The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 889, 3 October 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1881.

It seems but a few weeks sinee the Duke op Manchester visited Masterton among other places in New Zealand, and yet, such is the rapidity of modern locomotion, he is at home again making speeches on his travels. At the banquet recently given by the Loan Mayor of London in honour of thr colonies, the Duke of Manchester spoke as follows:—One army has been already toasted here tonight; I have to make allusion tQ what I will take the liberty of calling another army which has greatly served the 'empire. It is not an army which is obliged ti attain its purpose by inflicting wounds and death, or by appropriating provinces which already belong to a civilised race; but it is an army which has added to the empire a dominion as magnificentas any portion of tho realms over which your Royal Highness in the course of Nature will one day be called upon to rule. That army has accomplished great things; it has peacefully; conquered territory nearly equal in size to Europe, New Zealand itself is nearly as large as the United Kingdom. Sir George Bo wen, since I came into the Mansion House, has reminded me that Queensland is "three times the size of the French Republic. Perhaps your Royal Highness will allow me in a few words; and with a, few figures, to give to this assembly some idea of the magnificent territory which I have lately visitad. In size it is 3,181,089 square miles, and the gold it has produced already amounts to 271 millions sterling. In the last year nearly six millions 'sterling have been produced. The imports for one year are 50J millions, and the exports 44 millions, and the shipping entered and cleared seven millions of tons, There is ono item which I must say is not so agreeable to English landlords, and that is that Australasia produced last year 36 million bushels of wheat. As to its wool, it has bpalen English wool altogether out of the market, both in amount and in. its value, which is 16| millions, Nob only have the polonista done so much, but as cbnsu-:

rners they have manufacturers to an enormoiiS/'extent;It is cnleii'lated ; thntr Austraiians' fendi : N mi -ZealiMdei's 1 . jjer \ ■uiari,;;; and.:j:ch.ild—cbnsUnie|;43l i^- 1 worth. of British -while HF/'aiibe' only counts at the rate, o|7s 8d peKMjilt, and the United'" States onlyM'jtjierate of 7s per head, These,,-awtacV showing that—if for no other reason —there-are very;forcible*financial fea-* sons why we ehould consolidate, encourage, and promote in every way the prosperity of the British colonies. It is that which makes the British Empire great, and which prevents the British Empire being no more than what Burke called "a whale stranded on the shores of the Atlantic." The Australasian colonies are much indebted to-the Duke of Manchester for his good :W port. A Dnk'e is still a Duke in England and when'as in the case of his. grace of Manchester he is a shrewd wide-awako man, .bis public .utterances carry with them great weight which, 'must result in benefitting the great southern colonies of which he spoke in such high ternu New Zealand ,has gained another champion in hini who will be worth more to it than a score of paid immigration agents in the mother country,