POLITICS AND TRADE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11189, 10 February 1897, Page 5

POLITICS AND TRADE.

~We all expected, of course, that our Conservative friends would attribute the recent revival in trade —which was shown so clearly the other day by the publication of the revenue returns for the year—to the strengthening of their party in the House of Representatives. That was the most natural thing in the world. But it would he interesting to learn how they hope to increase their influence upon the legislation of the country. For all practical purposes the Government is as strong to-day as it was a year ago ; indexed, Mr Seddon claims, with some show of reason, that it is stronger, hud in any case we fail to see how the addition of ten or a dozen members to the ranks of the Opposition will change the whole complexion of the commercial outlook. II a fairly strong Opposition is all that is required to “restore confidence” and “restrain the Government,’’confidence should never have been lost and the Government should never have /heeded restraining. When the Conservatives went up to Wellington after the general election of 1890 they were in a minority of only nine or ten, while they are now in a minority of at least fifteen. But six years ago Mr Eolleston and his friends complained that they were powerless before the overwhelming force of their opponents. They were defeated by a majority of seven in the election of Speaker, and by a majority of eleven on an amendment to the Address-in-Beply, and then they abandoned allhope of successful resistance to the “ march of socialism.” What, then, can they hope to do when confronted by a majority nearly twice as large ? If the country was doomed to disaster in 1891, what will save it from destruction in 1897? The fact is that all this talk about the increased strength and influence of the Opposition is intended to delude the public into believing that the Conservatives are entitled to a layge measure, of credit for the prosperity which has followed, possibly only as a coincidence, on six years of Liberal administration. A Government may, by assisting in the development of the natural resources of a country, contribute something to the prosperity of its people, but an Opposition does not even profess to do anything of the sort. The present Opposition, at any rate, has confined its efforts to resistingl the very measures that it is now anxious to have regarded as its own. If it is entitled to any credit at all, it is ! the credit of having remained sufficiently impotent to he powerless to prevent the passage of progressive legislation.