POLITICAL MATTERS.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6094, 9 November 1887, Page 3

POLITICAL MATTERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PUESS. Sir —During the late election contest I had almost begiin to believe in the Press. 1 thought at one time you ieally were going in for drastic economy, and were determined to put your heavy foot down updn the fatal practice of living to the last possible moment upon borrowed money. Alas! alas! how am I,now disappniutcd a° ? oe you aC( r e PtinK with alacrity Major Atkinson s miserable Fihancial-Statement, dehghtine: in the escape of the Wellington officials by the sacrifice of our country teachers, and his avowed determination to borrow two millions mor<j radney if it is possible to find enough fools to tend it to v.3. To go on. in faot, borrowing to tbebitter,fatalend.YouprateetheFinaneial Statement for its moderation and ability. I admit its moderation au'fl ability, but" I cannot commend them, jjor rejoice in them. It is the moderation, of Leo X., the ability of the third Napoleon. The moderation is the moderation of a man who cannot throw a stone -because he stands in a glass house; the ability is the ability so common to most suc.-essful public men in New Zealand—the ability to count the value of block votes and to secure them, at any sacrifice of principle or of the public welfare. He speaks, as well he may, with batecVijreath of the Premiers who have thrown away .the hard earned economics of their- predecessors, and he dares not apply • -a. hard name even to the more 'than four and a. half millions lately fielded 'to our debt by Sir Julius Vogel.'s financial juggleries. Sir Julius Vogel and Major Atkinson may or may not love, each other, but they will never bo able to talk of each other's sins with the honest indignation which cleaner-handed men would naturally adopt. Such moderation is one of the worst symptoms of the deadly disease from which New Zealand is now suffering , . Now let us estimate the ability. The enemies of the people's education, the great bulk of the Civil servants, the protectionists, the freetraders, the dwellers in the New Zealand metropolis, the omni-potent-working man—each and all have a sweet sop' thrown to them.' Sixty thousand ' pounds is withheia from the education vote without. rhyme or reason—sSC2 Civil , Servants are not to be touched —the ■ protectionists are treated to an essay on the value of local industries—thf freetraders ate assured that nothirg *.'iM be done at present to destroy the trade and natural industries of the colony—the dwellers in the Empire City are assured that-whilst most of them are not to be touched, at least 25 per cent. is to be taken off of every poor schoolmaster; and that whilst £iSO a year is a sacred limit in Wellington, £100 will not save a poor teacher in the country districts—and working men everywhere are assured that wages will not be touched. I daresay there is a lot of ability in all this, but have we not far too much of this kind of ability in New Zealand? and is not this just the kind of ability that has brought New Zealand to its present condition? What we want at the present time is to set asideall this dazzling ability, which is no longer appreciated outside of New Zealand, and to employ as Treasurer some poor stupid fellow who would call a spade a spade, and would know no .way of getting us out of our financial muddle except the old-fashioned way of spending less than we earn. If we had never sought for more ability in our Treasurers than is found in an average successful storekeeper New Zealand would now be the most attractive, the most happy, and the most prosperous colony in the world. owesall her disasters to the so-called ability of her Dometts, her Vogels, and her Atkinsons. During the last quarter of a century' I have heard each of their praises loudly sung, and always most loudly when they were leading us farthest astray. What a Paradise Wellington niu'st be for civil servants. Why do any. of them ever come away from there, and -venture into those country districts where-they will no longer be under the protection of the great ability of Vogel and Atkinson? What a blessing it would be for New Zealand if we could only have a Treasurer who knows-, something about the sufferings and privations of those who do not live in Wellington.

The One good point in the Financial Statement is the bold reduction proposed in the. Ministers' own salaries. That redaction just meets, and only meets, the appreciation in the value of gold during the last fifteen years, leaving them just as well off as they were fifteen- years ago. Consequently, the same scale o£ reduction should have been applied to every department, which would still have-left the Civil servants the only class in New Zealand uninjured by the borrowing policy which their united political action has done so much to inaugurate' and maintain. If this course had been adopted New Zealand securities would instantly have risen in value; we could .soon have borrowed money on better'terms, arid by .that means have lessened.the crushing burden of interest. If Major Atkinson's proposals are adoptetl we shall soon see Ne'-v Zealand securities down with all our burdens increased, our population driven away, and New Zealand shunned by both capital and labor as if the.. plague were among us. If we must keep on swallowing Sir Julius Vogel's poisons, by all means let him administer them, and not compel him to trust them in the less sftilf til hands of his seventeen years' apprentice. — Youirs, &c., ' . .: Alfred- Sapnders. November 7th.