THE GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE DEPRESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1888, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT POLICY AND THE DEPRESSION.

To the New Zealander who is con vinced that it is by beneficial legisla tion,and not by private enterprise,, that this colony is to be extricated from its difficulties and carried forward in the path of progress,the remarkable Speech placed in His Excellency's mouth by his responsible advisers must have come as a veritable , staggerer. But only very unsophisticated people nowadays look for anything _ but almost meaningless generalities in a Governor's Speech, and we may hope that the Government have kept their Eight Bower up their sleeve, to be produced at the right moment. Some hopes were raised that a debate would have arisen over the speech, and that either Ministers would be forced to

come out of their shells and speak plainly to tho country, or that the House would at once put its foot down and declare that tho present crisis was much too serious to allow of even a moment's delay in bringing down those measures for which the people are clamouring, and upon the passage of which the future prosperity of this country depends. The Speech contained absolutely nothing to raise our hopes, and the speeches made on the Address-in-Keply, limited as they were to the proposer and seconder, contained still less. It is hardly to be supposed that t_ie assembled members took no part in that debate from satisfaction at the contents of the Speech ; then it would almost appear that the oft-repeated rumour is only too true thai the Opposition is thoroughly disorganised and disheartened, and that the present Government have a large and compact majority, which will at all hazards carry them through the session no matter how wishywashy their policy may bo, or how utterly unsuited to serve this country iin its diio need.

Wo aro told in the Speech that "it is satisfactory to know that signs of improvement are not wanting," but it would have been inlinitely more satisfactory if those signs had been definitely indicated, as no one outside the framers of the Speech know anything at all about it. We all hope for better things, but there is at present positively no sign of improvelanl, We had been led to hrpe ~nat better things would have been I inaugurated this session of Parliament, ' but the Speech indicates nothing, and it would have been more reassuring if tho Speech had declared a bold, welldefined, easily-understood policy. The mining revival is almost the first thing noted in the Speech, and it would seem as if tho Government, as well as the Auckland public, had hazarded, so to speak, their whole futui'o on a throw of the dice box, and that everything depended upon the success of the new appliances for working refractory ores. If they are successful, then, to use the Micawber-like term used in the Speech, "an almost limitless source of wealth will be opened up." If not, what then 1 The deluge. We believe there is a great future for our gold fields, but surely no man worthy of the name of statesman would deliberately risk the financial stability of his country on a possibility. A very prominent feature in the Speech is tho " rabbit pest,"and the proposed national policy connected therewith. Thousands of pounds are spent annually by the Government to suppress the rabbits. In the South they are a perfect plague. In the North thoy are not; they are a god-send instead, and the small farmer, instead of cursing them, utters a blessing on them as he knocks them on the head and puts them in the pot. In England quite recently, and maybe now, perhaps, a tenant farmer who without permission killed a rabbit on his farm, was liable to imprisonment, lv New Zealand, the whole population is called upon to subscribe to destroy the rabbits in order that the large sheepowners may carry more stock on their runs. A Southern paper, wailing over this rabbit nuisance, says : "The neglect of tho Government to deal seriously with this question must tei-d to undermine the very foundation of colonial prosperity." And it would seem from the prominence given to the subject in the Speech,that the Government are taking this view. The newspaper referred to points out that there arc stations which a few years ago pastured sheep by the hundred thousand, but which now, in consequence of the rabbits, will not carry anything like tho same number. This sort of thing will, no doubt, seriously ;i undermine tho prosperity " of the squatter, and may, perhaps, eventually cause him to become a resident instead of an absentee; but we certainly fail to see that it seriously affects the prosperity of the colony. The Auckland storekeepers would be quite as justified in insisting upon the Government keeping their stores clcai of rats as the run-owners have in demanding national aid against the rabbits. The simplest way of getting rid of bunny is to eat him, and that will be hisfate when the land is settled. Land settlement is tho true cure of the rabbit pest, not extra taxation of the people to assist tho squatters. There is only one thing perfectly clear in tho Speech, and that is that all the extra revenue required by the Treasurer will be collected through the Customs. We hear from Wellington that the property tax will not be increased, but a decrease of is expected. This may be satisfactory so far as it goes, but the deficiency will also have to be heaped on to the Customs, and tho people aro very deeply interested in watching how the Government propose to distribute it. Mr Vincent Pyke, in moving the Address-in-Eeply, said, referring to tho present depression, that "it was brought about by tho people themselves, and it rested with themselves to free themselves from it." What Mr Pyke himself meant when he »aye utterance to this mysterious sentence, we do not know ; but we do know that many are acting upon the advice by leaving the country, and others will "free themselves" in a similar way unless the Government bring down a policy which will provide work for them within its borders.