THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 193, 15 August 1889, Page 4

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1889.

We can easily understand and sym. patliise with those members of the House of Representatives who, although dissatisfied with the present Ministry, declined to put them out the other night over the Ward-Hislop correspondence. A defeat on such a question as this would have left the Cabinet no option but to resign, which means that Mr Ballance, as leader of the Opposition, would be sentfor to iorm a new Ministry. Now, Mr Ballance's administration, as a member of the Grey Government, and afterwards of the Stout-Vogel Ministry, was not such as to inspire confidence in his fitness to guide the policy of New Zealand in its present circumstances. And even if his past political record had been a more favourable one, his recent declaration m favour of more borrowing, on the old pretext of "continuing railways to a paying point," is quite a sufficient reason for keeping him out of power even at the cost of keeping the present Ministry, with all their faults, in office. A reference to the railway returns effectually exposes the folly of carrying our railways farther out into unsettled country. Every mile of railway constructed upon some of the New Zealand lines has tended to diminish the profits from the sections previously open. The time has come when an end must be put to borrowing on any pretence whatever. Mr Ballance has not realised that; his speech on the financial proposals of the Government shows that he has absolutely nothing to offer the country but a revival of the policy of the Stout Vogel Ministry, which was emphatically condemned by the electors at the last general election, and which would, we feel confident, be doubly condemned if another appeal were made to the country to-mcrrow. He pioposes, moreover, to reverse the decision already arrived at for the reduction of the" number of members. The speech delivered the other night by the leader of the Opposition, in reviewing the proposals of the Colonial Treasurer, will probably do the Government more good than all the laudatorj utterances and apologies of their friends.