N.S. WALES AND NEW ZEALAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2366, 7 June 1892, Page 3

N.S. WALES AND NEW ZEALAND.

In t]te ooqrsp of an interview with a reporter of the New Zealand Times, Pr. Grace, M.L.C., who has recently returned from Sydney, where lie has been attending the .animal meeting of the Australian Mutual Provident Association, said -I found a very general feeling cf alarm prevailing amongst certain classes of society as to the effect of our radical measures in politics. At the same time, I was amazed at the gross ignorance which was manifested as to the precise character and degree of these radical measures, Oi) every convenient, opnasiqii, 1 took the. greatest trophic to explain' that* for tpe most part they were merely a land of brutmir fulmen—a sort of political hurlyburly. I sought to Impress on thpir minds tlpit thefu wtl 8 hotting m vqry" dreadful as they imagined in <uv Uadieal measures.

Reporter—But why should our Radical measures cause alarm iu New South Wales, which surely cannot be directly pffepte.i( by them'? ip., (drape—Well, they wore alarmed because they imagined they would urovq ruinous tq ns, aim that tuc probability of bur example being followed over there would involve them in ruin also, They felt this example to ho pernipiops and dustruptivu to the >State.

Exporter —y° n B'icd ' to disabuse their mind of these fears Dr. Grace—Yes, 1 took every opportunity of carefully impressing upon them the exact effect of opr Radical measures, and I showed them, for instance, that ag wt> had a large agricultural population settled on the hind and no huge cities, the measures which appeared to them to be ultra-Radical did not affect us so much as Radical changes atiectcd

them, owing to the aggregation of their population i' large cities. At the same time, i found the prevailing opinion with regard to this colony was that it had got safely past difficult times, and was now on the vising tide of prosperity, f also observed everywhere what 1 thought to be jealousy of New Zealand, its people, its products, its climate, and its progress. It all arises from the character and extent of our food productions, and from the offence we have given them by refusing to federate. In this connection I may mention one circumstance that seemed rather peculiar to me. I took advantage of the large public meeting of the Australian Mutual Provident Society to demonstrate the financial soundness of New Zealand, and I gave as an illustration the fact that the A.M.P. Society had loaned in this colony a sura of £878,11 b over a period of twenty years, and had that aggregate amount now out on loan, and that during the entire twenty years we in New Zealand had not a shilling of interest in arrear, nor lost a single shilling j of the origonal capital. I challenge the ! whole world to produce a greater evidence j than this of commercial morality and j financial soundness amongst a people, j Yet in spite of the fact that reporters from all the Sydney papers were present, and notwithstanding that my speech was in reply to an attack made upon the | solvency of New Zealand, the Sydney Morning Herald never published file reply, contenting itself with the baldest 1 reference to my remarks. A few days j later I saw an exhaustive leader in the Sydney Morning Herald regretting that New Zealand was about to become the dumping ground for the criminal classes of England, and demonstrating this proposition by a series of arguments inaccurate in principle and detail, and betraying the utmost ignorance of our | land laws. I could not help feeling that if an important paper like the Herald in a great city like Sydney neglected to publish our defence when our position was attacked on its public platforms, there was every reason for us to look askance at federation proposals. .