The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, OCT. 9, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2535, 9 October 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, OCT. 9, 1888.

Iy an article on the situation in New Zealand, the Melbourne Argus of September 21st, takes a very hopeful view of the immediate future of the colony, and it points to the many signs of commercial and trade revival that are now so conspicuously seen in every district of both islands. The Argus expresses the opinion that these improvements are due, not to any increase in the yield from the goldfields which remains in a normal position, nor from manufactures which are being wetnursed by a protective tariff', nor from the rigour of economy in the public expenditure. Our contemporary shows conclusively that the quickening of the national prosperity arises solely from the great agricultural industries of the colony, upon which the fiscal policy of the Government lays an unfriendly hand. It is an undeniable truth that the impetus to the country's progress has been given by the value and wealth of the natural products from the soil. We owe nothing to tho fictitious aids of local expenditure of Government money, the prosecution of works of a doubtful productive character, or to the development of any other resources. Agricultural and pastoral enterprises are, and have been, our chief mainstay and to them alone does tho colony turn again, as the prodigal returned to his home and natural sphere after a career of wild dissipation. Wool, cereals, frozen meat and the gradually expanding dairy industry, all of these comprise the volume of New Zealand's exports, they represent the entire wealth this colony is pouring into the ready markets of foreign countries. Through these products of the soil the colonists give a magnificent exhibition of their industry and the capabilities of their adopted country. New Zealand, as the Argus truly observes, is pre-eminently an agricultural country ; she has been so designed to be by Nature. A tariff that presses unwisely upon the pursuits of an agricultural people can be styled none other than an anti-national one ; it is inimical to the country'." natural progress. In the course of time New Zealand in iy gain a distinguished place as a manufacturing colony, buu ere that position can be reached many things are needful. In the first place, a vast increase to the fixed population is necessary. It will be essential to create an abundance of internal capital for investment at low rates of interest. A complete remodelling of the standard rates of wages and a better rapprochement between Capital and Labour on the principles of cooperation will uneconomic conditions that must be secured before manufactures can become general and satisfactorily established. Foreign markets must also be found to receive the products of New Zealand's factories, looms, &c. ; and before that can be accomplished, statesmanship must recognise that tariffs will have to be framed in the spirit of reciprocity. There is little doubt but that is the view taken by the com-mon-sense of the colony; for, is it not a fact that nowhere do we hear of a great manufacturing revival, or much said on that subject, whereas the whole colony is alive to the splendid outlook of our agricultural and pastoral industries and are using all its energies to push them forward 1 The change in the disposition of the colony is very remarkable ; the people, appear to have cast aside all desires for speculative dealings and inflated prosi perity, and have set their minds on the natural resources of the earth with which a bountiful Providence has blessed them. If we refer to the returns of the Crown Lands Department we find there a striking sign of the times, corroborative of this hopeful turn in the temper of the colonists. A strong tide has set in for settling on the land, and the applications received by the Department are of an unusually numerous character. This is precisely the state of things we have hoped for and desire to see stimulated in every possible way. In the bona fide occupation of the waste lands of the Crown, thereby developing the growth and magnitude of the agricultural industries, does the material progress of the colony rely. It is necessary to adopt a liberal policy in that direction in order to attract a portion of the stream of emigration which finds its way to America and Canada. No more opportune time than the present could present itself to the Government to concert measures for diverting the overplus of our own city populations into the country, as well as to induce the right sort of settlers to head this way from the Mother Country. The desire of the people is evidently for obtaining land for actual occupation, whilst the spirit of speculation appears to have died out of them altogether. There is no longer, to use an Americanism, "a hankering" after large properties; the folly of overgorging has made itself painfully apparent to all classes of late years, and the lesson will be an endur ing one, no doubt. Small areas are now popular, and it is in the settlement of a numerous and contented agricultural population on farms of a limited, suitable size, that the permanent prosperity of tho colony can be, safely asured and its future greatness built up. The curse of the Public Works policy, and the effects of the wholesale expenditure of millions of borrowed money, has been the increase of the population of large cities to the injury of country settlement; and this in its wake has brought upon

tho country the discreditable social evil of pauperism and a Poor Law. Whilst wo are determined to retrace our steps as much as possible in order to get again on the right road to a healthy state of progress, we should also endeavour to lead back the population to the country and plant them lirmly on the soil. We have been a stiff-necked people wandering hopelessly in the wilderness; but now that we have turned our backs on the "olden calf, the Land of Promise should be within our reach at last.