DESIGNING AND DOING.

Southland Times, Issue 1559, 2 April 1872, Page 3

DESIGNING AND DOING.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) The policy of the Q-overnment has received the approval of one Parliament, ! and the all but unanimous sanction of another. It would have been well for the colony if all previous policies had gone through a like ordeal, before being carried into effect. To borrow money to be expended on reproductive undertakings is a wise policy for a new country, and must prove successful, provided always ihat the money so borrowed be thus expended. We are told that our present income will not cover the additional expenditure which these loans will occasion. But this is not the question. The question I*B, will the loan be the means of increasing the revenue of the colony beyond the amount the interest comes to. This will • depend altogether upon the way the loan ; is expended ; and is the point which requires to be kept constantly in view. We have already found that it is less difficult to raise money than to expend it reproductively. We shall soon fiud it ia far easier to give authority for the construction of railways than to construct them. Until Mr Brogden's arrival, was there a minister or a member who ever thought of the difficulty of getting the requisite shipping to bring out the rails that so many railways would require ? Did any ono of them include the elements of time in his calculations ? Apart from these considerations, has not the Government taken more matters in hand than it can attend to properly ? Is it not far easier to lay down, or draft plans, than to execute them ? A paper policy, like a paper blockade, or a paper constitution, however skilfully prepared, requires something more than skill to carry it into effect. Men with less genius than a Brindley can design " castles in the air," and even explain the principles upon which they should be constructed ; but it requires all a Brindley 'a talent to erect them. Even a Brindley would never have constructed the aqueduct across the river Irwill, which, at that time, like Mr Vogel's railway scheme, was designated by a very clever man " a castle in the air," if instead of superintending its erection he had rushed to attend to other works elsewhere. No doubt he might have displayed " asuperfluous energy, and a fertile appetite for work" which a Yankee only could have equalled ; but he would never have erected the aqueduct which stands as a monument of his genius. Mr Yogel has proved himself a superior draughtsman ; and we want now to see whether he is as competent an architect.