The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 292, 10 December 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1868.

An association was started some time since in Tasmania, which seems to be working very unobtrusively, but whose influence promises to be highly effective in stimulating the advancement of the material prosperity of that colony. The institution to which we allude is the Tasmanian Kailway and Progress Association, and it was organised with a view to promote those particular objects and industries which were best calculated to promote the interests of the colony. Having done all that was feasible until the next sittings of the colonial parliament to secure the realisation of the Main Line Railway, we learn that the general committee of the association is engaged in prosecuting a series of enquiries relative to the prospects of various kinds of manufacturing industry in Tasmania. Sub-committees have been formed, each entrusted with a particular I subject, and the result of their researches I and deliberations will be forthcoming in the form of practical reports, which cannot fail to prove of value, as combining facts and figures relative to various industrial occupations, viewed in relation to their especial adaptibility to the wants and resources of the colony. * Such an association might, we think, be organised advantageously in New Zealand, and it would be well for the future if her rulers could be induced to follow, in some degree, the example of America in respect to the encouragement of manufacturing industry, and establish a liberal system of premiums "for the production of articles of growth and manufacture ih every stage 1 of their development, having regard to superiority of quality. Already the principle has been recoguised in the rewards offered by the several Provincial Governments for, the discovery of payable goldfields within their boundaries, but it might be extended in the direction to which we have pointed with results highly advantageous to the general character and prosperity of the colony,- That something "must be done, and that shortly, to advance, the~ interests of this country is a fact admitted on all hands. Our financial legislation has been of the most suicidal character, and the evil effects of the increased burdens imposed upon the people are being daily more seriously felt in trade, whilst our commerce is depressed in every branch. The only remedy for the existing state of things is in the hands of the people of this country. After all, population is what is wanted, and as that will generally follow the demand for labor, public energy could not be better directed than in providing employment. The creation of manufactories, and the development of new forms of agricultural industry, will do this much more surely than any other means that could be adopted. Such an association as that which has been organised in Tasmania, would throw a wide field of opera, tions open to' its members in this colony. Woollen aud silk, sugar, lineD, paper, pottery, and glass manufacture are industries

suitable-to the condition and resources of the country, and all capable of being speedily opened up. AU afford employment to large numbers, and to provide such employment should certainly be the aim of any movement taken by the public at large. As new elements are infused into the population the political power of the people will increase, and an alteration in the financial condition of the country would be one of the first effects of such an accession.