A RETROSPECT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 1, 1 January 1872, Page 2

A RETROSPECT.

Another page of (he book of Time has been turned over, and 1871 is now nuinhered among the years that have gone by. Like its predecessor, it. is ft 'year that, will ever occupy a prominent position in the history of the world, as, during its course, the humiliation of tb.B Frcuch nation by the German arms, which liad already commenced in 1870, has been most thoroughly completed. Loui3 Napoleon has been utterly crushed — extinguished would perhaps be the more correct word — : and from beiDg a mighty Emperor to whose every word the whole civilised world listened with eager attention, he has fallen to the condition of an uncared for outcast in a foreign country, which, for the second time, has outstretched her hospitable arms to receive him in the hour of his distress. France, which at one time adored him, has now rejected and ignored him j Paris, the scene of his triumphs, and of his glory, which two short years since shone forth to the world with dazzling brightness, knows him no more, and so thorough is his banishment from the field of European polities, so complete his enforced solitude that muil after mail arrives without the slightest mention being made even of his name. The great Napoleon was no more lost to the world in his confinement iu the little island of St. Helena than is his nephew in the retreats of Chiselhurst. While he has experienced defeat and humiliation, his conqueror has been elevj.t-d to a position that must gratify his highest ambition. The King of Prussia is no more, but he who held the throne under that proud title now occupies it under the still grander and more magnificent one of Emperor of Germany. Anyone who two years ago should have ventured to speculate upon these changes would have been looked upon as a madman, and yet we have live i to see them accomplished. We saw the

self-confident hosts of France under their mighty ftmperor marching from their capilal .with jubilant shouts of "a. Berlin ;" three weeks later they had sustained the first, of ?i long iind unbroken series of defeats ; three tnori">, and the French armies were scattered to the winds, their Emperor a captive, and thousands of (hose who hoped to enter Germany as conqiim'ore, crossing the Rhine as prisoners to their belter disciplined, better gencralled enemies. A few weeks later, and Paris was closely invested by an iupeuetrable belt of German soldiers, uutil the slow bin certain process of starvation had done its work, and the proud ;;ity was compelled to open her gates to the victorious King William, and to hear (he tramp of his armed men rpsouuiJ through her streets. Are we not right in saying that the years 1870 ami IS7I will bo memorable ones iu ibe history of Europe, and therefore of thn world ? There are Ki'gus, too, of vast coming changes iu England, changes that are being hastened by the state of the Queen's health. This, wo are thankful to find from the news just to haml, is not so bail as was represented through American channels, but still there seems to bo reason to fear that Her M«jest7 is by uo means so strong as could be wished. In the present temper of the English people auything that, should necessitate a new occupant of the throne would prove a most deplorable circumstance-, and we can but. hope that Queea Victoria may long continue to occupy tho position that &he has so honorably filled for the last five-aud-thirty years. In New Zealand the year just expired has, in our little way, proved of quite as great, proportionate importance as it has iu Europe. It has seen the complete endorsement by the legislature, and the actual commencement, of a policy that must end either in the largely-increased prosperity or the complete ruin of the colony. Our statesmen have by the action they havo taken, plainly expressed their uubelief in tho wisdom of the assertion that, a middle course is the safest, and have rushed to an extreme. Mouey has been, aod is to be, borrowed to an extent that makes the more prudent amongst us look with no little anxiety to the future. It is tine that these large sums are cot to be entirely swallowed up in native wars, as has been the case ere this, but that it is proposed to expend them upon she opening up and the colonisation the country ; undertakings which if they be carefully and economically carried out may to a certain extent be expected to prove reproductive, still, where the money has to be borrowed for such purposes, thereby iuvolviug a heavy annual bill for interest, we may be excused if we cannot feel perfectly sure that a colony whose expenditure at the present time exceeds its revenue, while it already has jsu enormous national debt, is fully justified in running so great a risk. But our representatives have decided upou hazarding all upon the cast of this single die, and wo, the represented, can but hope, and that most earnestly, that the calculations of the probableresults may prove correcf, and that the prosperity that js to follow all this expenditure will fully justify the anticipations that have been formed. To open up a wild and uncultivated country by means of railways, aud to people in at I country with immigrants introduced for | the purpose is certainly a soble and a most ' desirable work, but when this is done upou I speculation, and it is felt on all sides that, i if that speculation fails, it must result in the utter ruin of those who have already made their homes in the colony, it is not to be wondered if the country is not perfectly unauimous in its approval of the scheme. A side blow has been struck at Provincial institutions during the last session of tho Assembly that is likely to prove far more fatal to them than any direct hostile attack could possibly be, their revenue?, so far as they are derived from general sources having been largely reduced. In adopting tiiis coursp, Mr. Vogel seems (o have taken a lesson from General Von Moltke. That celebrated tactician, when he wished to subdue Parif, did not bombard or storm it; he simply starved it out.

