THE TIMES ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4316, 20 January 1875, Page 3

THE TIMES ON NEW ZEALAND.

(From The Times, Nov. 3.) It was a fortunate day for the colony of New Zealand when the Imperial Government determined to abandon at once and altogether the half-hearted, vacillating, and ineffectual policy of intermeddling in the hostile relations of the European settlers and the Maoris. The problem which appeared insoluble so long as it was lifted out of its natural sphere into the circle of Imperial interests, shrank to its proper dimensions when it was restored to its fitting place. It was very speedily discovered that the way to deal with the Maoris was simple enough, after all ; that their hostility was not to be eradicated by Royal troops employed with doubtful success against a warlike race, formidable in their native forests, but by the slow and steady pressure of English immigration, with all the civilising influences the white man brings with him as necessary to his comfort and his advancement. It is much to the credit of the public men of New Zealand that they at once appreciated the opportunity. They lost no time in smoothing away the traces of the indecisive and unsatisfactory war which had been left smouldering when the Imperial troops were withdrawn, and which frightened away intending settlers. They enlarged the facilities for immigration, and they set to work immediately to open up to enterprise new regions of colonisation. What is still more meritorious, and still more unlike the ordinary character of colonial politics, is the comprehensive foresight with which the Ministers of New Zealand framed their policy. A very large share of the credit is due to Mr. Julius Vogel, now Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand, who four years ago traced the outline of the bold constructive scheme which has been since in part carried out, and has already established a healthy promise of success. Mr. Vogel was severely criticised at the time for the audacious magnitude of his proposals, and, indeed, it appeared a stretch of confidence for a young colony—a group, rather, of small settlements, sparsely peopled and scattered over a considerable extent of territory, and burdened, moreover, with the traditions, if not the possibilities, of a native war—to expend several millions upon developing the resources of the country. But Mr. Vogel believed in the proverbial warning, "Nothing venture, nothing have." He urged .with great vigor and earnestness that the outlay of money which he asked for railways, public works, and immigration would make all the difference for the colony between progress at a snail's pace and advancement with giant strides. For New Zealand ospccially a slow rate, of progress was perilous. Other, colonies.. could afford to bide i their time, and to wait till the tide of fortune began to run in their direction ; but New Zealand, with tho phantom of a, Maori war dogging its footsteps, could only hope to reach comfort and security by growing rapidly strong. The colony, after a. doubtful pause, was persuaded by Mr. Vogel's arguments, and accepted his Bchemes ; he found a strong Ministry to support him ; and, in tho teeth of grave admonitions and sharp attacks, he committed the taxpayers of New Zealand to an estimated expenditure of Beven millions and a half upon trunk lines of railway, besides 2,500,000 acres of laud as a supplementary payment. There was ground, it must be admitted, for misgivings as to the capacity of the colony, then barely free from the burden of the Maori troubles, to discharge the cost of this gigantic undertaking. But Mr. Vogel's faith in the financial energies of the colony has been amply justified by events. In the first place," the ordinary revenue of the colony has advanced "by leaps and bounds;" four years ago it was only £936,000; last year it had risen to £1,119,000; but for the year 1873 and 1874 it was £1,420,000. This remarkable increment—£3oo,oo0 —has m part been, obtained, we are told, by "the change made last year from measurement to ad valorem duties." But, setting aside this alteration in the mode of levying the revenue, there is evidently a real increase in the paying power of the people. It must not be forgotten, however, that Governments have a pecuniary resource, to which they can resort under pressure, in the sale of unsettled lands. The policy of dealing with this public domain

