The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1896. "THE PARTY OF PROGRESS."

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9361, 10 March 1896, Page 4

The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1896. "THE PARTY OF PROGRESS."

We wonder that the public of New Zealand are not long ago heartily tired of hearing the present Administration continually belauded as the Party of Progress. Wβ wonder that the editors of Government organs when they have dashed off their weekly panegyric on "the "Party of Progress" for their leading columns can resist the temptation of concluding with Abtemus Ward's " N.B.—This is sarkasum." Year by year Mr. Seddon's party grows more audacious in misrepresentation, more barefaced in platform bunkum, more highfalutin in "policy" promises, more irritating and meddlesome in repressive legislation. In these respects the party is distinctly progressive, but it is! scarcely the sort of progress the people of this colony will long remain content with. I What progress in Finance, for example, has the Government made, beyond progress in the fine art of misrepresentation? Examine for a moment the Premier's crowning effort in this direction, when in his Opera House harangue he uttered the audacious statement that his Government had, by means of its Advances to Settlers Bill, reduced the rate of interest by from 2 to 2§ per cent. Wβ have repeatedly drawn attention to the absurdity of this vainglorious boast. But, if further illustration were needed, it is afforded by the report of the meetings of the London and Westminster and the Union Bank of London, referred to in otir " Commercial Items" on Saturday. These reports show that the rate of discount •in London ranged from £ to £ per cent, during the last year, and that the rates ruling during the December half-year were about the lowest ever recorded. In the face of this, the Premier has the boldness to take credit to himself and his Treasurer

for having reduced tho rates in New Zealand! Even on his own showing interest here has only fallen to 5 per cent. Are we to understand that the Premier of New Zealand and" the party of progress control the fluctuations of the London money market ? Or, if not, what is there for them to boast; ahout ? And at the very time these rates were ruling in London our Treasurer, when he raised his loan, had to pay 3 per cent, and then only realised 94. That is to say, taking charges into account, this colony of New Zealand is really paying nearly 3£ per cent, on its "gilt-edged" securities at a time when there is more unemployed capital in the London market than there has been for years past. Further, too, how empty is the brag about our credit in the London market which the Treasurer is so proud of. It will be seen that the New Zealand per cents. on March 6th were 106 i percent., as against 109 - for South Australians. In fact, our stocks were quoted at the lowest rate of all the six Australasian colonies on that date. Again, the " Party of Progress" made a great ! song about our 3 per cent, loan negotiated by the Wizard of Finance. i Three loans at 3 per cent, have been raised within a year by New South Wales, South Australia and New Zealand. The average prices obtained were:— New Zealand ... £94 8 9 New South Wales .„ 96 18 3 South Australia ... 97 411 No doubt this difference is partly i due to the fact that our loan was raised in June, the New South Wales in October, and the South Australian in February of this year ; and that the price of money has been gradually falling during the whole of the time. But that is just the point. It is the fall of money in England that accounts for any fall that may have taken place here. And the only " progress " our magical financier has made is progress in the audacity with which he takes credit for facts utterly beyond his control. Again, turn to the local aspects of commerce. The " Party of Progress " trumpets its achievements in this direction also. It has established a special Department of Commerce and Industries. It professes to take under its special protection and surveillance the commercial community in the colony. What evidence has it given of any general desire to foster the interests of trade ? Occasionally we hear of some overbearing and autocratic act of meddlesomeness. Take the latest: they have just decided to assess the profits on all con-

signmenfcs sent from England at 7f per cent, upon the value of the shipments, and to levy income tax on this amount. Not only is this estimate, as every commercial man knows, extravagantly in excess, but the Chamber of Commerce fails to find any clause in the Act authorising any such assessment at all. It -will be readily understood that these consignments in the first instance pay duty and railage, and thus contribute liberally to the revenue. The disposal of the consignments enables the consignees to earn a commission which goes to increase incomes, and so to swell the

