THE PUBLIC WORKS BILL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 11

THE PUBLIC WORKS BILL.

Foresight is the distinguishing trait of the true statesman. How little of this the late members of the House of Representatives possessed, was shown by the way they received Mr Vogel's Financial Statement. It was too brilliant for their weak eyes. Like the meridian sun, it dazzled them by its excess of light. Unaccustomed to see beyond the tips of their own noses, the prospect which was opened before them made them womder whether they were really awake or only dreaming. It successfully took the wind out of their sails of the opposition craft, which had been launched by Mr Stafford at Timaru, and its hackers from that night gave up the race as hopeless. Shades of Shakespear and Burns; of Cromwell and Corbett; of Bradley and Arkwright; the author of this financial scheme had not been university-bred, and therefore, it must prove a failure! Know ye parvenus that real statesmen are created not manufactured; they come from the hands of God, and cannot be turned ,out ready made from any human workshop. Notwithstanding the proverb to the contrary, a good thing could come out of Nazareth. Mr Vogel has shown that a successful financier might also be a journalist; but we required no evidence that he might likewise be a Jew. Its opponents soon saw that if the policy was too large for their puny intellects to grasp, it would be more easy to predict, than to prove, that it could not be successful. They also found that it would be less easy to discover defects in the scheme than to detect defects in its author. The genius of a contemporary frequently fails to be recognised; and “ blasted envy’s tainted gale" may penetrate the walls, and corrupt the pure atmosphere of even our House of Representatives. But, independently of all petty and personal feelings, there is in all countries a class who are prone to despond ; who think it wise to be incredulous, and prident to doubt; incapable of seeing ahead, they pride themselves on their power of looking backwards ; a gift not to be aispised, but more useful in an old country than in a new one. The absence of hope deprives them alike of th© power and the will to afford sympathy—the most powerful ally of all progressive movements. No wonder that the professional architect, whom accident in 1863 transformed into a financier, could see no difference between a war and a public works loan ; but it would have been a wonder if the members of the Stock Exchange had not seen there was a remarkable difference between the two. Though war depreciates and public works enormously enhance the value of the security

the colony has to pledge to the public creditor, such wiseacres jumped to the conclusion that the English capitalist would be unable to distinguish the difference between loans raised for two such opposite purposes. Why, even the Mutual Investment Society would rather lend £IOOO on premises only worth that money, if expended on their enlargement, than it would lend that or any other sum on premises that were tumbling to pieces. It would be safer to lend £IOOO on a farm not worth the money, if the whole sum was expended on its improvement, than it would be to lend half that sum for purposes which would prevent the owner from making any improvements at all. If the members of our Mutual Investment Society could see the difference between the two casss, is it surprising to learn that the members of the London Stock Exchange could also do so ? Nearly a million and a half of money expended in reproduction, mainly through the application and introduction of labor, will afford directly or indirectly profitable employment for upwards of forty thousand people. It should be borne in mind that money expended on labor gives not only employment to a given number of laborers, but these laborers themselves, when thus in receipt of wages, give employment to artizans, mechanics, storekeepers, and others. We know of a -case where only £3,000 expended on public*, works has been the means directly of supporting upwards of seventy persons, and directly of a great many more. It is a singular coincidence that the first of a splendid line of steamers, which we were assured would never arrive, should have also brought the first intelligence of the successful negotiation of a loan, which we were assured could never be negotiated. It is still more singular that we should owe both to the man who has won his position in spite of foes and fortune; and whose reputation, more than that of any other member of the Ministry, it delighted his pretended friends, equally with his own enemies, to damage. But nothing is created in vain ; and the energies of the envious, the cunning, the critical, and the croaker may be turned to profitable account. Let them constitute themselves into a Joe Hume Committee of Inspection, for the purpose of seeing that the loan be properly expended. By anticipation they constituted themselves the guardians of the English capitalists. By adopting the course here recommended, they will prove themselves really such, and at the same time he acting in a mode most beneficial to the best interests of New Zealand. They may thus win for themselves a position, and render their talents for detail criticism serviceable alike to themselves and their adopted country.