THE GOVERNMENT POLICY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 32, 2 September 1871, Page 14

THE GOVERNMENT POLICY.

(Independent.) The criticisms on the Royal Speech in the various journals of the colony do not call for much remark. As usual, the more rabid opposition journals see something dark and dangerous lurking under its blandest and most candid passages. The "Press," of Canterbury, for instance, discovers in the very simple and modest statement " Our relations with the natives are improving," that Ministers have some dreadful news to tell,and that this is their way of diverting attention from it. It would be a pity to deprive our contemporary of the small modicum of comfort this prospect of disastrous intelligence to the whole colony affords him. Like one of the characters in the Bloomsbury Christening, he is never happy but when he is miserable, and never so miserable as when he has most occasion to be happy.. We do not covet the power of second sight that sees m so simple a statement so ominous a future ; nor do we envy the disposition that can find pleasure in ruin to the colony if it but involve the downfall of a Ministry. We plead to sharing in the common weakness for roast pig ; but we prefer gratifying our appetite in some other way than that by which Charles Lamb accounted for its discovery !

But leaving the speech, our contemporary in an article of last Saturday finds another source of joyful satisfaction. Our readers may anticipate that lessgifted minds will see in it nothing but occasion for grave regret. " In Otago " our contemporary gleefully remarks, " the circular (by Mr Gisborne on Immigration and Public Works, dated 31st May) was treated with silent contempt. It was merely laid on the table of the Provincial Council; not even transmitted in a message, and not accompanied by any recommendation from the Superintendent. After it had lain unnoticed for a week, a member asked whether the Executive intended to take the opinion of the Council upon it; to which the Provincial Secretary replied that * it was not the intention of the Government to submit any resolution of the Council respecting the matter referred to.' That one question and answer comprises the total amount of notice which the circular received from the Provincial Government and Council of Otago. In Canterbury it fared little better. Its rejection was more courteous in manner, but scarcely less decided." Our contemporary chuckles on through the whole of the article, after the fashion of those narrow-minded selfcomplacent individuals we meet in pri vate life, who rub their hands with ecstacy at their gloomy predictions turning out true, and whose only words of consolation to the afflicted are, " I told you so." In common, we believe, with every well-wisher to the colony, we deplore the apathy, or rather contemptuous indifference, with which this circular was received in these two great provinces. In Otago, the opposition to it was doubtless part of a determined opposition to all the colonising measures of last session. The Provincial Council there had the audacity to pass a resolu-

tion to the effect that they would not avail themselves of any portion of the Government scheme; in other words, the supreme legislature might pass laws as they pleased, but those laws must receive the sanction of the Provincial Council before any attention would be paid to them. They could select, forsooth, any measures agreeable to themselves, and put these in force, but the obnoxious they would resist. In vain were remonstrances repeatedly made to the Provincial Executive, that by their factious opposition they were only retarding settlement and inflicting grievous injustice on all interests in the province. Self-willed, they pursued their fatuous course, and it was only when they saw, from the windows of their Council Chamber, the earthworks of the railway they so persistently resisted, that they began to see that in following " ways that were dark," they had resorted to ""tricks that were vain." The General Government carried out, in the spirit which the late Parliament intended, all the. measures they passed, and the Ballot, and the Land Transfer, and the Clutha Railway, all resting on the same authority, were inaugurated before their very eyes. Like petulant children they were compelled to take what was good for them, and they were tausht that all their wry faces and childish resistances, treated then with a mild contempt, would, if persisted in, bring upon them punishment The " Otago Daily Times" then aided and abetted them in their frantic opposition to the Government policy, but we are glad to notice that, though somewhat late in the day, it has now seen the folly and danger of such a course. We suggest to the" Canterbury " Press" the following remarks of the "Otago Daily Times," of the 14th instant, the discordance between these two most rabid opposition journals being, by the way, very amusing :—" We have expressed strongly our opinion that the Executive and Provincial Council were guilty of a great folly and lapse of duty in throwing aside Mr Gisborne's circular letter on the subject of immigration and the reserving of lands for special settlements, in the contemptuous manner they did. Since then, this subject has been under discussion in Canterbury. Though it was not treated with supercilious silence there, as it was here, we fail to find, in the manner in which it was dealt with, any just appreciation of its magnitude and pressing importance. Otago and Canterbury, the only provinces which possess any considerable landed estate available for settlement, appear to us to have been playing with this question in an entirely fatuous manner. We may be quite wrong, but we certainly cannot put away from our minds the'eonviction that a revolutionary measure in regard to the management, not only of Crown lands, but the proceeds of their sale, is hanging over our heads. The people of these provinces and their representatives will be taken by surprise, in spite of all the warnings and omens by which they might have profited." The " Press," on the other hand, sees in the circular nothing but " folly and a great lapse of duty" on the part of Mr Gisborne! With an amusing assurance our contemporary remarks, after commenting on the introductory portion of the circular, " In order to secure this essential object, he continued, it was necessary that sufficient blocks of land in the vicinity of lines of railway should be marked out and reserved for immigration purposes. And he then came to the point of the letter ; which was, to invite the Superintendent to take the necessary steps for the reservation, in convenient areas and in sites contiguous to lines of road or railway in course of construction, ot blocks of agricultural land to be laid off in towns and villages for the location ot immigrants. It was only by an afterthought and as a supplementary matter, that he also directed attention to the 17th and 20th clauses of the Public Works Act, which authorise the surrender of land by the provinces to the General Government for the purpose of railway construction. We have in former articles sufficiently exposed the Colonial Secretary's ignorance m imagining that any effect could be given to his recommendations. Under the land regulations of Canterbury, neither the Superintendent nor the Provincial Council possesses any power of setting

