THE DAILY NEWS CORRESPONDENTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 191, 12 August 1881, Page 4

THE DAILY NEWS CORRESPONDENTS.

{Auckland Star.] Once more the " Daily News " designs to shed the light of its countenance upon New Zealand, and to tell the English people ali about it. This time the inspiration comes from a correspondent •who addresses his letters from Nelson, and introduces himself by sayin^ that so many contradictory accounts have been published in England about New Zealand that he bad resolved to embark npon a benevolent and disinterested mission of 13.000 miles in search of the truth ! '* It seemed almost hopeless, " he writes, " to get at the real state of of tbe case. With a view, however, to at least attempt to do so, I took passage by the Orient Line steamer the Lusilania, in February last, for Melbourne, and thence,some six weeks subsequently, I travelled by an intercolonial steamer to New Zealand. " Really this exhibition of disinterested philanthropy ought to receive its due reward. " Since my arrival here," continues the budding Livingstone, " I have been pushing my inquiries aod using my eyes. I have paid a flying visit to the four leading cities — Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, aud Nelson, and I will now give the results." The"resnlts " as noted by a ■writer who speaks of Nelson as one of * ( the four leading cities" of New Zealand, are, as might be surmised, no less charmingly 'cemate and entertaining than the observations of Mr Arthur Clayden. In fact, one might almost swear to the presence of that "entleman's fine Roman hand in the Lroduetion. Ee that as it may, there is an easy, Munchausen, style about the big stories of'the new contributor that would do no discredit to ihe veritable Arthur. He tells the gaping quidnuncs thatwhen the expenditure of tbe public works loans was in full swing " Scores of men ■with a full development of the bump of acquisitiveness have become millionaires and hundreds of others have acquired comfortable competencies. The workman has been master of the position,

and has disported himself accordingly. Wages which amounted annually to more than that which many English professional men were receiving were scoffed'at as insufficient, and greed was in excelsis. . . . The whole colony presented the appearance of a scramble for gold. The bishops and clergy who had come out with the pious intention of converting the people gave up in despair, and turned land speculators ; and the various nonconforming ministers went in generally for making themselves as comfortable as possible. It was a ten years' carnival." " But alas! " continues the writer, "an end came to the gold. . . . There is an undoubted and very serious depression here, answering closely to the depression of the old home. Many thousands of persons are at their wits' end to know what to do for the best. Public expenditure bas ceased. The working-man-monopolist is turned out of paradise, and is angry at being compelled to take wages at seven shillings a day. The men who have made their pile are selling out and going to England to eujoy their spoil, and prop up declining Conservatism there. Those who cannot get away are doing their best to accommodate themselves to altered circumstances." And, adds the veracious writer, persons who think of emigrating had better stop at home. Is it necessary to tell colonists what unmitigated bosh this stuff is? Where are the people who became millionareis and are now rushing away from the colony? Aud what were the fabulous wages from which working men have f lien to a modest seven shillings a day? The prosperity of the colony was never steadier, and wages on au average have never been very much higher or firmer thau at preseut. Progress was never more rapid, money cheaper, or produce in better request. The " Daily News" correspondent, whoever he may be, is manifestly one of those irrepressible humbugs whom people delight in "fooling to the top of their bent, " and who, being effectually stuffed, is now repeating the process upon many confiding persons unaware of his weakness, who are led to attach some importance to statements given under cover of a great paper like the " Daily News."