NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4405, 3 May 1875, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

(From the Eondon Standard, February 22;) conclusion,.of i the long, feud between. ; the colonists and the natives in New Zealand affords a fitting opportunity for reviewing, the policy which has led to that result. The his-; , tory of no British;, colony presents; such a. notable, example of the innate governing i capacity of our race, nor is it too much to say that if all other .evidences were , wanting of;that imperial genius which is the proper' boast of Englishmen, what this handful of our. people in New, Zealand have done to lay the foundation of a great state, and to create in the South a newer Britain, with' but scanty help <i from Home, nay, in spite of cruel neglect and. ill-usage, would be sufficient, to indicate ournational aptitude, for . what Bacon' calls the. “ancient, primitive, and heroical work” of colonisation. On:the whole,' it may be said , that no other colony has had to encounter,so . many impediments, some natural, and inevitable, and some.wantonly or ignorantly impoaed, as New Zealand. It was the farthest removed' from the protection of, the-mother country.! The islands were inhabited by a warlike and. intelligent race, of exßfeptional superiority of Character, who, , if J ,wisely:trea,ted, might havei formed an important element, from the first,; in the prosperity off the .colony, but, who, through the blind and foolish policy, of.,thei Iniperial Government, : were, purposely, kept aloof from the European settlers, and treated as: an alien and non-integral portion of , the■ population. Even when the nghts: of constitutional government were granted to the colonists, the management of all native affairs, : including the purchase.of land, was reserved exclusively to the Crown and retained in the ■ hands.of ,the Governor in his capacity of Imperial ‘ agent. It was a state of things such as never existed before in a British colony. . The land itself, at least in thie Northernlsland,in which our first; settlements were planted, was in the hands of the ■ Aborigines, whose title to the soil, was for. the first time in the history of British colonisation, ■ acknowledged according to the forms of their own law. Every. acre ,settled had: to.bepur- . chased, from ' the .beginning . from, its native owners at their own price, the Government carefully abstaining from buying any lands in advance, and thus helping, to raise the price in the market where only the British settlers could make the demand. There could-.notbe conceived a combination of circumstances better calculated to embarrass a rising colony, and if the Imperial management bequeathed to New Zealand a long series of desolating wars with the natives, ending in almost total isolation of each race from the other, it was not the taxpayers of Great Britain alone who had a right to be disgusted. The seeds of confusion, trouble, and expense thus carefully sown, bore a full crop in 1869, when, under the influence of the new colonial theory, Mr. Gladstone’s Government determined to abandon New Zealand to its fate. r In other words, at the period of greatest colonial depression, when the bitterness of Maori hostility was at its height, when a: powerful section of the natives were in armed revolt, and throughout the interior of the Northern Island the Queen’s authority was openly defied ; when the financial resources of the colony were at the lowest ebb, owing to the disturbances created by the war, the Home Government suddenly took away not only its physical, but, what was of more value, its moral support, and, in spite of the earnest protest of the. New Zealand people, insisted on withdrawing the small body of troops which formed the Imperial garrison, and the only visible sign, both to natives and to settlers, of the Imperial connection. . , The burden thus abruptly and rudely thrown upon the colonists was one under which they might have been expected .to have reeled. Their number was something less than a quarter of a million, scattered about the coasts, the majority of them in the Middle Island, who had nothing to do with the Maori quarrel, and wore not directly interested in its issue. ; The war which the colony was left to manage was one which had required a force of 10,000 regular troops, and entailed a large annual ex-

penclituie bn Great Britain. The military resources of the infant state, composed as it was of people all busily engaged in earning their daily bread, were neces ariiy limited. The colony, however, after some natural murmurs at the Imperial policy which had first made the war, and then left it to be concluded by those who were its victims, accepted the responsibility and devoted itself loyally to the work of-pacification. In what spirit it was undertaken, and with what success it has been accomplished, may be read in an article by the New Zealand Prime Minister in the curreutnumber of Fraser's Magazine. Knowing that time was on its side, that while the European element was bound to increase and to spread, the natives, in obedience to that mysterious law of nature which is .ever working .in favor of the superior race, would gradually diminish, the policy of the local Government was wisely framed on the principle stated by Mr; Vogel that “the unproductive burden could only he lessened by enlarging the productive resources.” The Maoris, under their King, Tawhaio, were permitted to remain in the isolation which they had chosen, and while every effort was made, by kindness and gentle treatment, to draw them out of their hostility, they were not interfered with so long.as they opposed a merely passive resistance to .the spread of colonisation. Preferring to conquer them rather by patience and forbearance, the Government, while acting in the spirit of Bacon’s counsel, and “using them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard nevertheless,” devoted all its energies to pushing forward public works in the colony, and especially in the North Island. In Mr. Vogel’s words, “ The North Island, a mere theatre of war, was a frightful drag on the colony, but, on the other hand, the North Island settled, would become able to bear its share of the misfortunes of the past, and to aid the progress of the future.” To make it a reproductive estate, instead of a drain on the resources of the colony, was the work to which the Government devoted