OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 183, 16 August 1888, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

[fbom our own correspondent.] ODD NOTES BY A LOOKER ON. Ye Looker-on see. ye most of ye game. Sydney, August 1. Parliament is prorogued at last. Everything comes to an end sooner or later, even wrangling and recrimination. After the storm comes a calm, and in this instance the calm is so welcome that one is tempted to forget the hard, uncomfortable fact, that hon. members are dispersing to their homes without having accomplished the work which they were summoned to perform, I had almost written, without ever having made an honest effort to perform it. But we are glad to see their backs anyhow, and no one rejoices at the shutting up of Macquarie Street establishment more than the unhappy pressmen, who have been compelled not only to endure the torrent of verbosity, but to report it, to comment upon it, and to advocate this side or that side, when both sides were about equallv unsatisfactory. Now there will, at least, be peace. Of course I am aware that at this point I ought to bring in something about “ the silly season.” But honestly, I don’t think this season we are going to have, now Parliament is prorogued, can be much sillier bv any conceivable possibility than that which was enlightened by its deliberations. Anyone who wants more silliness than has been furnished by the Parliamentary debates any week for the last ten months is a glutton indeed. The session was not suffered to die in peace. It spent its last moments in a terrific death flurry. Indeed it was doubtful whether the Assembly would get its limbs straightened out in time for His Excellency to close its eyes decently, and pronounce the customary vice-regal benediction. From three o’clock on Monday night till noon on Tuesday, at it thev went pell-mell, five or six self-appointed leaders of the Opposition wrangling for hours over a £240 item, and then by way of relief turning to Mr Abigail, his comic songs, and Orange sunporters, in order to prolong the agony. However, it’s all over now, and I think we can all join in the usual cry of the “ auld wives” on such occasions, and declare it “ a happy release.” When the session commenced, the Premier, bv the mouth of the Governor, made some pleasant promises. Read by the light of past history his words sound like the bitterest sarcasm, the care with which they were framed serving only to sharpen the sting. Listen “ After an unusually short recess I have called you together with the hope of bringing the financial affairs of the colony within the limits of regularity and order imposed bv the Constitution. ” Nearly twelve months afterwards the “limits of regularity and order imposed by the Constitution” necessitated the huddling together of the Appropriation Bill, the Loan Estimates Bill, and the Loan Repayment Bill in one stormy sitting. On Tuesday they were passed, twelve millions of money being voted for by the Council in ten minutes. Meanwhile the “financial affairs of the colony” have been allowed to rectify themselves by means of monthly Supply Bills. The two “ important measures ” which were to form the staple legislative work were the Local Government Bill and the Land Bill. Both have shared the fate of financial reform. The Government will be judged not by what they have done, but by what they have failed to do. The Country did its part according to its light. It hadn’t much choice of men, but it returned an overwhelming majority of candidates, who avowed themselves as zealous for reform as the Premier, but who for the most part

have acquiesced quite as cheerfully as their leader in the much easier “ drifting ” policy which has since been followed. Loud and long will be the controversy as to who is cen- > surable for the state of affairs, which all ’ parties agree la superlatively humiliating. The Government saddle the Opposition with the disgrace and the Opposition angrily retort ’ upon the Government. The impartial public I which Buffers for the sins of both will say it is a case “of pot and kettle. ” six of one and half a dozen of the other. But, after all, the ■ question of blame is of less importance than * that of securing better results next time. It 1 is much easier to find fault than to remedy, and in this instance as in every other, a very . little help is worth a great deal of question- • able pity. It seems pretty evident that the - stimulus must come from the people thems selves. As long as they are content to tolet rate “ scamped work ” at the hands of their e representatives, so long will they be fur--1 nished with an ample supply of that unde--1 sirable commodityIt was hoped that, notwithstanding the s legislative barrenness of the session, the Government would be able to show some S good work in the way of retrenchment. The - public expenditure, swelled on every hand

