Public Opinion.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1596, 24 July 1874, Page 298

Public Opinion.

CfMMENTS ON PARLIAMENT. The Evening Post says that the Governor's is the worst specimen ever read to'the House, whilst the construction, andl matter of it are equally bad, It , considersjfhat the Governor does not improve blunders he made in reading his speech as proof of his ignorance of what he had to say, and says the native paragraph was only padding written with trembling fingers oh account' of It writes vigorously about the Gpyemment competing with assurance companies, and asserts, that ..the., experiment as it - stands is only yet embroyonic.; It wishes to see .the solution of Mr Vogel's South Sea bubble, about which he had beehj 'blowing' so long. It considers that if the Government has no policy about" provincial borrowing, the prorogation speech may probably fall into pthor, ■' hands. ""■'"' f u "' The Wellington correspondent of the ; Taranaki- Herald writes The question of forest preservation is made a prominent card in the legislative programme. The' Government are about to preserve the forests of New Zealand. To. do this ' effectually without embarrassing, the settlement of the country will be a task <!■ fear too great for the legislative wisdom at present, simply because there is not the remotest chance of the Government or legislature adopting a scheme which will be practically useful. It will bo simply dry enactments containing legislative authority without the life-giving comprehensive workable power to give practical effect to the wishes of the legislature." : The Tribune, after summarising in a leading article Mr Vogel's tipsech on forest " conservation,says that the estimates therein given, even if taken with considerable allowance, indicate that it is a very large subject with which Parliament is called upon to deal; and a glance.at even a brief summary of the more important clauses of the Act will show that it touches upou a variety of questions affecting land, provincialism, and public works, which.will, have to be cirefully considered. 'The'" summary will also indicate the amount of thought and care which the Premier has devoted to the subject, which he has evidently taken up con amore. The Taranaki Herald thinks that " the croaking of Mr Waterhouse is somewhat premature." ". ' On the subject of Colonial indebtedness, . the Tribune says, Mr Waterhouse but : enunciates a very prevalent opinion, and it is well that it should be freely discussed. We are just .now rich and , prosperous, but a sharp look-out is necessary, if wo would avoid rocks and shallows when sailing close to land. A nation may grow rich in spite of its debt, but the debt is a discouragement notwithstanding. "The capital of England," Adam Smith -writes, w has been silently and gradually accumulated by the private frugality and good conduct of individuals, by their universal, continual, and uninterrupted effort to better their condition." Precisely so. Here then is the example for us. A few individuals may become rich by speculation; and our large, borrowing tends to encourage a speculative spirit; but the only way for a country to grow wealthy is by the industry of its people. Let us therefore move on, but warily withal—borrowing for reproductive works, but borrowing no more than is absolutely necessary, and specially seeing to the judicious expenditure of such borrowed money, for after all the question is not so much the amount we ' borrow, as the way in which we spend} that determines our success or failure. The Tribune says that though Mr Waterhouse and others are urging that the colonial indebtedness must not be in-. creased, the Colony, being committed to the public works scheme, must go through with it; that Provincial works are a"; necessary supplement to the general, scheme; and that if the Government will not allow the Provinces to borrow", it must find the money itself, taking the available Provincial estate as security—; . " a plan which would have this further ad- " vantage, that it would' gradually bring the old waste lands of the Crown under one code of laws and one management, instead of the present multiform and conflicting systems of the several provinces. Anything that would tend to consolidate the colony into one homogenous whole—anything that would put an end to a scramble for public pickings—would be an immense gain to the colony."