STILL THE SAME PREMIER.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 4

STILL THE SAME PREMIER.

Nelson papers containing a full report of the Premier's speech air that place are now before us, and, it must be said, fail to confirm the good impression created by the short Association summary that appeared in our issue of yesterday, and as to the salient points of which we did not withhold commendation. But we made the mistake of supposing that for once the Premier had been honest, and had suppressed his vice of misrepresentation. It appears, however, that the agent of the Press Association omitted any report of it, a fact that the Premier should bear in mind when next it suits his, purpose to abuse that organisation for undue leaning to the cause of the Opposition. Perusal of the extended reports in the local press show that the speaker descended to the same old claptrap to foster class antagonism with which we have grown so long familiar. " When they came into office the colony was depi'essed, and the value of property had depreciated, and the people, were departing. Let the most virulent critics of the Government compare then with now, and they would have to confess that the contrast was in favour of the present. .What had caused this change?

The cause was not far to seek. The country was a good one, but bad laws j had placed it in the slough of despond, in which the present Government had found it." It is difficult to conceive that this sort of balderdash can impose on even the most ignorant ; indeed, it reads like a slur upon our national system of education that any body of citizens can be found to listen to such -affront to their intelligence without resentment. For what does it mean? As well might the Premier have said — that is, .with equal falsehood— " Ladies and gentlemen, when my Government took office this country was suffering from deep commercial depression, caused by the great appreciation of gold, and the shrinkage in value in the markets of the world of our staple products. Some of you may suppose that these things were caused by an inexorable law of supply and demand, as affecting the whole civilised world, and particularly Britain, our principal customer and creditor. Believe me, ladies and gentlemen, those of you who .have harboured such a thought have laboured under an entire misapprehension. It was entirely owing to the horrible misgovernment of New Zealand by the ' iContinuous Ministry ! It was their evil and oppressive laws, their monopoly of your lands, and their oppression of the working classes of this country, that raised the price of gold, demoralised the markets of the world, and diminished the prices and lessened the products of your land. And if there is a vestige of doubt remaining aa to the truth of these things, consider the position to-day, after eight years of the beneficent rule of a Liberal Government. Money was dear when we took office, aad the struggling fanner paid usurious interest to a grinding mortgagee, but we passed the Advances to Settlers Act, and as a consequence the Bank of England immediately reduced its rate of interest and gave you cheap money. Then, consider to-day the marvellous expansion during our tenure of office of our export trade in food products. The Opposition may tell you that this is the product of private enterprise, of the investment of British capital, and the operation of the inevitable law of supply and demand, but I tell you it is solely attributable to the passing of the Land for Settlements Act, and the Labour laws of the Liberal Government. These have saved this country, placed it on a pinnacle of prosperity, and blessed it, even as I speak, with the most bountifu 1 harvest it has ever known." All this the Premier might have said, with as much semblance of truth as the actual passage of his speech which we have quoted. Other things he said equally' preposterous. They may prove unworthy enough for notice later.