Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1886.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1516, 22 January 1886, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1886.

Mr Larnach has been literally astonishing the natives in South Dunedin, a small suburban borough almost entirely inhabited by working people. It is the fashion or amusement of the honorable gentleman to come out now and again as a democrat, and he fools the proletariat to the top of their bent with strange tictions of beneficent policy. It is quite enthralling to hear him on the subject of relieving the poor taxpayer, settling the hardy freeholder on the soil, and endowing everybody in general and no one in particular with everything the heart could desire. That his political conduct hardly runs on all fours with his profession it is scarcely necessary to affirm. He is found, for instance, a member of the Stout- Vogel Cabinet, hand in glove with the Machiavelli of finance, and trusted by him as having the ear of the class to which he belongs, namely, that of the capitalists. Sir Junes, it is sufficiently manifest, shapes his policy to suit the interests of wealthy corporations, syndicates, ind individuals fortunate enough to have realised fortunes by the unearned increments of immense landed estates. To please men of this stamp, who are powerful in the money market, Mr Larnach was brought into the Ministry, and it appears to us that he has in no respect betrayed the confidence reposed in him, but has played an admirable second to the Treasurer's first. The Peninsular electors must be very easily gulled, if they are taken in by such shallow bunkum as their representative treated them to on Friday evening last. The speech, as a whole, was such a weak dtlivi-nnce as not really to be worthy of critical analysis ; a great portion being taken up in t'ie endeavor to justify the swallowing of his Free-trade principles, which Mr Larnach has effected at the bidding of Sir Julius. He made a very bad tist certainly of his justification, and not having evidently been convinced himself, is hardly likely to be ab'e to convince anybody else. Passing over the veritable twaddle which he talked as to Protection, we are able to gather from what he said on other subjects, what is probably the Ministerial mind at present (subject, of course, to judicious alteration), relative to questions of immediate public interest. Inadvertently, no doubt, the honorable gentleman blurted out a great deal which, in prudence, he had better have kept to himself. We know now, for instance, that the Government will submit to the House of Representatives an extensive scheme of borrowing and public works, and that, if defeated, they will at once appeal to the country. They have no idea whatever of tempting Providence by a dissolution before Parliament meets, as has been currently reported, which would, indeed, on their part l>e the height of folly. Sir Julius manifestly is now assured of the concurrence of his colleagues in his designs, and is now busy maturing these, so that they may, in a concrete form, be approved by Cabinet. The proposals will include a very large increase to the public indebtedness, the money to be expended on the completion of the railways now under construction with all possible spe*d, and on new lines such as the East and West Coast and Nelson railways, urgently required from a political point of view. The Treasurer does not appear, as yet, to have confided to his colleagues how he purports to find the ways and means to meet the largely augmented annual charges which will accrue. This, as will l»e at once realised by the taxpayer, is really the crucial point of the scheme. The country with its present population, and under ordinary circumstances likely to still exist, cannot possibly look at an additional £400.000 a year, at least, for interest

and charges. What we should like to know is whether Sir Julius is prepared with any proposal for immigration, on a large scale, of the right sort of people. Mr Larnach had little or nothing to say in the matter, knowing nothing apparently of his leader's intentions, and l>eing somewhat constrained, possibly by the fact of his immediate audience consisting almost entirely of artisans, who foolishly conceive that the introduction of immigrants of any class must be inimical to their interests. Mr Larnach declares, " on his own hook," that individually he is in favor of borrowing a few millions, more or less, for the purpose of lending to local bodies and agricultural settlers at low rates of interest, and, we may presume, without too precise enquiries into the value of the securities!

In respect of State education, Mr Larnach makes no secret that he is entirely opposed to the system by law established. He makes "no bones" whatever about it, but declares his conviction that it must break down of its 0 vn weight, owing to the vast and increasing costliness. He would be in favor, he says, of placing public education entirely in local hands, the State simply paying capitation money for each child in attendance at com-petently-conducted schools. The Ministry are anything but a happy family, it may be observed, on the question. Mr Stout is the very apostle of secularism; the Colonial Secretary and the Minister of Justice are Roman Catholics, and, as a matter of course, in heart-and conscience are strong denominationalists. Mr Ballance is an after shadow of the Premier, whilst Sir Julius inclines to the opinions of Mr Larnach ; and Mr Richardson probably, for he never expresses himself very distinctly, as a CanterburyEpiscopalian favors deuominationalism. We quite recognise, as indeed must every thinking man, that the colony can hardly afford the annually accruing expenditure involved by the present system, but the country has a right to expect that the Government should have a mind on Jhe subject one way or the other.