WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 285, 3 December 1890, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1890.

While the citizens have been engrossed with the electoral contest and nightly speeches of candidates in Auckland, the very interesting campaign proceeding on the other side of the water has not received the attention deserved. We frankly confess that until within the last few hours, when i t became necessary to form some decided judgment upon the claims of the rival candidates for WAITEMATA, we had not read the speeches of either. In conscientiously discharging that duty which every elector owes to the men who offer their services to the State, we were astonished to observe how curiously in its main principles the address delivered by Mr Monk at Devon port, on the 27 th ult., echoed the sentiments enunciated by Mr Jackson Palmer in the same hall four days before. Both favoured the substitution of a land tax for the property tax, Mr Monk having completely shifted his position on this question since he first appeared before the electors ; both declared their opposition to the Atkinson Ministry, and both undertook to support further retrenchment.

With Mr Monk, the cutting down of Civil Service salaries has become almost a mania, and Mr Palmer's views on the subject were unquestionably the more practical and reasonable. That there are a large number of useless officers, especially in Wellington, is unquestionable ; but everyone acquainted with the public service is also aware that there are in it many capable and hard-work-ing men who perform responsible duties lor less pay than they would receive in the ordinary channels of private employment Cor similar services. And every young man, whether he be in the employ of the State or engaged in private business, is entitled to a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. The continual howl against public servants is degrading to the Slate and demoralising to the service. • In New Zealand, as the sole proprietors of railways and telegraphs and the controller of a thriving life insurance company, the Government has become a vast employer in spheres which are left in other countries io private enterprise, and it is interested in securing the services of good men. The secret of Civil Service extravagance is patronage. If the power of appointing the relatives and proteges of influential persons were completely taken away from the Ministry and. higher officials, necessary appointments I would-be filled up by capable men, and I every Government, having no object to

gain by multiplying offices, would be interested in keeping down the volume of the national expenditure. Mr Palmer's addresses exhibit considerably more acquaintance with polical questions, and a broader and evidently more genuine and spontaneous Liberalism, than Mr Monk's. The comparison which he instituted between the financial condition of Great Britain in ISI7 and New Zealand to-day was new and instructive. That the debt of Great Britain at the close of the Napoleonic wars, per head of population, was very much heavier than that of New Zealand to-day, is unquestionable, and the recuperative power of the country was infinitely less. Mr Palmer's contrast between the British export of that day of jQi- 9 3 3d per head and New Zealand's export of £14 3s per bead is very striking, and still it only partially represents the favourable character of Near Zealand's position. Our thinly-peopled lands afford scope for the rapid multiplication of population; and it must ever be borne in mind that with every doubling of the population we halve the individual liability for the national debt. A policy of rigid non-borrowing, accompanied by the rapid settlement of the lands now lying waste or tenanted by a few sheep, would solve the difficulties of New Zealand. But, as Mr Palmer very justly pointed out, we cannot hope to inspire confidence abroad unless we have confidence in ourselves and drop the perpetual wail about national bankruptcy. Mr Monk has latterly allowed his natural common sense and business shrewdness to become obscured iv this matter, and is rapidly earning for himself a reputation as the weeping prophet of New Zealand. We want a policy of hope and energy if the country is to progress. All the lamentations of Jeremiah will not improve our position one iota'; they may, however, drive a few more people out of the land and take the heart out of those who remain. These are the general impressions left on the mind by a perusal of the speeches of the candidates for Waitemata, and it is gratifying to know that, should Mr Monk, at the last moment, take it into his head to give practical proof of the sincerity of his many protestations that he is indifferent whether he returns to the House of Representatives, if not actually reluctant to go there, he will have a very intelligent and capable successor in Mr Palmer. The late member for Waitemata declared that he was glad to observe so many young NewZealanders interesting themselves in political questions, because the reins must shortly pass into their hands. Considering the dismal mess some of the older hands have made of things, it might not be inadvisable to see what the rising generation is capable of. Mr Jackson Palmer has already stood his baptismal fires in one well-fought electoral contest, in which he polled exceedingly well. He has evidently devoted himself to the study of political questions, and if not successful this time, there is no reason to doubt that there may be a useful public career before him.