In one direction, last, year lias proved the m«st favorable that has been known in New Zealiui.l for a !oug time. From ruiuously low rtiU-s, wool. has sprang up to h price that twelve months ago could never have beeu anticipated by the mostsanguine of sheepfarmers, their incomes having in many ioetuueea beep very nearly doubled by the welcome change, The addiiioaal £800.000 thus introduced into the cojagjl could cot have come at a raol^LJ2fiiji§OT^ time ; indeed, withd||a«i|HHHHffi that so geneially p9Hh^^^Bß^9HH far more severely 9^H^KBnH^^Hn have been iu a from England oil th'^^^wTO^H^^^Hßl to be most re-assuring, prices^HHH^^Bl at a penny per pound h^tfflHHH^Htt

close of the previous sales. Had such a change occurred in the market twelve mouths previously many of those who, after a hard struggle extending over many years, have been compelled to succumb to the pressure of circumstances, would still have been holding their heads above water, and be able to look forward to the future with some hope of pulling through the difficulties that have of late years beset all engaged in pastoral pursuits. 1 On the other band the prospects of our farming population have suuktobelowzeru, us the price of corn is so low that for an agriculturist to barely exist aud support his family it is requisite that he should exercise the utmost care and economy — to put by any provision for a rainy day is simply impossible. Some iJea of the anomalous state of tho grain market may be formed from the fact, that a cargo of wheat — some 300 tons — recently imported from Adelaide has actually been shipped on board the barque Ann Gambles now loading with wool for London. The produce of the dairy is no more remunerative than that of the corn field, and we hear of the best butter being disposed of at fourpence, and first-class cbrese at fivepence and sixpence per lb. No wonder if the farmers of New Zealand are at a loss to know what future is in store for them. To our own Province, 1871 has proved anything but a prosperous year. At its commencement we were eagerly looking to the Wangapeka and Colling wood reefs to dispel the depression then prevailing ; at its close we find the depression still existing, and, if anything, increased by the locking up of so much capital in speculations that have not yet yielded any returns to the shareholders." The eutire sbsence of gold in the Culliford reef was a terrible blow — not only to those who had invested their money in working it, but to tho whole community — whose faith in the Wangapeka, as . a quartz-mining district, was very great. The hopes entertained that that portion of the country would prove a source of wealth to Nelson, which sustained so rude a shock on the collapse of the Culliford Company, have been somewhat revived of late by the prospects obtained in the Dorau reef, but we have passed through that stage of verdancy common to all communities when entering upon mining pursuits for the first time, in which they are too prone to believe that all that glitters is gold, and reports of rich " specimens " having been found fall on our ears with a flatness that we could scarcely have couceived possible twelve months ago, und, before we can bo induced to build our hopes upon this or that reef or district, we now require some real practical proof of their richness in the shape of a good average yield. That this may be obtained from the Doran and other reefs in the neighborhood is earnestly wished for by all, although, after past experience, we scarcely dare to believe that such good fortune is in store for us. The Perseverance, unlike the Culliford reef, has yielded a considerable amount of gold, but, of late the returns have not been sufficient to cover the working expenses. A new drive is contemplated, and more • satisfactory results are confidently looked I for. This, however, is prospective, and not — as we could wish — retrospective. Dredging, too, has hitherto proved a failure at Collingwood, but great hopes are entertained of a larger amount of success attending the efforts about to be made in this direction in the Matakitaki river. The Inangahua district fortunately presents a brighter side of the picture, aod there is reason to believe, from the amount of gold already obtained there, that another Thames goldfield is yet to be developed in the Nelson Province. As an alluvial diggings, the Karamea and its immediate neighborhood promise well, and recent finds there seem to point to it as a district that may yet have a beneficial pffect upon the country. Farming, as we have stated before, is just now at a very low ebb, and the prospects of our agriculturists, at no time very bright, are darkened yet more by the unfavorable state of the season, the long-continued drought having affected the crops to a most serious extent. Iu Provincial politics there is little worthy of note, the last session of tho

Council having been most barreu of anything iu the shape of legislation, the mos^ important event that marked it being the , repeal of the Executive Act of the pie- ' vious year, winch, as was very generallypredicted at the time of its being passed^, did not stand the test of experience. In matters pertaining to the nil-important suV.ject of education, the most noteworthy feature is the complete success that has attended the establishment of provincial scholarships, by means of which a small number of the most talented of the youths attending the Government schools are enabled to obtain a superior education at the College. The benefits of the system do not, however, cease here, as the examinations for these scholarships have had the effect of raising the standard of education throughout the Province. And here our brief summary of the principal events of the last twelvemonths must end. Ere this appears in print many of thoso who read it will in their own minds have reviewed the departed year, aud it is not to be expected that the retrospect, will to any one of them prove an entirely satisfactory one. or that it will be altogether free from pain or regret. The procession of past events before the mind'seyeisnotallbrigbtcolorsaad cheerful music. Pleasure and pain tread so closely upon the heels of each other, and are so intermixed that, upon a serious review of all that has occurred throughout the year, it is difficult to say which of the two predominates. But we have done with the past, and it now only remains for us to look forward to the future, and in doing so we cau but give expression to the kindly wish that to all our readers 1872 may prove a Happy New Year.

Four shops have been established at Aberdeen for the sale of New Zealand preserved meat.