The Southland Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1631, 10 September 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1872.

It cannot be too clearly understood that the issue raised by Mr Stafford's resolutions was entirely personal, and involved no question of policy whatever. The apparent exception, to be found in the third resolution, which affirms the desirability of utilising Provincial and other local machinery, when practicable, in the administration of the Public Works and Immigration scheme, is in. reality no exception at all. To aay nothing of the extremely vague manner im which this principle is affirmed, meaning anything or nothing as may subsequently be found most convenient, it is after all a mere matter of detail, and involves no change of greater importance than that the subordinate agents of the Executive should if possible be selected preferably from Provincial or other local officials, the central administration and control remaining where it was before, with the Colonial Government, That such a course might occasionally be adopted with advantage no one probably will be found to deny, though it may fairly be questioned whether the importance of this idea would have been very plain to Mr Staffobd, and many of those who voted with him, had it not been for the exigencies of party strategy. Prudence demanded that those who held the views expressed by the resolutions, previously just withdrawn, of Mr Cuhtis, ■bould be provided with a decent pretext for voting with Mr Stafford, even if no great change of a practical kind was to be expected, in the direction of their special views, from his accession to power. The tactics pursued have been, so far, successful, and there is every probability that the majority of three with which Mr Stafford and his friends commence their career, will be increased to a fair working majority as soon as the new Ministry is constituted, and the work of the session resumed. What advantage there will be to the country from the change, or whether there will be any, it is of course impossible at present to say. All that can be gathered from the resolutions which have just been adopted by the House, amounts to no more than a declaration that the management of the Public Works and Immigration scheme by the late Ministers has not been satisfactory. The particular failures indicated are vague enough — there has not been sufficient unity of action, and local machinery has not been sufficiently utilised. These defects, it is presumed, Mr Stafford undertakes to supply. The new Ministry is to be more efficient than the old, but the general policy of the Government is to continue the same aa before. The plain English of the matter is that the Fox Vogel Ministry had been in office quite long enough to have inevitably disappointed many of their friends, and too long to command further support on the strength of expectations still unfulfilled. Mr Stafford will not have this difficulty to contend with for a while* but sooner or later he will find himself in the same position, and meat with the same fate as his predecessors. This view of matters, however, is more interesting to him and bis colleagues, than to the public, who, in the meantime, may take some comfort from the proverbial efficiency of new brooms. Some changes for the better may possibly be effected especially in the immigration arrangements, which are admitted on all hands to be susceptible of improvement. The new Ministry are bound to justify their pretensions as a Ministry of reform, by introducing some alterations in the management of their predecessors ; and as this department is confessedly the one which has been hitherto the most defective, it is probably the one to which their attention will be the first directed. Should they succeed in placing the immigration arrangements on a satisfactory footing they will do more for the benefit of the country, and secure for themselves a more lasting popularity, than they can possibly hope to attain by any other means. Id a new country all goes well so long as the tide of population keeps steadily flowing to its shores. The new-comers need have no fear of finding plenty of employment, if they are able and willing to work. The capacity of these islands for maintaining population is practically unlimited for this and for the next generation, and no means should be neglected to turn in the direction of New Zealand some portion of the stream of emigration which for years past has been setting westward in ever-increasing volume from the overcrowded countries of Europe, to spread with enriching influence over the broad fields of Canada and the States. To bring this about it is necessary in the first place that our immigration machinery should be brought to tho highest possible state of efficiency. If the new Ministry succeed, and they will almost certainly make the attempt, in improving our arrangements for the direct introduction of population, it will be something to be thankful for. It is an object well worth the expenditure both of care and money, for there is no undertaking on which the State can enter, more remunerative than the importation of men and women. But the improvement of our immigration machinery, while perhaps all that can be expected, from any Government for the present, is but a 9mall part of the task which lies before us if we are to compete with the countries above named as a field for settlement. Our climate and natural resources may be equal, or in some respects superior to theirs, and whether they are so or not, we cannot make them better. But what we can make better, and what we have hitherto most inexcusably neglected, are our land laws, and our provision for education. We ought never to rest until ,

we can offer to every intending settler, in T a shape as attractive as that offered by any other country in the world, the certainty of acquiring a homestead for himself, and a good education for his family. While it would, be unreasonable to expect that questions of such extent and importance will be grappled with this session, they are nevertheless the questions of the future. From indications which are everywhere apparent of the hold these problems are now beginning to take of the public mind, it is certain that no Government will long retain the confidence of the country which does not soon make some attempt at their solution.