The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 165, 15 July 1890, Page 4

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

TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1890.

''' For the cause that lacks assistance, , -'it' i For the wrong that needs ~#* ■-,„ Por the future ta. the dietanoe, .„■ ?'■ AdA the good that to can do.i

Sir Robert Stout, the other day, in his capacity as " the coming man,' , de. livered himself of a three-column exposition of his views to a Wellington interviewer. He might, no doubt, have exhibited his incapacity to grapple with the circumstances of the colony in a smaller compass, but he was evidently determined to make the matter perfectly clear, and he has succeeded. There has always been such an extraordinary discrepancy between Sir Robert Stout's political professions and his performances, that we are rather surprised that he did not once more mount the Land Tax hobby-horse to negotiate the election hurdles, fully prepared, if he were afterwards found unserviceable, to turn the good old steed out to grass for another three years. The wouid-be tribune, however, evidently believes that Property Tax is the winning horse, for not only has he fastened his colours upon the once-maligned steed, but he is prepared to " go one better" upon it than Sir Harry Atkinson himself. We are told Hβ (Sir Eobetb Stout) donbts whether the Premier can afford to give up any taxation, and recommends, instead of the primage duty, a "graduated increase of the property tax." He says, "I don't mean such an increase aa would have been j penal, but euch an increase at all events as would have tended to prevent the accumulation of property to too great an amount, and if additional taxation is necessary, considering the small amount of the primage returns, I believe by putting a slight increase on the property tax on large properties, the amount could be got, and with less possible injury to the industries of the colony than by the primage duty." It appears, indeed, to be the ambition of the quondam Premier to take up the fag ends of the policy of the old Continuous Ministry, which Sir Harry Atkinson, with his usual pliancy to the pressure of majorities, is relinquishing, and but of these discredited political rags to make up some sort of garment to cover his nakedness. v We never fully understood the inspiring motive of the Stout-Vogel alliance until the abandoning of Sir Robert Stout to his own devices by the arch-schemer showed how utterly barren of original ideas, how painfully destitute of constructive genius the ex-Premier was. With all his grievous faults, no one will deny to Sir Julius Vogel the possession of imagination and the faculty of conception, although the creatures of his speculations prove extremely airy and vastly expensive experiments when put to the trial. It would have been beneath the dignity of Sir Julius to masquerade as a saviour of the people in the cast-off habiliments of his political opponents. Hβ would have struck out some new line* though the end should be destruction. Sir Robert Stout, however, is content to fill a much humbler' role. He twits the Government with being destitute of any "distinct policy," and to show how much better the country would be under his guidance he launches the brilliant conception of a graduated propertytaxsupplemented bya return to the even more ruinous system of inflation by borrowed money, which has already brought New Zealand to the verge of bankruptcy. As with the property tax, so with this second plank in his great (!) political platform, Sir Robert Stout found himself somewhat embarrassed by former professions. Swallowing doctrines held so long ago as 1887, however, was a comparatively easy business, which he proceeded to despatch in the following delightfully airy fashion :— As to borrowing in the future, what I said in 1887 I do not depart from. I believe that our borrowing policy should be brought to a termination as soon as possible, but I have not yet seen any proper system laid down for completing and extending some lines of railway that are at precent practically waste and unproductive, and will remain so unless something is done to them, without the aid of foreign capital. There are only two ways of doing it, either to borrow money, or you must resort to the unfortunate scheme first introduced by the Hall Administration in 1881, of giving land grants for railways. In my opinion, it is better to. borrow than to resort to the land grant system; at the same time I believe the policy should be what I then called "tapering off,' , and that if in 1887 the colony had borrowed two millions, that would have practically finished all the lines that we could have required finishing for, say, ten years. The colony borrowed a million, and very little, has been done with it; and it seems to me that there is another loan coming up, and that not very far distant, though I no not know whether it will be more judiciously spent. I also think that the Government ought to push on that part of the North Island Main Trunk Railway which starts from Hunterville end. I believe the land through which that line will go will be suitable at all events for grazing, and perhaps dairy farms, and that money judiciously spent there would be beneficial to the colony. It seems to me that for some time to come the expenditure of money should. properly take place at the Wellington end. Far more has been done at the Auckland end than at the Wellington end, and the line there passes through country which, so far as I can learn, is not suitable for settlement. There are several lines thatrr think .will have to be faced. I believe that the Bketahuna - Woodville should be connected, in fact, I think that that connecsion should hare taken place