is the battle-ground of colonial parties, but Mr. Vogel and his colleagues do not seem-to have doubted for a moment that they were doing the best thing for the colony by disposing largely of the public lands so as to meet in some degree the expenditure incurred for public works and immigration. This course, Mr. "Vogel would no doubt argue, was justifiable not only for the relief of the preseut generation of colonists, but for the interests of future generations. Ordinary revenue might be confidently .expected to g-ow with the extension of new settlements, and the _ sale of lands would not only invite settlers into the country hitherto untouched by cultivation, but would supply the means of bringing these new immigrants into intimate and profitable relations with their fellowcolonists and with the markets of the world. The land sales, then, which in 1871 returned only £208,000 to the Colonial Treasury, rose in 1872 to £33(1,000, in 1873 to £889,000, and in the financial year which terminated in June last to not less than £1,038,000. We have no precise details of the budget, but it was stated the other day by our Correspondent that Mr. Vogel begins the new financial year with a surplus of more than £200,000 in hand. What, however, is the actual incidence of the expenditure upon railways? The total cost, Mr. Vogel affirms, will be less than ten million sterling, and thi9 outlay will be necessarily spread over a great number fo years. The construction of 1010 miles of railway has been already authorised, but of this mileage only a small portion is open for traffic, or nearly so. A sum of £5,575,000 has been appropriated for the construction of the authorised lines, and about two-thirds of this have been expended or pledged upon actual works in hand. In little more than twelve months the Minister for Public Works promises that there will be 672 miles of railway completed at a cost of £3,600,000. Now, the annual charge for the entire sum of ten millions, reckoning the average rate of interest at four and a-half per cent., will be £475,000, and only a third of this, or thereabouts, falls for the present upon the Exchequer. But the increase of the ordinary revenue, as we have seen, between 1870 and 1873 was close upon half a million, so that Mr. Vogel can look with high hopes to the future. Immigration . and the natural increase of the people will surely bring revenue. Moreover, the railways themselves will probably be sources of income. Even the few miles which are at present open pay more than their working expenses. They may safely be accepted, to quote the words of the Colonial Treasurer, as " a colonial responsibility." But New Zealand is not content with throwing a net of railroads over the desert which is her present enemy and her destined ally She sighs for new worlds to subjugate, and the ambitious imagination of Mr. Vojel is prompt to search out the conquests of the future. The time is at hand, he has proclaimed, "when New Zealand will become the centre of Polynesia, and when the Governor of New Zealand will be also GovernorGeneral of the Polynesian Islands." The lower archipelago of the South Seas, lying between New Zealand and the western coast of the American continent, is in the pathway of a trade which must become large and lucrative, and Mr. Vogel contends that on geographical and climatic grounds, Polynesia is part of the commercial inheritance of New Zealand. It may be presumed that the success which has attended the Australian agitation for the annexation of Fiji, and which has, it seems, already encouraged a new movement at Sydney for the colonisation of New Guinea, has excited the emulation of the New Zealand' colonists. But New Zealand, through Mr. Vogel, claims to be much more to the islands of Polynesia than New South Wales ever pretended to be to Fiji. Mr. Vogel has drawn the attention of the Governor, and through the Governor, of the Colonial Office, to a project for forming a trading company, "with a view of absorbing by its commercial power a large share of political control in the islands." The original project embraced a scheme for establishing a traffic in " chartered labor," which Mr. Vogel rightly regards with suspicion, but he proposes an alternative plan, under which, he argues, New Zealand, "by assuming large responsibilities, would have a right to the contingent advantages the island trade would coafer." "I am inclined," he adds, "to recommend that New Zealand should encourage the formation of a powerful company to colonise the islands of the South Pacific by offering a guarantee of 5 per cent, for forty years on the share capital ;" and he claims in return for the New Zealand Government the right to appoint the officers of the company both in London and in the colony. The objects which Mr. Vogel believes could be compassed by this new organisation are vast and various ; factories and plantations are to be established and worked ; the company are to undertake all the duties that were ever undertaken by the East India Company or the Hudson's Bay Company, and the " advancement of civilisation" to boot. Whether this ambitious achievement is within the powers of New Zealand iu these days, when commercial monopolies have become imposiible, may well be doubted ; but if New Zealand continues to display the energy and self-reliance that are to be marked in her recent financial history, the commercial prize for which her statesmen, suspicious, and wisely so, of a too exclusive devotion to agriculture, are striving will naturally and inevitably fall to her.