THE LONDON "TIMES" ON NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 6, 7 January 1878, Page 4

THE LONDON "TIMES " ON NEW ZEALAND.

.On Ootober 31st a dinner was given at ihe Albion Hotel, London, by tbe Directors of tho Colonial Bank of New Zaaland to a few coioaiai aaJ other friends. The chair was occupied by Ei B. Cargill, of Dunedin, and there were also pVeseot Sir Julius Yogel, exPremier of New Zealand ; Mr Milford, General Manager of the Union Bank of London j Mr Campbell, General Manager of the Orieofcul B\ak ; ond Mr Matheaon, General Manager of the Bantt of Victoria, &c. On that occasion a speech w»3 delivered by Sir Juliua Yogel, which is thus commented on by the Times-: — An absolutely perfect sSate of things ia;seld6m found by anybody to exist iv the country in which he himself ;is living. Those who are most willing to givecredit to the excellence of all that. surrounds tbem are well aware, too, j that it is tempered by not a few faults and defects. The ancient Greek looked abroad for a blamelessness be could not I discover at home. To the far north, and south, and east, and west, Ihore w^ere no ; doubt people among whom the quality was to be found. Tbe Hyperboreans and the Ethiopians, the Indians, add the inhabitants of the fur-off islands of the blessed might all be pbßs'esaed of it, but the Greeks certainly were not. The modern Eu^lishcuan, it would appear, must look siili further away from home to hnd an obj set tor the' same faith England, he is well assured, is not perfect. His iustinot for perfection must be satisfied, if at all, by the accounts he gets of the Antipodees. The speech of Sir Juliu3 I Vbgel on New Zealand, which we reported yesterday comes thus opportunely to gratify a natural craving. The picture it presents ia all light, without one shadow to relieve, ie or darken it iv any of its parts. Io population aud in wealth New Zealan J, -.ye are told, has been making good progress. Local rivalries, which have been very mischievous indeed yin our othtr Australian settletnens, have hud the happiest results in tbis. In almost every department of industry ' New Zealand can compare well wiih ber more powerful neighbors. She cultivates, already utmost as much land as all of them together. Her varieties of climate, from temporato to semitropical are favorable to corresponding varieties of natural products. Ht.r wool trade ib important, and it is fast increasing. Her mineral resources, vast as they are Blrea ;y prov- d to be, are far from having been fully explored. small as she is, comparatively speaking, Bbc has her 800 mik»g of r.iilroud, and by the end of next June will have her 1000 miles, bringing in a net income of £174,000. Her inhabitants, it is true, are of the same stock a3 ourselves, and might be expected to reproduce our faults. This, however, is a conclusion which Sir Julius Yogel does not admit without reserve. They are of th* s^ne Btock, but they are uot ordinary specimens of it, being both better iv themselves and better educated tnou thoße whom they have left, behind in England. If there is a weak point anywhere in New Zealand, it mi.'ht h>iva been supposed to be the amount of the national debt. The railroads aod otber public works in which New Zealand rejoices have not been obtained for nothing, and as tbey grow the bill wiil grow with ibem. Even here, however, Sir Julius, Vogel has a word of oomfort for bis hearers. A national" debt in the preeent day is t c common lot of all oatioua. People must no more expect to be free from it tha . from thfl other evils of humanity. There ia a difference, too, between the debt incurred by Now Zealand and by the countries of «be Old World. The money has been Bpent, not on war, but on the development of industry. It has added something more than Us own amount to the value'of the land on which it reats, and it will do better still by aod by. It includes, too, a good many items which are, not ordinarily reckoned as purfc of a national debt at ail. We mu^t thk a in our own local burdens before we cm compare our own state with that of New Zealand in the matter of fiuance. The G-ov>-rnraent bolde, u)oreove»', s-;me 34,000,000 acres whiuh it will sell in duw course, and it reoeivel laat, yenr a clear million of revenue fiom rhe sale aud lease of a very srmsil ptri of thftsa. The state of aff -ira is thua perfect $it every point. Here is the reality w* have bean Bighing aft' r. or 10- king for in the land oi dr^aoaa. Virtue strum-iliu.: with adversity m<w bet a si.'ht d ar to tha go. 'a. Virtue in lhe enj^y-iient ot ptosp rity i.s the B^ln which ?!>■! Ag---t»i-Gin«rat of New Zealand prefers, with good judguieut, io diacloae to tho g-iz-j ot Englishmen. We «re i'lad to have tin pleasing report Sir J. Vo^'ftl puis before m. ihe fiortnee of New Zealand has not, wt lear, beon always thus favmirau}-.' iooke I upon. The puolio tiebt. ot ih-j Lbim!* is so large in proportion to ;hi;ir resources th<it it o.^eJa to i>e uccouuiet for aud excused. If we compare it v/iiti tha numbur of tha iahubit.ij.it:?, wo siuill find that the share of eaoii person is neariy twice as yreat »a tli«t oi euch member of thj CJuite.i K:u^d<>«n iv ou-: own national debt. We cau-iidly admit the force of the Uilfsrences whici) hi; Julius Vogfil haa poiatad out. Our own debt does uot, indeed, nil represent aaeney wasted or employed uu productively, but a very large part of it car iainly does. But it is uot always tbat public works turn out as good nn investment as Sic Julius Yogel stoirn to imagine. His defence of (hem, ag a matter of principle, is uot easily to : ba

