The Press. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1872.

Press, Volume XX, Issue 2921, 11 September 1872, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1872.

We bave heard it objected that the point on which the Government were defeated last week did not involve any great political principle, and that the debate turned almost entirely on details. Of course it did. The resolution moved by Mr Stafford was, that the administration by the present (that is, the late) Government of the public works and immigration policy -was unsatisfactory. Of the policy iteeif .there was no question at all. That was thoroughly discussed and agreed upon in the session of 1870, and was confirmed, with some amendments, by the new Parliament m 1871. The question now was, whether the expenditure which the Assembly authorised last year for the initiation of the scheme had been judiciously managed; whether the railways bad been contracted for on reasonable terms; whether adequate arrangements had been made for procuring and for the reception of immi* rr grants ; whether the construction of roads, and other works, had been carried on efficiently and without wastefulness; in a word, whether the policy had so far been well administered But administration is an affair of details. The House of Bepresen--1 Uvea could have pronounced no verdict upon it without going into P«^ a ™_ 1% ww a ca§e to be decided by nothing

but plain facts. Those who maintained that the policy had been misconducted were bound to give reason_ for their opinion. When they asserted that the Government had committed such mistakes, and displayed such carelessness and waut of economy, as proved them not fit to be trusted with the management of important business—for that is what the resolution meant by " unsatisfactory " —they were bound to make their case good by pointing out specific instances of those blunders and extravagance. The burden of Mr Fox's reply to Mr Stafford was a complaint that the latter had not followed this course, but had brought an accusation against tbe Government in general terms, and had avoided going into details. Or if anyone thinks that the management of immigration and public works is not a matter of sufficient consequence to turn a Government out upon, we must express our astonishment at his taking that view, and beg entirely to differ from him. The Assembly never thought so. No phrase was more frequently employed during the debates of 1870, when the policy was firßt submitted to Parliament, than that " everything would depend upon its administration." And certainly Ministers never thought so themselves. It is impossible to conceive anything of greater consequence than they have represented it. They have declared their scheme to be of such a character and tramed on so grand a scale, that according as it succeeds or fails, it will raise New Zealand to the height of prosperity or plunge it into the depths of ruin. With such an alternative in prospect, the question whether we are on the road to success or failure must be of all-absorbing interest. And apart from all exaggeration, under the present circumstances of the colony there can be no object more important, if only on financial grounds, than the management of its immigration and public works. When a community of 250,000 souls, with an average income of £1,000,000, already burdened with a debt of £7,000,000, suddenly makes up its mind to spend £4,000,000 more/ and determines in one year on an outlay of nearly £2,500,000, it cannot afford to be indifferent to the results ; nor can its public men have a more serious duty to discharge, than that of keeping a critical watch over the details of the expenditure, and of seeing that it is entrusted to none but competent hands.