The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1830. THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 17, 9 June 1880, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1830. THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

The Speech put into the mouth of his Excellency the Governor by his responsible advisers has been, as usual, just as much praised fry one section of j the Press as it has been blamed by the other. But men who look to the good of the country — who care very little what Ministry is in office, so long as the work of administering the Government faithfully and well is carried on — will be able to detect weak and strong points in a Speech which, certainly, has the virtue of being less ambiguous than some of its predecessors, which, while pretending to let the whole colony have a peep at the secrets hidden in the Ministerial closet, were as impenetrable and as bai'd to unravel as the *' Prime Minister's Speech" in the " O'Dowd Papers." It was asserted in various quarters that the interim I'eport of the Royal Commission on Native Affairs was intended to be final, and the direct appeal that was made to the Go-vei-nor by the Commissioners was cited in proof of the assertion that the representatives of the people in the House would not have a voice in the settlement of this portion of the country. All along we refused to believe that any Ministry would dare, in a democratic country like New Zealand, to advise the Governor to set his seal upon the actions and recommendations of two or three men — howevever capable and honorable they might bp — without first obtaining the consent of a majority of the members of the House. It is satisfactory, therefore, to find that " honorable Legislative Councillors and gentlemen of the House of Representatives" were informed that the reports and recommendations of the Commission would be laid before them. Nevertheless, we could have wished for something much more explicit than the following with reference to the settlement of the native difficulty and the occupation of the Plains by European settlers :—": — " The determination which hajj, been shown to redress grievances, where they may be proved to exist, and at the same time to assert the ..supremacy of the Crown, cannot but favorably affect our relations with the whole Maori race." We have, therefore, to wait until such time as the Native Minister makes his Statement to the House before coming to any hasty conclusions either the one way or the other ; but the people along this coast are anxiously waiting for more light to be thrown upon the question than they have been able to find in the Governor's Speech. They have looked for bread, and they have only found a stone. "The facts elicited by the Commissioners whom I have appointed to inquiie into the present position of the Civil Service will, I have no doubt, assist my responsible advisers in effecting substantial reductions in the cost of that service." For some years past we have been repeatedly promised that reductions would be made in the Civil Service, and it was one of the great reforms that Sir G. Grey promised when he took office ; yet,, strange to say, the upas- tree had grown more strongly, and spread its roots sfcill wider, during his term of office than ever it had done before. Few will be found to grudge the Civil servants of the colony " a fair day's wage for a fair day's work," any more than they would to a clerk in a merchant's office or to a bricklayer's laborer. What the country demands, and what it has a right to expect, is that a fair amount of work shall be done, and if the wages are inadequate — as they are, in our opinion, in many instances — let them be increased ; but let the Civil Service cease to be a sort of refuge for amiable young gentlemen who may happen to bring letters of recommendation from influential friends in the old country, and let it be thrown open to every boy in the colony who is able to pass the necsssary examination. This course has been adopted in the Australian colonies, and there is no reason why it should not be done in New Zealand. There are men in the Civil Service of this colony who are a credit to it, and who would have done much better, in all probability, had they devoted the same energies to mercantile pursuits as they have to the work of their departments; but there are many whose places " should know them no more," and whose absence would not be felt. If the present Government, therefore, carries out a reform of the civil service, it will prove itself a Ministry of action —not of words. There is no

promise given in the Speech that some of the objectionable features in the Property Tax would be struck out; but the demand is so universal for some modification, that it is not likely to be resisted. Colonel Trimble, i however, in moving the Address in Eeply, struck the right nail on the head, when he said that so long as taxes were collected by indirect, and therefore more expensive means, nobody appeared to grumble very much ; but the moment a man is directly asked to contribute his share, he then feels the shoe pinch, and at once complains loudly. Had our taxation been of a more direct nature, it is highly probable that the extensive system of borrowing indulged in by the colony would have been more carefully looked to — that political railways, roads, and bridges, would never have been constructed — and a much greater care would have been exercised as to how the money should be spent. We deplore, as every one must deplore, the necessity for such a tax as that wHicH the assessors are now endeavouring to collect ; but we " have sown the wind," and we must " reap the whirlwind." The old proverb reminded us that "he who goes a-borrowiug, goes asorrowing"; but the warning was unheeded until the time came for its realisation. We see no other course left for the present, or any other, Government, but to continue the tax. Still, modifications may be made with advantage, and if the exemption were fixed at, say, .£3OO, instead of <£500, the irritating portions of the Act passed last session might be excised, without any loss whatever to the revenue. Bat the public creditor must be met at all hazards. Nothing could do greater injury, or keep the prosperity of the colony so much back, as a shirking of our responsibility in this matter. The promise made of revising the present system of legal procedure — although not during the present session — will be hailed with satisfaction by the general public, and by many of the leaders of the legal profession, the foremost law reformer in the colony being the ex-Attorney-General, Mr. Stout. An assurance has been given " that the work of opening up the waste lands of the Crown for settlement has been vigorously prosecuted, and blocks of land for occupation upon the deferred payment and village settlement systems have been- set aside over a large portion of the colony." This is the most important matter that can engage the energies of the present, or indeed any future Government. Had it received 1 the attention which it deserved, thousands of men who are now congregated in the towns of the colony, and who spent large wages just as they received them, might be settled upon their own homesteads, and the taxation, which now presses so heavily upon those who, by frugality and hard work, have managed to come within the limits of the Property Assessment Tax, might have been much more evenly divided. " The desire which exists for the occupation of land in small holdings exhibits a determination on the part of the people of the colony to devote themsel^rs steadily to the development of its resources." These are the words set forth in the Speech, and we feel confident that if the laudable desire which is admitted to exist, be only properly fostered by | the State, we shall, in a few years, be able to bear our heavy burden of taxation, because its weight will bo lessened by a large addition to the yeoman class.