the best, of uncertain solvency, and a lar»e portion of our population will be driven to a nomade life, and consequently (uneducated and demoralised. The raw materials of wealth are .scattered around us in rich profusion, and yet how little, comparatively, is turned to account; while the manufactured articles are largely

imported at exorbitantly enhanced prices All we aim at now is to invite public attention to this important topic , and we shall take an early opportunity of returning to its consideration, and endeavor to show, as we believe we can, that it is quite within the power of the colonists of New Zealand to produce for themselves articles equally as good and cheap, if not superior to much that is now imported from foreign markets, and paid for with the cash which ought to be retained in the Colony, as wage-paying Capital. The absense of all Local Manufactures, was, we feel assured, one of the principal causes of the poverty and misery of Ireland. Belfast, and Londonderry, the chief, we might say the only manufacturing districts of It eland, are at once the wealthiest and the most peaceable ; and arguing from analogy, we venture to predict that in New Zealand, wherever manufacturing industry is established and sustained, there will the sun of prosperity most continuously shine. In conclusion, we would urge on every man who has the knowledge, and the means to examine, with the view to utilization, the natural products of his locality, and even should he not be able to use to his own advantage any discovery he may make, he can publish it lor the benelit ol his country through the medium of the Press, free of charge. Remember the words of the poet — “ 'I he woist of avarice, is that of sense,” —and that the diffusion of knowledge, like all other kindnesses, benefits alike the giver and the receiver.