MONDAY, MAY 17, 1897. TOM TAYLOR'S TWADDLE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 324, 17 May 1897, Page 2

MONDAY, MAY 17, 1897. TOM TAYLOR'S TWADDLE.

Mb Tom Taylor, the junior member for Christchurch, evidently fancies that the mantle of " straight-out Socialist" Reeves has fallen upon him. In the House during the short session he leavened his speeches with a good deal of Socialistic sentiment, and now we find him parading the self-same sentiments before a Socialist Society in Christchurch. There can be no doubt that honest administration is essential if we are to have good Government ; this we appear not to have had from either the callous Conservatives, the red-hot Radicals, or the leather-lunged Liberals. Whatever the creed or color of the Government of the day we have been told that rottenness and corruption was rife. It is the same to-day as it was ten years or even twenty years ago. Corruption has been the trump card for the " outs " to play. Whether corruption has existed or not, the electors who are after all responsible for the sort of Government we possess have been content to plod along, changing one party for another at certain intervals. But socialistic corruption or Government impurity do not trouble Mr Tom Taylor so much as the fact that the people of New Zealand with an obstinacy repugnant to a Jin <le siecle socialist are handing over to syndicates and private capitalists the great stores of natural wealth contained in our forests and our gold and coal deposits. With a dramatic pose, he called upon the people to see to it that they kept their own affairs in their own hands and did not allow themselves to be exploited in the interests of wealthy companies. W r e can well imagine how such a strikingly patriotic speech was received by a sympathetic audience. It is twaddle for all that, and Tom Taylor's twaddle at ics best. If the colony took the advice of the fledgling M.H.R. of Christchurch and fenced in the coal and goldfield and forest clad lands, with a notice that syndicators and company mongers trespassing would. be prosecuted stuck up in prominent places, instead of progressing the colony will make for bankruptcy in double-quick time. Of course Mr Taylor means that we should work our resources ourselves. Very good sentiment indeed, but Mr Taylor is lacking in experience, or if he possesses experience it has been blunted by his many Prohibition campaigns. Develop our resources ourselves ! Well Mr Taylor ought really to try and put his fine sentiments to some practical use. Let him, for instance, try and form a joint stock company to work a coalfield or goldfield or a sawmill, the capital to be .. found by New Zealand colonists, and we promise him that he will throw up the sponge in less than a week. Perhaps it is

not this mode of development that Mr Taylor means ; possibly it is his desire that the Government should work these resources. The first point to settle is where is the Government to obtain the necessary capital for such large ventures. By taxation? We do not believe that even the alleged Socialists would submit to have their pockets picked by the State for such a purpose. Then the Government must borrow the money ; there are no lenders in the colony ; that has been amply proved by the miserable failure of the Consols Act and the floatation of the half million loan last December. The Government must look to foreign sources for its supply of working capital. The Socialistic theory, as mouthed by Tom Taylor of Christchurch, boiled down amounts to this : That the Government should run all the risks—and we all know that there are an infinite number of risks to capital in gold-mining, coal-mining, and saw-milling—instead of the capitalists. The Government could not borrow the working capital they may repuire under 3J per cent, and whether the investment of that capital in the development of our mineral resources were profitable or otherwise the colony must pay the debenture holders the interest on the borrowed money. If the Government could lay their hands upon a store of sovereigns or possessed money of its own and had no interest to pay, then the risks attendant upon mineral development could be faced with a very light heart. Indeed under such conditions it would be the duty of the Government to embark in such ventures. But the State has no ready made trading capital; it possesses a sound credit, and when the Government want money—and we have one way and another used up about £43,000,000 —the credit of the State is pawned and the required cash obtained. So far the State has not considered mineral development as one of its functions; it very wisely leaves this risky rob to syndicators and capitalists. If they like to lose their money that is their own concern. The State, however, frames regulations and makes laws to as far as possible keep out swindlers, and also to help those who embark their money in such ventures to realise a profit. The State, in a word, assists by providing roads and bridges, railways, assay offices, Warden's Courts, and sundry other things, and, while running no risks, help these industries and obtain revenue. We are to break with this state of things to please the Socialists. If Tom Taylor was of a reflective mood, he would, instead of acting the part of a vitalised sausage machine and grinding out twaddle, have sat down and considered what would have been the condition of the colony tc-day had foreign capital not been poured into it as freely as it has been. A dash of Socialism is needed in our legislation to improve it, but the trouble is that Socialists cannot be made to see this. They want Socialism straight out. We hope will never get it, and we are quite sure they never will, for human nature can never be changed to the quality necessary to absorb a full dose of pure and unadultered Socialism.