The Lytterlton Times. TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1868.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2298, 5 May 1868, Page 2

The Lytterlton Times. TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1868.

The comparatively near approach of the session of Assembly is evidently beginning to have its effect upon Ministers. Kuinour has even gone as far as to assert that, in another week or so, they will all meet at Wellington for the despatch of buainess, and will celebrate the first meeting that has occurred for something like nine months by endeavouring to form a policy in time for the session. By M 7 2 f P re P arin g Wnself for business, Mr Stafford met his constituents on Saturday last, and delivered himself at ength upon the past, the present, and the future of the political world. We congratulate the colony upon the return of the Premier to his duties, and trust that it will be the signal for the speedy recall of his wandering colleagues. The zest with which these gentlemen have been pursuing their several political amusements is, of course, very gratifying. It is satisfactory to learn, at one time, that the Postmaster-General has inausurated a new form of local government, with his usual energy and success, and at another, that the Colonial Secretary has been attending his Excellency on a visit to Auckland. Nor do the public as far as we know, grudge the Commi ß . Moner of Customs, or the Defence Minister an occasional run through the provinces. But there is a limit to all amusements, and the pleasantest holidays must come to an end at last. The time has certainly arrived—if it has not long gone bj—for Ministers to be at their posts, in earnest consultation upon the many important subjects which affect the interests and threaten the prosperity of the Colony. From this point of view, we are glad to observe that Mr Stafford has called his constituents together and delivered his mind. The telegraph has furnished us with the heads of his speech, and they certainly afford ample food for meditation, though, it may be, not of the sweetest kind. The Premier Beems, naturally enough, first to have reviewed the past and then to have turned to the early period of his present term of administration. The "promised saving" still disturbs his peace of mind, and it ib evident that the taunts of Sewell and FitzGerald still ring in his ears. Mr Stafford's explanations on this point are of the amplest and most diverse character. He promised to effect the saving, and he promised to do nothing of the kind, according to the view which may be taken of what the promise referred to. He had saved the money and again he had not. In fact, according to Mr Stafford, it is " which-

||ever you like my little dear, you pays your money and you takes your "choice." The result" has certainly proved this to be strictly true in one respect. Mr Stafford—if so great a man may be adviaed—should let this matter drop. The public have heard enough about the saving; they were by no means clear about the promise in the first instance, and have long aince forgotten, or ceased to care, that it broke down and was never realised. The truth is, that the present and the future have greater attractions than the past, and if Mr Stafford wishes to succeed, he had better concentrate his strength upon the task of overcoming difficulties which loom in the immediate future. On the question of the present financial position of the colony, Mr Stafford ia as explicit and aatisfactory in his statements aa was Mr Disraeli, the other day, in his replies to Messrs Whalley and Darby Griffiths, on the cost of the Abyssinian expedition. Mr Stafford states that, though there is a falling, off of £70,000 in the Customs revenues, the Colony is paying its way, the Provinces are receiving what is due to them, there is no overdraft, and the wants of the Colony will be fully met. The solution of this miracle rests, according to Mr Stafford, on the fact that the Government has saved money by keeping within the estimates. Mr Stafford must not be surprised if the public receive thia statement with an amount of caution amounting to distrust. No one who remembers the financial statement, and the efforts made by members to cut down the estimates of expenditure, can fail to recollect the pertinacity with which the Government stuck to their demands, and declared that they had reduced them to the last farthing. And, when the Government was warned over and over again from all sides of the House, that the Customs revenue was largely over-estimated, they refused to abate their estimate in the least. It was evident, indeed, that the revenue had been stretched, and the expenditure reduced to the utmost, so that the two sides might look well on paper. The balance left to the good was, as far as we remember, only £ISOO. And now, when the full deficitin the customs has been realised, and when we know that the Government has incurred a large extra expenditure in raising and moving about bodies of armed constabulary, we are asked to believe that the Colony is paying its way without an overdraft. Mr Stafford must forgive us if we say that we cannot believe anything so pleasant. And our want of faith is confirmed by what follows. An ominous allusion is made to an income tax. "We are told by Mr Stafford that, at one time, he stood alone in advocating this impost, but that now a change has come over public opinion. The press and the representatives of the people are described as vying with one another in their praises of this peculiarly inviting tax. In fact, Mr Stafford is satisfied that the public have become sufficiently acquainted with the name of iucome tax to be no longer afraid of it, and " hopes that his Government will introduce it neifc session." "We take this to mean that money is wanted, that the Government intend to try an income tax, and that Mr Stafford thinks it will go down. We think Mr Stafford will find that he has made an egregious mistake. If we understand the temper of the colony and the House, neither the one nor the other will listen for a moment to the idea of fresh taxation. The Government will have to make both ends meet, by hook or by crook. But neither will fresh loans nor fresh taxes be submitted to any longer. We are glad that Mr Stafford has spoken out in time, so that the public mind may be roused to a sense of the coming danger. We hope that men of all classes and opinions will lay these words to heart—the Prime Minister of the Colony " hopes that his Govern- " meut will impose an income tax " during the next session." The Customs duties are strained to a point beyond which they must break at the first pressure; the stamp duties areas heavy as it is reasonably possible to make them; and now we are threatened with an income tax. And this threat comes from a Ministry which, at the present time, is avowedly keeping up a war department out of the proceeds of fresh loans, raised year by year, Wehopethepublicvoicewillberaißed against an iucome tax. The Colonial Government must retrench, as some oi the Provincial Governments have had to do. First and foremost, the Uetence Department must be swept away. A war department is a worse than useless machinery. It is absolutely mischievous, as tending to embroil the Colony with the natives, and plunge us into a costly war at any moment. WetrustthepeoplewillunderBtand that Mr Stafford states they want an income tax. It would be wise to send him. an answer, in the shape of a petition, signed by every elector of the Colony, against such an imposition. Nothing short of this extreme measure will convince such a man a< Mr Stafford that he has made a mistake.