The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 870, 17 January 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. * * * # * Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Una-wed by influence and unbribed by gain.

If it is only natural that it should be so, it is none the 'ess gratifying to find Sir Julius Vogel, at Home, the ardent advocate of the public works scheme of which he was the founder here, and an equally warm upholder of his faith in New Zealand as the foremost, in the immediate future, of the colonies of Great Britain. Such an occasion took p'ace lately, when, at a banquet given by the directors. of the Colonial Bank of New Zealand to a few

colonial and other friends, Sir Julius I Vogel responded to the toast of " Prosperity to the Colony of New Zealand, coupled with the name of an illustrious statesman -Sir Julius Vogel." As the statesman of New Zealand, Sir Julius Vogel stands pre-eminently forward. The broad and comprehensive policy, which gave life and vigour to the young colony, is hisi own. The mistakes which arose i out of its administration are those ■ created by the exigencies'of political party, or the incapacity of the minds to whom necessarily was entrusted the carrying out of the scheme in detail—defects, after all, which will become swallowed up and lost sight; of altogether in the grand ultimate success of the whole. And herein lies the reason of success, as well as the credit due to the statesmanship of the originator of the scheme—. that it was not ihe embodiment of a : fanciful theory, however good a one, but that it grew out of the necessities of the colony, and thus, when: embodied by a m-ister mind, such as that of Mr Julius Vogel, it of its own ! adaptability to the then requirements of the colony, recommendad . itself to the public at' large. Sir; Julius Vogel points out that it was ;■

the action of the Imperial Govern ment, in leaving the colony to its own defence, which force*! our pre sent prosperity upon us. Increasec population, increased occupation b: the land (in the North Island, a 1 least), became necessary to the safety, and even existence, o New Zealand, as an . inde

pendent colony, and, it the Middle Islnd was called upon to thus force on colonisation in the \onh, in nil fa rn<BS it had a right to participate in the fruit as well as t) take .-hare and liability in the. work. Out of his state of t .mgs .rose the Public Works and Immigration Scheme, ot 1870. To -ir Julius Vugel be ongs the credit that he saw the opp- r unity and seiz d it.

Glancing at the previous condition ot NewZu U«n and pnjing a wellnierted tribute t Provmo al lustiu ions, which had *o wel in their wn time •>• rved the interests of ihe Colony—oi.e province striving to euuihie the other and striving to itdvance its own purticu • r di trict, to the advaucemeui and progress of

the whole—Sir Julius Vogel passed on to a review of the mil way system and its results directly tu the revenue and indirectly to th.3 increased value which it has given uofc |b v privarijv estates but to the tsplonyV Aniple're rftjjery upon the colony. </ Slaticmns are wont to com are the amount of our Colonial indebtedness at per head oF'lite' 1 population with that of the National debt at homo. Sir t Julius does this too, but be points dut the' very -different bearings of the two cases as he goes. " There is a great difference," he says, " between the public debt of such a colony as New Z aland and the public debt of the mother country. When you compare the debt of a colony and the mother country you should bear in mind that the debt of a colony comprises debt for a construction of works which are altogether left outside the public debt of the mother country, the cost of railways for example and of harbour improve,ments. Talcing those two alone, if the cost of harbour improvements and railways in Great Britain were added to the National debt how much larger would it not be than it is at present! Then recoliect also that you have cast upon this country as an annually recui ring burden from which it is inij ossible to escape the the cost of an enormous aimy of pauperism unfortunately existing in this country, but happily unknown in the colony. And when yon consider tho question of taxation you must recollect that our general revenue comprises objects which are not paid for out of your general revenue, but which are with you objects of special and very harassing and op pressive taxation- From our general revenue is defrayed the cost of gaols, lunatic asylums, and almost the entire cost of education; but those are outride your ordinary scheme of taxation. They are made the subjects of special taxation which very few escape. Then we have a *ptcial resource, which is not known in countries where the public estate has been parted with. There are in New Zealand about