before the Gorge line was constructed. Then from what I can gather (of coarse I only speak from hearsay in this respect) ifc' will be a judicious expenditure of money to extend the Helensville north for a feY miles ; that would enable the line to reach' the Kaipara flats. I also think that the Otago Central will have to be extended if we want any return for the money already; spent, perhaps as far as Eweburn. There are other bite of line throughout the colony that require attention, but I don't feel competent to express a definite opinion upon them. I think the Railway Commia. sioners, along with the Engineer-in-Chief, ought to report on the whole question, and that their report) should go before the Assembly, because it is a great waste of money—hundreds of thousands of pounds —to have it sunk in railways which do not return interest, and which would return if some further expenditure were made on the lines. Really one cannot repress a feeling of mild pity for the awkward handling of the old fishing tackle in the foregoing passage. How much more artistically Sir Julius Vogel or even Sir Harry Atkinson would have done the trick. Thehook is so clumsily baited that the most stupid and the hungriest of schnappers could not fail to detect it, A selfish and unpatriotic section in the South—let us hope it is a very small one—wants the Otago Central rail. way continued, notwithstanding the; proof contained in report after report by competent men that every sovereign spent upon the line will only increase the drain upon the vitality of the colony, already bleeding at every pore. To justify this expenditure, a dole must be given to Wellington by the continuation of a costly and.useless railway through an absolutely unsettled [istrict, another bribe to Hawke's Bay, and a small bone flung at random to the North. . : One turns absolutely sick at heart ml contemplating this miserable return to tactics which have cost the colony so dearly in the pas£ That the line from Helensville northwards, undertaken ysars ago, would have proved a nnst profitable work, in direct traffic returns and in the development! of settlement upon small holdings, weare fully satisfied. That it would paynow twice as well as the Otago] Central or Hunterville extension! could, we believe, be absolutely; but that this and every otherj line must stop for the present if the honour of New Zealand is to be saved, and the permanent prosperity of the. country secured, surely every man who! seriously considers the terrible load at taxation already imposed by our vast; public indebtedness must perceive,! Even with a taxationper head of population unparalleled inthe world, Sir Robert! Stout declares that there was last yeay' a deficit of ;£9,000, asserts that not a; sixpence of the annual burden can be remitted, and actually proposes to increase it. In the same breath he deliberately advocates.a scheme by which the permanent burdens of the countrywill be made heavier. " A.nd this is the cajibre of the statesmanship upon ffew Zealanders are asked * to* 'Stake! their salvation ! Truly, if there be na> alternative, our case Is sTsad" 6ns in* deed. *;";% As to the Hunterville extension of the North Island Trunk Railway, a, more useless or unjustifiable expenditure was never suggested in the wildest days of loan extravagance. In the completion of a light railway or metalled road from Taranaki to the Northern terminus of this line for the purpose of making past expenditure and (Opening up a splendid field for settlement, there would have been somes thing resembling statesmanship; but to continue the wretched system of ex* tending non-paying lines in order to gain local support is, in the present circumstances of the colony, absolutely suicidal. • We do most earnestly pray that, whatever other verdict the country may. return at the approaching elections, its exigencies and its experience in- the past, will cause the people from the North Cape to the Bluff to rise for once superior to contemptible local interests, and declare decisivelyinf favour of a period of rest, during which settlement may become consolidated, and our natural growth of population may completely deliver the land from those difficulties which are already, yielding to the gigantic industrial efforts of the colonists.