SOME WEIGHTY WORDS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10465, 21 November 1896, Page 2

SOME WEIGHTY WORDS.

The New Zealand Hei'ald makes the followinc apt quotations from the farewell address of Washington to the Amerloan people, whioh was republished far and wide during tbo late Presidential campaign :— " As a very important source of strength and security cherish public credit. _ One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoiding ocoasions of expense by oulti--5 vating peaco, but remembering also that /t timely disbursements, to prepare for danger frequently prevent muoh greater disbursements to ropel it — avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning ocoasions of expenee, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to disoharge the debts which un» 12 avoidable warß may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon pos- - terity the burden which we onrselvea ought to bear. The exeoution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, , but it is necessary that public opinion 1 should co-operate. To facilitate to l.hem the performance of their duty, it ia oasential that you should practically bear in mind that towards thu payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to : havo revenue there must be taxes; that j no taxes can be devised which are not | more or less inconvenient and unpleaßant. . . . Towards the preservation of yonr Government and # the permanency of your present happy state, it Is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also thnt you resist with care the „, apirit of innovation upon its principles, jj'i however specious the pretexts. One H method of assault may be to effect in S& the forms of the Constitution alterations |K which will impair the energy of the ||' system aud thus to undermine what nf naunot bo directly overthrown. In all ■ the changes to which you may be Invited, remember that limo and hnbit are nt least as necessary to fix the true — oharaoter of Gov&rnmonts as of other human Institutions j that experience ia ! — the Barest standard by which to teßt tbe real tendency of the existing Constitu--11 tion of a oountry ; that facility in ohanges upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to per[or potual ohange, from the endless variety m of hypothesis and opinion." m- " , on —