all its energies. To push forward public works, to open the country by railways, to stimulate immigration, these were the chief objects of Mr. Vogel’s Administration. ,In estimating the difficulties under which this wise and patriotic policy had to be pursued, we must hear in mind that the population of New Zealand at the commencement of this experiment—that is, in 1869—did not . amount to 250,000 persons, and that the whole revenue was under one million sterling. Out of this sum, aided by such loans as the commercial credit of the colony could raise, had to be provided the extraordinary expenses entailed upon the colony through the maintenance of a large defensive force and for the other purposes we have mentioned—expenses such as no other British settlement ever had to meet. Immigration had to. be stimulated by grants in aid, in order that New Zealand might be able to compete with other countries nearer the sources of the supply of population. Railroads had to be constructed through the length and breadth of the islands. Land: had to be purchased from the natives in the Northern Island, as the settlers pressed for further accommodation. The goldfields in the North and South had to be supplied with; water, and the system of. telegraphic communication extended and completed All these duties have been most vigorously pursued during thelast six year, with results.as surprising as they, are gratifying. According to the “ Official Handbook for New Zealand,” 110 miles of railway have been opened in the two islands, and are in full working order, while the Government has contracted for ;the completion of 550 miles, and 360 miles more, for which surveys are : being made, have been sanctioned by Parliament. In the Northern Island roads of various kinds have been constructed to the extent of 1150 " miles, besides 600 miles-more of bush tracks tor horse traffic, capable of being made suitable for.drays hereafter. - The construction - of large water races at the gold diggings has been begun at a cost of £300,000, calculated to provide , remunerative work for several thousand; miners for many years to come. No section of ; the population has been more benefited than the natives by these works. The railways and works in the Northern Island have increased-their means of communication with the “markets and the ports, and have added greatly to the value of their lands 1 and property, besides teaching them a useful- moral lesson by showing tffem what organised labor Can effect, and bringing - them into closcr contact with civilised idea* and life. The British ■population had increased from ,248,400 on the 31st of December, 1870, to 308,000 on the "30th of .June, 1874... The.cxports of. the colony havq increased to such an extent as to give an average of £l6 16s. 3d. per head of the population—the, largest average, : perhaps, that, any community in the world can show. The ordinary revenue has risen in four years from £936,188 to £1,420,216.-In-fact, tested-by - every means and’ at every point! tlie success of the policy with-which Mr. Vogel’S* name : is identified, and which’ marks him .out conspicuously among colonial statesmen; has been fully demonstrated, and all his schemes for the’development of-New Zealand, daring as some of them seemed to, he, fairly justified. , ’ These brilliant results, of course, have not been unattended, with some serious risks and. . sacrifice’s; , Being compelled to take up, on a' -'sudden, the liabilities of the Imperial Govern-, ■ ment, and to provide, as no colony ever had to 'do before,-not only for its 1 own defence but its .bwn ’development, it ,was inevitable that,New !Zealand‘ should- he encumbered with a heavy debt. -This debt, colonial and provincial, had increased from '£7, 841,849 on the 31st December, 1870, to £13,411,730 on the 30th ,June, -1874, being at,the latter period, at the rate ’of £4;3.10a.. per head o£_.the! population, _ and jm. ■ Volving an annual charge :per:head of £2lO s,, excluding fractions. There is; no doubt that - those figures represent a very heavy aud unusual burden upon the, community, (butrin jus-D ; tifioation of those who; have, administered its affairs it is-.only fair to remember , that about £4,000,000, or a little less than one-third of the -whole debt, represents, the expenditure on the maiional defence, towards which the. Imperial - Gdvemment has contributed only by guarantiee to the extent of one million sterling. Besides these four millions, tbe colony has expended, as (appears by. the official, returns, a spin of £2,616,041,-including cumulative interest, on the same,object; out.,of, its, annual revenue. This_ckafge,.as.we..h’aye. Jsaid!. is .bne ; whollyunprecedented, in.,colonial history, which,was -n’eyer'before borne by any. British dependency. Furthermore, a, sum of about a million sterling, with interest,' out of revenue, besides £357,839_0ut of the loan, has been expended in "what is called the. .“native” department, that is to say, mainly in the purchase of lands froin the Maoris—another item which has never before figured as among the liabilities of a colony. Lastly, by the prosecution of the wise and bold policy of pushing forward immigration and public, works, a very large expenditure has been incurred.. Under , all these circumstances, Mr. .Vogel has a right to ask us not to blame the colony “because it aroused itself to- the task of; improving, its means to bear its liability, for unproductive expenditure on native purposes.” Being clogged with so enormous a weight of unproductive expenditure, the true, statesmanship was clearly to develop the springs of national life—to broaden the back which is to bear the burden—to enlarge the future resources of tho colonial; financiers, and this is what is being done in New Zealand with so much courage and foresight by Mr. Vogel. Whether, in her struggle to overcomeher early difficulties, New Zealand has not earned some right to Imperial help,-seeing that those difficulties were thrust upon her by that Imperial policy of which she was made the first victim, may be a fair question in view of - the loyal and earnest efforts which aro being made by the colony to rid herself of her financial embarrassments, to do justice and to restore peace to the natives, and to lay the foundations of a State of which England may be i justly proud, and in which, of < all her children, her own lineaments are destined to be most faithfully mirrored. - >