I by those who have their own interests to serve, has exceeded all reasonable bounds. Nine millions a year is too much for a struggling community of one million souls to pay for the luxury of being governed, especially when it is remembered that less than onefourth of the million ■ are effective adult wealth-producing males. Here is an almost unlimited field awaiting the labor of any honest Government, and it is one, too, in which, at the cost of braving the execrations of the interested parties aforesaid, a rich harvest of public appreciation could be reaped. Sir Henry Parkes was solemnly pledged to do good work here, and when his Treasurer announced the other day that he had a surplus of £569,000, it was hoped that a beginning at least had been made. But under hostile criticicm it was soon apparent that the surplus existed only on paper. The land and property taxes were expected to furnish £270,000 of it. But the land and property taxes have missed fire. Then there is an item of £200,000 due for rabbit extermination, which had been quietly dropped out of the current account and charged to loan expenditure. Yet, again, there is a small sum of £160,000 owing to squatters as excess rents. And over and above all these there is £250,000 due as the first instalment towards wiping out the Dibbs’ deficit. When these figures are taken into the account, Mr Burns’ surplus quickly transfers itself to the other side of the ledger. The controversy between Free-trade and Protection has not been silenced by the verdict of the country. Even yet, in the House and in the press, sturdy champions deal one another doughty blows. Those whose mental vision is keen enough to discern the general “ drift ” of commercial matters, look anxiously from one to another to see if any reasonable prospect of improvement would be afforded by a change in the fiscal policy of the country. But they look in vain. No fiscal shuffle, no legislative panacea, no nostrum of the political empirico who crowd the legislative arena can cure the evils from which the community suffers. The root of our evils lies too deep to be touched by any superficial effort. There is too little love of work, and too much love of folly ; there is too little honest enterprise, and too much gambling ; too much higgling and huckstering, and jobbing, and too little steady, honest, productive work. All the agencies which squander wealth are active, those which produce it are sunk in lethargy. Legislation might do much to stimulate and encourage a healthier spirit. But legislation does nothing towards it, and will do nothing until the legislators get from their constituents a mandate that they dare not disregard. At present it pays a clever man better, supposing of course, that his conscience is of the pachydermatous order, to look out for some method of swindling his fellow men, than for any method of serving them by following a tiseful avocation. Commercial adventurers have reaped a rich harvest during the last few months. The mining boom kindled public cupidity, and hosts of unfortunates at once jumped to the conclusion that fortunes were to be made for nothing. So promising a crop of credulity was not allowed to go unreaped. Seedy -entlemen of shady attributes suddenly ilossomed into great wealth and gorgeousness. They were the reapers and the tools with which they worked were barren hillsides in mineral country, much to their own surprise, if they could feel any, found themselves represented to the public as veritable El Dorados, worth any sum you like to name, from £25,000 to a million. Some hundreds of these promising speculations have been “ floated " as companies, and it may fairly be assumed that every one of tham has yielded a golden harvest to the gentry who pull the strings. But ths cash has come out of the jockets of the public, not out of the mines. :in nine cases out of ten there is reason to fear that the latter will only be a success as holes in the ground, holes in which a large amount of capital and labor have been uslessly sunk. Mere bubbles in the first instance, they will be kept afloat as long as the public choose to find the money, simply because it is less unpleasant to keep on sinking and driving than to own up to the stern reality at once. The tenth case may, of course, be different, and may make up for the shortcomings of the other nine. It is to be fervently hoped that it will, for this “ mining boom ” is about the only evidence adduced available to clear us of the reproach of utter stagnation. Some of the coups which have been brought off are very sensational. In one case £lO,OOO cash and £lOO,OOO in paid up shares were paid to certain influential persons, who guaranteed the formation of a new company of half a million, to take over the property of another company whose capital was £61,000. The new shareholders have the satisfaction of knowing that they themselves fetched a good price, whether their undertakings pay them or not. Commercial matters are dull. Beside the gains of the brilliant gentlemen who have been so successful at mining in the pockets of the public, the rewards of ordinary commerce appear commonplace and uninviting. No doubt a reaction will come. The pendulum always swings back again, sooner or later. One quarter from which an improvement is looked for is a movement in sugar. For a long time the market has been fairly (or unfairly) smothered by imports of beet sugar from the Continent. But the cable at last brings news of a sharp rise in that commodity, whilst, at the same time, the crops of the home grown article are reported to be under the mark, both in Queensland and in this colony. Another matter in which general interest is felt, is the hoped-for alteration in the tariff of the United States, by which, if it is effected, Australian wool is to be admitted free of duty. The market is an immense one, and as Australian wool is specially in favour with American manufacturers, a sharp increased demand for our staple product might be expected. , , , , Yet another hopeful sign is to be found in the improved prospects of the wheat market. The American supply, which for years had depressed prices below a payable limit, shows signs of diminishing. Brother Jonathan, after all, finds that wheat growing doesn't pay. Less wedded to old ruts and grooves than agriculturists of most other countries, he has turned his attention to growing fruit, to growing cotton, to growing hay, to dairyfarming, to a thousand other resources ■which promise more profit than the eternal “ wheat wheat, wheat. ” Add to this that the present season has been unpropitious, and it becomes evident that the supply from this source will be much diminished. Another sign of the times is the news that heavy and continuous rains have seriously damaged the prospect of British and European harvests. Take it altogether, there seems a prospect that Australian wheat-growers may obtain a fair renumeration for their labour. Of course dealers. in the article pooh-pooh all these vaticinations. If there is a rise, they are naturally anxious to get the benefit of it themselves. But the farmers are anxious also, and I shall be much mistaken if there is any very general hurry to sell until it is seen how the market is going to shape. At any rate, since it it is evident in the nature of the case that wheat-growers produce enough to keep themselves and the rest of the civilized world to boot, there ought to be a fair living profit somewhere in the operation.