THE COLONIES ON TRIAL

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1276, 2 September 1880, Page 2

THE COLONIES ON TRIAL

"Anglo-New Zealandcr" writes to the Otayo Daily I'mies, under date June 23 :-— - So far we aie having a dismal hummer. The weather is not. so bad us last year, certainly, but that is about tbe best that cau be said for it. On midsummer day it was neaily dark in London ; at noonday I could just sec to wiito without gas, but only just. Grass and corn are growing, however,' and English fields look well. If" we get a fine autumn tho British, agriculturist wiil probably growl leai -111111 he' has growled the last year or two. It does-not appear, however, -thafc the financial position of tho English farmer gets any better. His losses of hay in the summer of 1879, and,i,£ corn in the autumn, were followed' by ter'ribl^'ios-es of Sheep in the whiter.. - Cling to English clods as he may, he must emigrate, and year uy year this conviction becomes deeper and mote general. ' ' ' But where shall he g©-? > .'lVqlvc mouths ago New Zealand was all the rage. Every thing was ripq for a general exodus to our .Colony. It is singularly unfortunate' that at this juuctuie the financial cloud should have passed ovur. NuW Zealand. England was deeply stirred upon, the New Zealand question last year, .exaofly at the time when the provpeiifcy of the Colony was about to receive a shaip, budden check. In the Daily News, Christian JPothl, and other influential pap«Ms, Btinin<r articles appealed about New Zealand from the pens of Arthur Clayden, the Rev J. Berry, and others, which were true enough wncu written, but -a Inch had ceased to be tvae, by the ch:mge3 in the condition of the New Zealand labour market, before the people who had read them had time to reach the Colony. Disappointment wns, of course, inevitable, and the wail> of the disappointed are finding their way into the provincial papers, in this country. So mo of. those, with the editorial comments theieon, are so extravagant asto bo positively ludicivm^. Oue L'ucolushire paper last week informed us tt v > \t . " thousands were landm<» upon the shores of New Zealand every week ; tli it multitudes were without food and shelter; that heavy ta,K itiou, do ir food, ,uul a glutted labour maikot wore driving thousands to misety and cairn 0 , " and much more to the same effect. Tno llov J. Boiry, who had If o-tured in that neighbourhood while New Zealand was still prosperous, wad charged with having known years ago that thi^ was the condition of things in the Colony. It seems to me that no n.an who caies a button for lus imputation or his peace of mind should ever advise anotlur to emigrate, however t-at'hfiel he may be thit it is for the other's good. He will not be thanked for his pains should tho expeiim.ent turn out well l\jr the emigiaut, aud will be held ves.pon^ib'e in cisc of failure. It fccems to be tacitly assumed that to ■speals. well of a Colony, if you are a colo ui-t, is to bjoome bail for the couutiy'.s prosperity thiough all.liuie. . I say if you are a colonist, for there i« a ciuious temper in the public mjnd here about Colom ils. We arc all looked upon a-, li.ti-. The complaint of an emigiant who ha& been in the c mutiy a fortnight without finding woik, is punted and road, and his rdioulouH denunciations of a country he has not had time to know are believed, while universal discivdiL attaches to the disclaimer of a colonist who knows. There was a eiuious inM;aiiC9 of this in The TuH"> la^t ■week. An anonymous paragraph appcued m its columns cont lining as many lies about the Colony, as could well be expressed in 20 lines. *' Food was exorbitantly dear ; distress* and panic all but uuiveisal , the debt 35 millions , and it was prob ible that thp/'c would have to be an appeal in Euglanl to lelieve the distress iv tho CVony. " I hapixui to know that Juda;e Gillies, who had just re ichei London, v\ r <te to the Turn s giving its statements indiun snt and emphatic denial, attaching his nam<s and the office he liL j ld. But his letfrr was put in the waste-paper basket. Anothei letter from an ol 1 colonist \\ ho could •-peak with equal authority met with the mhw fate, and a mild rejoinder from tlu pen of Sir Julius Yogi 1 w.i 3 only admitt'd, I believe, after very c nwderable pre.-suio was brought to bear upon the paper. Aud that lying p iragraph is finding 1 its way into the papors all o\er the touutiy. Aiessi s Grant and Fo-tcr nre back in England, «md h ive sent to the printer a report ot New Zealand winch, I am told, will be burlny favour-able to \\\ l t <'n'r>n>, and which Mill piobably ha\u a laige eiiLul.ition among the movt desirable classes. They, by rhe way, aie eouiiu-r in for their .share of abu^e lieie. Sevoial letteis have alre id} appeared in English new spapeis warning fanners against them, and- intimating' tb.ifc they ha\e fallen into the hand*> of the New Zealand (government, and have caught the lymu spirit Mhici it> suppled to inhabit all who h<(,\e been iv tho Colonj^ more th m a month. Ycs'jy ."Stewait is bu-y organising a party to settle his Tv Puke Block at T.uu.inga ; and i second j;amphlet fio^n tlie |M-u of thr Re\ . J. Bevy is to bo seen in the Knylish 1) >okslalls. This pamphlet is entitled " KarinniL; m North Ne>v Z'^aland," and is <!u\oti'il ni.unly to a description of Auckland and the Waikato. Its main puij>ovj appeals to bo to piomote the oig mis' d hulii ilinn ot favniors a\ ith cajjital, to tLitain Waikato estate-), hi' h aic air-, uly lmpiovod. One JMr. Low i^ also in L-ni'lou attempting something similar for Nelson. A pamphlet fiom the pen of Mi. F. W. Isitt is i.lso in the 1 pic\ss, so th.it tliObO in England Avho >vant the tiuth ujion New Zoiland m itters ous^ht to bo able to get it from, all these independent witnesses. The most popular Colony just now with the JDriti-h farmer is Canada, the Canadians having sent an influential repiesentathe to London to push their in-; tercet-. The report of the Mcqtch delea'ates who visited the Dominion lately j seems to hafe produced, a doop irapressiou here, Land at a dollar an aoro, with soil 10 feet deep, containing in its virgin state as much ammonia as good manure which will grow 30 bushels of wheat to the acre for a life-time, without wearing out, and all within ten days of London, certainly looks tempting; the rit-k of having your nose fro/c-n off notwithstanding. The extensive emigration to Canada is having its natural effect in sending up the price of laud. I heard only to-day of a gvntleinan who boutrb-t an estate there two years ago for £.5000, who could sell it to-day for five times that sum. South Africa, too, is bidding or the British -farmer. { see'ihat this Colony is offering" " its best land to selectors at 10s per itore to bo paid for in ten years at Is per acre per annum," and is giving a free passage to selectors. I cannot think of anything that would so promote the emigration to New Zealand of the English yoeman as placing some of its Crown lands for selection in this country, surveyed and accurately described, and on deferred -payments.

# A nvav gun, whhh can fire 5,000 shots _m 13 miuutes, was recently tested in \\ ashington. The Gardner is a machine gun like the Gatling. It has too barrels made of steel encased in brass During the past year 30 divevs engaged in the pearl fishery iv the Persian Cjulf lost their lives, most of them being victims of tea monstey*. The value of the pearls taken from the Persian Gulf was apt down at about £300,0(10, A Barcelona telegram states that a cotton mill in that cit.y has been set on five by the operatives, 1000 in number. The flames wern extinguished, and the jiugleadcvs arrested.