controverted. But the principle, aa 'experience teaches ÜB,~ia one which needs to be applied vefy cautiously. Money supplied by private enterprise ha 3 a pood chance of beinp well sp^ntand well looked after \ subsequently. Public money is very apt to be eraployed without the same keen and' constant sense of the necessity of good returns. We hope the New Zealand State lines will realise all that Sir Julius Yogel expects from them. 1 The State lines of India have riot hUherto done ne well as those; which havo been worked by private companies.* The fact is easily to be accounted for. There: U not in tha one case tbe ssfthe induce-; ment to keep down expenses audita secure a profit that therelisin the otherL and there is a corresponding 'difference; in iho results o? ''the year's \workmgs.j; New Zealand may be fibVe:; fortunate' than India hasibejen ; but we^fancy, in 1 ispite of ail that ISir Jultua Yogel can urge to the contrary, that buthan nature in the two countries must be very much the earnest bottom It ia auoh considerations as these which will somewhat temper 'thS.eagernjestf with^whichEnglishmen rhigHt otherwise avail itheraselves'^bf thdin^^ to invest their money" in New Zealand securities. There ie, as a correspohdenE informed us yesterday, no want of capital in Netf- Zealatfd itself, and' it ia subacfihed, readily enough, for all legitimate local purposes. We cannot" help believiag thst those who are on the spot, and who have accordingly the first choice, wiil pick out the most promising investments. Tboee that remain may be very good and very Bound, but' we may be pretty sure that they are not the best and the soundest. But, whatever view wa may take about the possibly too flattering figures in which the entire balance-sheet of New Zealand is shown according to the views of New Zealand statesmen, we rejoice to be able' to admit the general correctness of tbe statement we are asked to credit. Public works may not prove quite to justify the full hopes which bave been based upon them. But that, as compared with avowedly unproductive r methods of laying out .public money, they should not do a deal for the benefit of the is what we 'cannot think for, an I instant. = Tbere can "be few" places' in the world which have a better chance of being prosperous than New Zealand has. The country is made up very largely of good farms, , with an ample' choice of virgin soil before them in whatever direction tbey may , wish to extend. The land is free from many of the, burdens which weigh heavily upon agriculture at home. There is, as Sir Julius Yogel reminds us no poor rate and all other local charges are borne upon the notional funds. There is no need whatever for keeping up an expensive system of external defence •- The white population, moreover, v bave so outnumbered the. natives and so trained them in tbe arts of peace tint . tbere is little to be feared from what was once a very pressing danger^ But it ia not only in her extent of arable ground that New Zealand is rich. We must add to tbis the wealth she deprives from her mines. Gold is "as yet the most important of her production from, these. Her stores of coal iwhich exist, Sir Julius Yogel fells us « in almost every part of the islands, are even more promising for the future and will be of tbe utmost use by and by in the 'development of her manufacturing indurtries. It is not. by a little excess .or',., her expenditure inpublic works that a country such as. this will be kept down. Even- these may piy their way in due course, in aoy case, they may help to create a prosperity which in turn will make ! them remunerative. -New Zaaland,we are pleased to think, has a grett future before her. But we must remind her, nevertheless, that it is in iha future still that her great' history" is written. She must pardon us if- : W; deem it prudent for her not to discount : her chances too confidently in advance ,