THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1892. BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2333, 22 March 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1892. BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS.

The outlook at the present time in New Zealand is certainly bright—much brighter than it has been for years, and we look with confidence to prosperous times. The harvest has been good, and the damage done by wet weather will, we are assured, prove insignificant. A farmer whose wheat went through all the wet weather in the stook, has threshed it, and the sample was so good that he got 3s 8d per bushel for it. This, we think, is conclusive proof that the damage is not great, and that the crop will turn out profitable after all. But any little damage which has been done will be more than compensated for by the abundance of feed for flocks and herds. Never in the history of the colony has there been a better year for feed, while the prices of all classes of stock are excellent. The outlook so far, therefore, is bright, but there are other causes working in favor of this colony which are bound to result in its ultimate prosperity. We hare, so to speak, put our house in order; we have retrenched public expenditure, and determined to cease borrowing. We have begun a self-reliant policy; we have ceased to regard another loan as the only thing that could save us ; we have learned to live within our means and our resources, and this is a great thing. Then taxation will henceforward be greatly lessened on the industrial classes. Small farms and other small industries will pay little more than half the taxation they have hitherto paid. Then the Government contemplate the cutting up of large estates, and opening the land for the people to settle on ; they also propose to establish industrial farms, which will greatly relieve our charitable aid burden, while with their labor bureaux and their co-operative labor system they have hushed the cry of the unemployed. All these things will tell in favor of the colony in the near future, hut there are

still other reasons which make us look forward, to good times. While we were retrenching, the other colonies were in- ! dulging in all kinds of extravagance. They got up land booms, borrowed money extravagantly, and of course spent it foolishly, until they are told now that they cannot get a great deal more. In fact, the other colonies have now the greatest difficulty in borrowing money at all; they have gone to the length of their tether, and must da exactly as we have done. This, of course, will tell very much in our favor. Just as they teok away our population in past years, so shall we take theirs in the near future, and of course the result must be increased taxation, with a larger population. But in order to do this we must not continue to cry “ Stinking fish.” The “ shriek of panic,” as Lord Onslow called it, must be hushed, and we must combine together to lift the colony into the first position in Australasia. There is no reason why this should not be done; she

is certainly the best and most fruitful of all the group; she can produce twice as much per acre as any of the others, while her climate, on the whole, is all that could be desired. It wants, therefore, only good management to make her a delightful country to live in, and we feel certain, that a new era in that respect has set in. The tide of immigration has already set in, the people are now returning to the colony, and if we want to keep them we must make provision for them. This can only be done by settling them on the land, and we believe the present Government will do their best in this respect. On the whole, therefore, we feel certain that we arc in the beginning of prosperous times, and that the near future will see New Zealand the leading colony in the Southern Hemisphere.