aside blocks of land in the manner proposed ; nor is any such authority conferred on them by the Public Works Act. Probably, however, Mr Gisborne was quite aware of that fact" Then, as the commencement of the Clutha railway was' indecently styled in Otago " a mere electioneering dodge," so our contemporary adds, " There is reason to suppose that the real purpose of the Government, in forwarding the circular, was answered by its publication, smd that they were 'indifferent whether or no the recommendations contained in it were acted on. It was merely a move in the political game between themselves and the Opposition." The first annual report of the Minister of Public Works fully answers oar contemporary as to the legality of the course indicated in the circular, sets forth very clearly the earnest determination of the Government to carry out the measures passed by the late parliament in the spirit in which they were conceived and framed, and significantly hints that if greater powers are required they will be asked for at once.

As the steady prosecution of the Clutha railway effectually disposed of the malicious insinuation that it was an electioneering dodge, so the vigorous concurrent prosecution of immigration and public works by the Government will show whether this circular is a " mere move in the political game." For general information and in support of the above remarks, we append an extract from the repoi't referred to. IMTtfIGEATION. An essential part of the colonial policy is immigration. This was frequently stated by members of the Government and influential members of both Houses in the debates of last session, and is re-affirmed in the ict itself. If the construction of great works of communication in this colony be of pressing importance, the presence of an increased and increasing settled population, which shall to the greatest extent facilitate their construction and increase their use, is equaliiy mportant, and, moreover, is necessary to the success, and even to the existence of the other. Progress can rot be expected in a young colony from public works alone. But the addition of settled population cannot be permanently secured without its attachment to the soil, and the Immigration and Public Works Act recognises that necessity. The 17th section authorises the Legislature of any province in which any railway or any part thereof is proposed to be constructed, to recommend to the Governor the reservation of waste lands within such province, " in and for the construction of such railway or part." It is evident that it is not intended that the land so reserved shall be merely the line of railway, for the latter part of the section authorises the Governor, if he shall think fit, to grant such land or part thereof to the contractor " as compensation in whole or in part for the con- ' struction of such railway or part thereof." This is one use to which this reserved land can be applied; but there is nothing, so far as I can see, to preclude its application to the settlement of immigrants under the provisions of the 39th and 41st sections, to which I shall presently advert. The 20th section also enables a Provincial Legislature to commute the money charge against the province on account of railways into land to be given to the Governor for the purposes of the act. I would now refer to the 39th and 41st sections, which give power to deal with the lands authorised by the 17th and 20th sections to be reserved. The 39th section authorises immigration contracts to be made by the Governor to form part of railway or road contracts, and provision to be made therein for giving immigrants employment on such works, and " for giving .free or other grants of land to any such immigrants." The 41st section authorises the Governor, at the request of the Superintendent, to make regulations for (among other purposes) " the introduction into and settlement in such province of immigrants, andfor selling as special settlements for any such immigrants any lands which he may acquire from any province under the provisions herein contained, or any lands acquired under The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863, or the acts amending the same, and for laying out and allotting any lands so acquired amongst any such immigrants." It is evident that any lands which the Governor may acquire from any province under the provisions ol the Immigration and Public Works Act are lands acquired under the 17th and 20th sections to which I have just referred. The conclusion, then, is obvious, that the 17th, 20th, 39th, and 41st sections of tho Act, read together, provide for the reservation of waste Crown land, and for its appropriation to the settlement of immigrants. Strong reasons, may no doubt be urged that further powers should be granted, and more precisely defined, but I have referred t® the subject at some length in order to show that the Act as it stands has not omitted to provide means for the territorial settlement of immigrants.

Caxton Centenary. —ln connection with the celebration of this centenary, it is proposed in Melbourne to establish a benevolent fund for the advantage of all persons connected with the press, whether as writers, printers, or otherwise.