The Stout Ministry.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 32, 25 August 1887, Page 2

The Stout Ministry.

[commvnica’i«d]v, To judge from the language ,of Opposition newspapers, the Ministry, oollfotivdy ’ and individually, are the most- blackguardly Ministry New Zealand has ever seen. . For tergiversation, HiiccrUpuloUs bidding fdr support, untruthfulnees, extravagance, wrongdoing, and blundering, they, according to the Opposition carry the palm. Your evening contemporary, is a fairish sample of the newspapers that take up such a line. Do such newspapers suppose for a moment that the Horiedt coniirion riense d! the electors will be deceived by such tricks? The electors know that the cause which needs to bo bolstered up by ouch unlikely statements is a very doubtful cause, and they naturally say to themselves “ This is all bunkum, intended merely to oatdh votes, audit is absurd to suppose that the Stout Ministry can be gdilty of any Such charges/' and they construe it all to mean simply this: "We are the proper fellows to manage for you, appoint ns and all will go right.' (That is really the burden of Major Atkinson’s speech at Wellington the other day. He cannot rise to anything approaching statesmanship. Why do not the Opposition boldly force the policy Of the Ministry, say—l. tn

relation to the settlement of the country ? They dare not. All they do is to call names when the special settlement and village settlement schemes are mentioned. These are 11 fads,” " Utopian attempts,” “ spoonfed settlements," etc., etc., say they. Will that deceive the honest common cense of the electors ? Will the.electors not see that this

effort of the Stout Ministry to put within the reach of every man (be he as poor as -possible) the' land of the Colony for the founding of homes, is a genuine effort to benefit the country Capital I What better capital do we want than strong bodies and willing hands to make the land produce ? Do we want mortgages at ten per cent. ? Have we not enough of such ? Shall no one have a chance of making a home for himself and his family unless he can lay hie hand upon a maximum number of golden sovereigns, and enjoy the doubtful honour and glory ,of putting his name’ and seal to a mortgage for burrowed money to improve ? Is that the only kind of settlement to be encouraged in this country? It is because the Stout Ministry have had the courage to propose something better, that there is such an outcry, But it is not an outcry from the people ;—it is an outcry from vested interestsand the Ten-per-centers. The outcry is a stupid one, of course, because progress will not be stopped thereby, and because vested interests and Ten-per-centers must accommodate themselves to circumstances, and it is their real interest to do eo. The special and village settlement schemes are, to my thinking, patriotic attempts to help the people, the body of the people, to found homes for themselves, and I earnestly trust the people will not allow themselves to be hoodwinked or blinded in regard to them. The utmost facilities ought to be given for special settlements, because no scheme so effectually leads to the opening up of the country. Fifty or one hundred families settling upon one block necessarily leads . to roads being formed, and they are essentially self-helpful, The country must rapidly develop if these are encouraged. Then the village settlement scheme suits another class of settlers—the man with very little or no means, but who has a fitness for land work. It is unjustifiable to say that such men shall not have a chance to found homes for themselves out of the lands of the colony. • They are absolutely necessary to the advancement of the colony. We do not want mere hewers of wood and drawers of, water, And money moderately advanced by the Crown upon the security of improvements effected upon such land (in aocordaiibS with the regulations) is money well invested—vastly better invested than it would be in importing emigrants, »e in days gone by.’ I shall again touch upon other matters of policy which the Opposition ought fairly to face, instead of resorting to more abuse, in order to oust the present Ministry, But this matter of the settlement of the country is of paramount importance, and if the Stout Ministry had done nothing else than endeavour to carry out their settlemeat schemes, they would be entitled to the hearty support of every elector in the colony. ________