New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4611, 31 December 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31.

The year 1575, which expires to-day, has been one of uninterrupted prosperity for New Zealand. From month to month since the year began, we have had occasion to allude to the steady progress made by the country in settlement and trade. New industries have been established, new sources of wealth opened up, and notwithstanding the increase of population by free immigration from the Home country, the labor-absorbing power of the colony remains unimpaired. Indeed, at this moment, we venture to' think that labor is in quite as great demand in New Zealand as it was before the free system of immigration was adopted. The large influx of workers created new wants,- and many of the Government immigrants are now employers of labor on their own account; —a position which they could not hope to attain to in England, or in many parts of the United States. There has also been, during the year, an absence of anything like undue speculation. Here- and there, it is True, trade was overdone, and the inevitable, result followed ; but those derangements have - been exceptional. If greater caution be induced in the future, the experience will not have been too dearly bought. Trade is generally on. a sound and healthy basis. The price of wool, which New Zealand produces so largely, having remained firm during the period under review, has led to a very large expenditure in the purchase and improvement of • land,, and the erection of buildings "and should prices hold on at the closing rates for the last series of sales, there is every reason to anticipate a considerable increase in the cultivated area next year. At all events, the fixed and reproductive capital of the country will be largely added to. The grain export did not come up to expectations. This is in part accounted for by the fact that so many more persons are in the country to be fed, who have not as yet become producers; but another reason is to be found in the fact that in many parts of the colony agriculturists are combining sheep farming with tillage farming, thereby increasing the quantity of root crops and proportionately reducing the growth of cereals. Gold has also been exported on a large scale. Goldmining having become a settled industry, is generally prosecuted by associations representing in the aggregate a large capital. There is little fear, however, of our goldfields becoming exhausted. For very many years to come they will afford a profitable : field for the employment of capital, energy, and skill, and should, above all, be a source of attraction to the more adventurous of our fellow-subjects in Britain. The gold export of 1874-75 amounted to £1,408,058. Timber has been produced in great quantities, but so considerable is the home demand for building purposes, that it forms an inconsiderable item in the exports of New Zealand produce. We regret, however, that one New Zealand specialty, hemp, should have been so much neglected. By steady porsevance, we have little doubt,it would ultimately have forced its way into the market in competition with jute : but the cost of production, and the risk and losses have been so great as to discourage the flax industry. In time, no doubt, New Zealand hemp will be largely exported, if not in its raw commercial state, at least in the shape of cordage. It is gratifying to know that cordage has been manufactured in the colony on a considerable scale for export. ' Turning from these points to matters of a more public character, wo have to note the satisfactory progress made in the public works of the colony. The General Assembly authorised the expenditure, for the financial year 1875-70, of £3,587,002 on public works, and that expenditure is going on in all parts of the colony under the watchful supervision of the Minister for Public Works. Lighthouses are being erected on suitable sites along the coast to lesson the danger of navigating New Zealand waters. .The telegraph has been extended so that the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in the North are in connection with the Bluff in the South 3 and the ex-

piring year witnessed the completion of a contract for a submarine cable to Australia, which will bring New Zealand into direct telegraphic contact, with the East, and with Europe and America. - But as if this wore not a sufficient triumph for a single year, we have the San Francisco mafl contract, -which, despite the bad commencement, is destined to do an incalculable amount of good to this country in the not distant future. But above all, peace prevails. The policy of firmness and conciliation adopted by Sir Donald McLean in 1869, at a time when the colony was torn by civil war and its energies were crushed by a long series of disasters, has borne the ripe fruit of peace and contentment. The native race are satisfied. Even E-ewi, the most resolute of the old Maori party, has abandoned his exclusiveness, and paid a friendly visit to the East Coast settlements at the invitation of the Native Minister, while Sir Donald was the guest of the Maori King at the headquarters of that potentate. These are noteworthy events, and should not he overlooked in a sketch of what the colony achieved during 1875. And the New Zealand Parliament, rising to the occasion, passed a law last session amending the Constitution by the abolition of Provincial Government. Henceforward there will be a united colony; heretofore Hew Zealand was an aggregation of petty States without any common bond of union. 1875 is therefore notable as the year in which the political life, of New Zealand as a country began. It was full parochial life; —vigorous enough of its kind, but exceedingly narrow and self-seeking. Such a state of things could not well exist with the new conditions created by railway development and the telegraph ; hence it happened that the Legislature interposed to save the country from provincial factions, and decreed the abolition of the provincial system. Nor will the general elections now proceeding at all effect this result. 1875 has seen the provinces abolished; it will be the work of the Assembly in 1876 so complete what has been so well begun. In conclusion, we have just to add that Wellington has participated in the general prosperity, and will undoubtedly be a large gainer by the political change referred to. No settlement in the colony displayed greater signs of prosperity than Wellington during 1875. Its foreign trade has largely increased, and Dunedin no longer boasts of having a virtual monopoly of the New Zealand coast trade. Wellington importers are competing with Dunedin merchants in every town in the colony ; and from its central position aud the great facility for distributing goods enjoyed by its merchants, no one can doubt that this city is destined to become the commercial capital, as it now is the political capital, of New Zealand.