The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1887.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 54, 2 July 1887, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1887.

Tor the cause that lacks assistance, Por tha wrong that needs resistance, For the future in tho distance, And the good that we can do.

The Premier's second address at Dunedin. delivered la°.t night, discusses the important subject of future borrowing. We agree with Sir Robert Stout that in the present condition of the coiony to put an immediate stop to. loan ex penditure is out of tho question. It would be folly, in- the first place; to abandon the works already, commenced, which if continued to a lyorkable point might be made profitable ; and in. the next place it would be ruinous to aggravate the present depressed condition of' tho labour markets of the colony by measures of panic. ■ This is true generally of the demand for retrenchment. Public expenditure must be reduced, but this should not bo done, as wo have seen it done in the past, by the •wholesale discharge of men from the public service to be replaced by others less efficient and at higher pay, but by wise economies. The salaries of the higher officers must be brought down. In this respect the. action of the Government in relation to several high Civil Service appointments is commendable, and although we cannot join altogether with Mr Carr's motion at the Board of Education yest-rclny, as it is neither comprehensive nor i based on a sufficiently defined principle, yet it "undoubtedly goes in the direction, that must be pursued in reorganising the public service. Radical changes in a system of government caunot be carried out in a day or a year. .We are undoubedly over-go-verned and over-taxed, but to turn a thousand or two Government servants into the.ranks of the unemployed, stop all public works, and leave the people who are thus deprived of the means of subsistence to settle tho over-population question by starving, might be a very heroic way of solving the problem, but it is not according to modern .Methods. In depressed times, above ali others,, wo,.want confidence, not panic', At the head of affairs . we want a strong hplonising party, both as applied to land settlement and local industry, and as the surplus labour is thus absorbed, our loan expenditure should contract and absolutely cease. We are not sure* whether the two millions extending over seven or eight "-years -for the completion of the !main trunk lhjes of railway will be sufficient. but if it will, the added annual 1 charge-.of -p_"80,000 a year, which;is reducible to by the revenue that may be expected from these lines.' is not a very formidable matter" for a colony which has the elements of wealth and prosperity within' it that are possessed by this [ colony.- • - " There is "such a thing as carrying this cry of depression and ruin too far. It i. already destroying confidence in everything. Men are being deterred from buildfng, from embarking in new industries, and from a host of other things which would give employment, and makp the depress"1 '•

vanish like a foul vapour before a healthy breeze. Considered as a tonic or as a purgative after a surfeit, the cry is right enough; but if it is to be the meat and drink of the people; if we are to grovel in the--dust and put ashes on our heads, and howl from morning till night " we are ruined," then our future will be sad enough. There is no country future before 9it than New Zealand has; and as Sir George Grey pointed out in his speech the other night, we have simply suffered in sympathy with the depression in trade all the world over. It would make an appreciable difference in the business of Auckland if a dozen or two Hopeful cheerful men were employed by the City Council to run about Queen-street declaring that times are looking up. We must have something more of this feeling and fewer lugubrious countenances before any real change for the better can set in.