34.000,000 acres oi public estate not I jet sold. The revenue derived l;.st ! year from the sale and letting of • land was over £1,000,000, and we j have, dming the next five years, an I enormous extent of leases of pasture i country that will fall in, and it is i expected that a very much heavier rental will be obtained. It is certainly within the mai k to say that those railways which have been made have, at the least, doubled the value of the puMic property ot the co.ony. (Hear, hear.) 1 will also ask any of you to consider, if you had an estate of your own, whether it would be bad po icy on your part to expend an insignificant sum as coropaieii with the value of the estate for the purpose of developing the value of the whole of the land if you wished to pot it into the market. Nov/, with regard to the railways that have been constructed in New Zealand, it is not too much to say th:»t they have doubled the value, not only of the public es ate, but of the private estate of the : country; and the responsibility of their construction, undertaken by the Government, really belongs to the body of colonists themselves. From this point of view the railways have been over and over again remunerative. i undertake to say that anyone who will dispassionately examine the question will come to no other conclusion than that which. I have pointed out. There are many gentlemen round this table whom I recognise as colonists, and who are familiar with the circumstances of New Zealand, who will bear me out when I say that during the past season the railways have been found inadequate to meet the enormous demands made upon them. Mr Cargill referred in a very eloquent manner to the question of the demands which the colony of New Zealand had made upon the money market of

Great Britain- Now, in, my opinion, no greater benefit was. ever bsetowed upon tbe money market' of Great Britain than a colony coming- forward and asking for money for the purpose of honestly and bravely developing English territory j by the counsrymeu .of those who lent the money, persuading them j that it was more for their interest I

to lend the money in that manner than to provide for the armaments of the Continent or carrying out railways for military purposes abroad."

In proposing thetoasfcofprosperity to New Zealand, Mr Cargill had alluded to the fact that no doubt a good deal of money had gone out to New Zealand, a good deal of money had been spent there, and went on to say that he thought it was very likelj a great deaf more wou'd have to be spent, hut l.e couid only say with regard to all the money'that had been .-out Jothecolunyihar.it! was one of the hest'inves mems the j Bri'ish public h»d ever .omrnitted ■ b euiselvea'o. Xov/Sir Ju ins o-el j in pointing out the resul s of past , expenditure has placed before the moneyed class at home the sterling value of New Zealand securities in the raising ol I'utur** necessary loans for ihe atainment o the full , fruition of a scheme which has worked I so well at its com nenc* meat. He spuke fnl y en 'he animal vegetable and mineral reso'ine* of 'he colony ; i pointed out the enoimouss results of j the wool industry alone—that a tew years ago New Zealand was far

behind other colonies in its protslucof wool and numbers of sheep—that it now has as many sheep as Victoria and half as many as the old established and enormous colony of New South Wales. Its coal, its climate embracing all temperatures from a tempernte to a subftropioal one, its Enormous sea boards and facilities for shipping and last of all. the--general character and stamp/of its population were all alluded to and dwelt upon. In reference to the latter we close these remarks with., the words of Sir Julius Vogel himself, well content to leave the good name of the colonists, and. the character of the Colony in the hands ot such an advocate. " T think, he said, "taking the colonists of New Zealand generally, I am not exaggerating when I say that'they are hard-working, and self-reliant, frugal and industrious, and, on the whole, an educated people. It has been made the duty ot the State to see that the vising generation shall, without exception, be educated- As has been pointed out by Mr Cargill, an advanced education has been opf ned out to those who chose to take advantage of it. . I ask you, then, is a land of this kind a land worthy of being developed, and is it a wild dream to conceive of it that it may attain enormous importance in the future 1 At any rate, if you do not answer me in the affirmative I have long since conceived that idea, and any poor share that I may have had in advancing the colony has grown solely out of the profound conviction I entertain that there is not a land in the world moic worthy the efforts of those who have devoted themselves to its advancement than the colony of New Zealand.