THE LOAN BILL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 124, 18 September 1896, Page 2

THE LOAN BILL.

The Legislative Council, with the wisdom associated with white hair and wrinkles, has put on record its opinion protesting against the scanty information supplied as to the services for which the loan is to be applied ; and the Council regrets that the policy of non-borrowing should be departed from on the eve of a general election. There is a good deal of unadulterated humbug in the position taken up by the Council. If the Loan Bill was a measure that should not in the interests of the country be allowed to pass, the obvious duty of the Council was to reject it. The Bill was either good or bad, and should have been treated according to its merits. The excuse that a large part of the loan had been anticipated, and therefore the Council could not accept the responsibility of rejecting the Bill, is very good for shirking the responsibility, but it also shows that the Council can be intimidated into passing such a measure by the mere fact of anticipating the loan. All that will be necessary in the future for a Government that desires to make sure of getting a Loan Bill through the Council is to anticipate a large part of the loan. The Council is setting up a bad precedent, and one that it may have cause to regret. The action of the Council reminds us forcibly of a little anecdote. In a certain Cathedral during divine service the choir was startled by the sudden request of the bullet-headed individual whose duty it was to pump the air into the organ to "sing like blazes, the bellows is bust." The opposition to the Loan Bill was burst up long ago, but by singing loudly and furiously, as the Council has done j thire is a chance that the collapse of the opposition may not be noticed by the electors.