local income tax. And yet, as though this were not enough, the Party of Progress, to encourage commerce no doubt, propose to assess the net profits to the shippers, after paying all these charges, at 7£ per cent, and tax them on that. Was ever such high-handed folly as this? Every mercantile man could inform the " Minister for Commerce" that if the consignor gets out at cost over an average of shipments, he may consider himself lucky. The only reason as a rule for making the consignments is to introduce new goods, or possiblyto reduce heavy and unprofitable stocks. Again, this Party of Progress, so anxious to encourage commerce, charge the people of Canterbury about 25 per cent, more railage per mile on the Lyttelton-Christchurch line than on any other in the colony. True, they are not responsible for these charges in the first place; but they have boasted so incessantly about " running the railways in the interests of the people," and making concessions to encourage trade, that one would have expected so " progressive " a party to have made at least some reduction long ere this. It is the same with passenger fares. They talk a great deal about the railways they intend to run at nominal rates to every working man's back door. Yet here is an opportunity of giving an earnest of their sincerity by making a concession at once to the working men of Lyttelton and the Valley. But they don't budge a penny. They merely promise. But it is too wearisome to go through the lengthy list of things left undone by this progressive party of progress. The air is thick with their promises. What actual evidence is there that the material welfare of this colony has progressed ? Have they, for instance, in the slightest degree lessened the unemployed difficulty ? Have they made land more saleable or the demand for it brisker ? Is there any class of the community that can honestly say it is the better for Mr. SEDDON'srule -—except the faithful and devoted adherents who have tumbled into snug Government billets ? Is there any single district in the colony that can say i£,is richer or happier for the "Party of Progress" — unless it be Shag Valley, where every second man has been " promoted " to Wellington. In England, with a stable Government, one in which the thinking portion of the community t has confidence, we see trade revive. And why ? Because any promises they have made are being carried out

Their predecessors promised everything and did nothing. The English people have now gone in for an Administration that will do, and has already done, much, but says very little about it. And that is why the nation is in good heart. Here we are governed by a set of meddlers whose only claim to be called the Party of Progress is, that instead of attending to their business in Wellington they are continually making " progresses " through the country at the cost of the overburdened exchequer. It is the party in Opposition, not the party in office, who represent the genuinely progressive element in the community. It is to them and to those who think with them that 'all that is really practical and of value in our institutions, whether commercial and industrial, or political, is due. In

their ranks will be found those of the early settlers who atiil survive—or their

descendants—tbepioueers who originally settled the colony, won it from a wilderness, and made it habitable by a civilised nation. In the ranks of the party who opposed this Government will be found the men who gave us our steam shipping Companies, who founded our woollen factories, who saved the colony from what would have been ruin by starting and developing the frozen meat trade. It is they who are and who always have been to the front in developing our commerce and our industries, and so providing work for the people. And if we turn to the sphere of politics—who have been the genuine progressives there ? All the most valued elements in our Constitution we owe to the so-called Conservative party in politics. It is they who gave the colony its education system—and not only the primary system, to which the people cling so loyally, but the the fine secondary schools in the colony, and a University, perhaps, the cheapest and most democratic in the world — a University which was the first in the British dominions to grant degrees to women. Its charter was the work of "Conservative" politicians. It was Sir John Hall who really gave the colony the Women's Franchise — a sufficiently progressive measure. It was Sir Harry Atkinson who first proposed an old age pension scheme. It was 'Mr. Bolleston- who first introduced the perpetual lease. It was Mr. C. C. Bowen who passed the Education Act of 1877. While the present Administration have given us theory and tall talk, it is their opponents to whom we owe commercial enterprise, the initiation of industries, and the passing of practical laws. The aim of the party now out of office has been to improve the position oi the people by encouraging and developing the trade and industry of the colony ; the policy of the party now in office has been to put down the thrifty and scatter their savings and to preach socialism and confiscation to the destruction of all confidence and stability. And this is the party that struts in borrowed plumes and calls itself, forsooth, the "Party of Progress."