“Resist the Devil.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 181, 11 August 1888, Page 2

“Resist the Devil.”

THE LAND OF THE “GOLDEN FLEECE. ” The Wellington Press is terribly severe on the " Otago Central ” scandal. Extracts are sufficient without further comment The Bill was shelved by a majority of four whioh means that as many Members votedjf for it. for the sake of local popularity, as oould venture to do so with a certainty of the Bill being killed; an arrangement which is very well understood in the House, and whioh is so far commendable that it gratifies the constituencies without doing the country any harm. Thus the Bill was shelved for the session, and as Mr Pyke declared that he would never bring it in again, there is reason to hope that the scheme is finally knocked on the head. Sic semper. One Meiggs, one Midland Muddle at a time is enough for a poor little tax-burdened, swindleridden country like New Zealand. Mr Pyke says he cannot afford to live for two centuries longer, to see the Otago Central Railway completed by the Government stroke. He wants to have it made by a more expeditious agency so that he may gat his nunc dimiitie within the ordinary measure of man’s years in Central Otago, say fourscore. Now, we have a sincere regard for Mr Pyke, for he hath a merry wit and rnuoh other of the quality of Falstaff. VVe wish him fulness of days, and every legitimate deli 2 ht withal. But we hope he will be in Paradise before the Otago Central Railway is completed, either by the Government or by a syndicate. . , . It is well that the people should be made clearly to understand that their representatives and ths trustees of thsir funds, have spent £300,000. involving an annual charge on the taxpayers of £16,000 a year tor ever, on a work whioh it would pay to give away to anybody who would take it. But unfortunately, nobody would take it, either in eons!deration of extending the line, or on any other acoonnt. ... In view of the colony’ financial condition, it is not only in the last degree impolitic, but flagrantly dishonest, for the country to spend k single shilling which it can save. Yet it is proposed to toss £40,000 tq the promoters of the Qtago Central Railway, as a sop to the Cerberus of local greediness. . . , It is a continuation of that vile system of distributing largesses of borrowed money among localities, in the shape of public works expenditure, as a bribe for political support, which has demoralised the politics of the colony and urged it on the road to ruin for the last 18 years. Against any such continuation of that system, we say, the House ought to set their face inexorably. They ought not to allow themselves to be intimated or cajoled into giving backsheesh to any political beggar however sturdy or menacing. In this, al in all other matters, the House will have to drive the Ministry, for there is not the slightest prospect of the Ministry leading the House. But it is perfectly obvique by this time that tho Minatry will do exactly what the majority of tho House please. They will even do right rather than be turned out of office. Let the majority, therefore, if they are honest men and are in earnest for financial, flatly refuse to vote a shilling for the Otago Central Railway or any political railway what* soever. They will find no serious di faculty in doing so. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.