The Ensign. GORE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 A CHEERY OPTIMIST.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1599, 3 February 1906, Page 2

The Ensign. GORE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 A CHEERY OPTIMIST.

It is doubtful whether during late years there has been a more popular member of the Nuw Zealand Cabinet than Sir Joseph Ward; and it is doubtful also whether there has ever been a public man possessing in more abundant measure those attributes of cheerful optimism, individuals blessed with which constitute the Mark TapI leys of daily life. From whatever | party standpoint political questions of the day are viewed, all will frankly and freely join in admitting that tho colony has never yet enjoyed the services of a more enterprising and eliicient head of the two great departments comprehended by the administration of its postal and railway affairs. Sir Joseph Ward has cultivated the habit of looking only on the bright side of things, and it is a tribute to his powers of personal magnetism that those audiences coming within the scope of his persuasive eloquence discover it to be almost impossible to believe that there is another side of matters which sometimes manifests , the unhappy kuack of turning uppermost. This aspect Sir Joseph steadfastly refuses to exploit, and hi's disinclination to do so must of necessity, to a considerable extent, discount the delectable glamor over und above everything as perceived through his habitually rose-tinted spectacles. At a public banquet tendered to him at Winton on Thursday night, he gaily bade dull care begone and announced authoritatively that there was to be no diminution in borrowing, and no tapering off as long as the prosperity at present being enjoyed continued. It is upon this point of its refusal ei tlier to practise, or to contemplate the practice of, economy that opponents of the Government find most oc easion for the use of their darts of hostile criticism. It has not been suggesti d that an end of borrowing should be made. What has been urged is the perception of a future state of things under the domination of which loan-raising shall be practised judiciously aiid upon a definite understandable system. The erratic manner in which half-millions have been demanded for this purpose, and whole millions for that, must have been most disconcerting to the level-headed investors controlling the money market, at Home, and it is no wonder in such circumstances that the Colonial Treasurer should have been compelled latterly to confine his borrowing operations to Australasia, preferring, as Sir Joseph Ward ingeniously put it, to believe that the money markets of the old world had been in a delicate state of hypnr-sensitiviness. The invincible hopefulness of tin; Post-master-General has seldom been more luminously evidenced than during the course of his Winton after-dinuer speech. "Some people imagined, and had been imagining for quite u long time now," he said, "that the prosperity of New Zealand which during recent years had been so marked had obtained its apogee and -was on the point of decline, and that, therefore, there were troublous times ahead; but if that view was examined from the standpoint of the variety of our products, their healthy and remarkable expansion, and the large amount of money they naturally brought into the colony, this being the only correct standpoint and the only true method of gauging the position, then he said that there were simply no sound reasons for assuming anything but a continuance of the prosperous times that New- Zealand was so happily experiencing." Unfortunately the de-

mand for, and price of, our staph. l products do not depend upon cither the industry or thrift of the producers at this end. There tire a thousand atld ono outside influences to be reckoned with as determining factors, and once a sot of circumstances detrimental to values of oh i' wares is called into being by the working together of untoward I events, all the king's ' horses and all I the king's men, to say nothing of the brave speeches of Cabinet Ministers, I could not prevail to prevent the oncoming of depression. And «o we say that it is foolish to continue borrowing right up to the limit of our credit as long as holders of the purse are willing to disgorge. Respect must be paid to tile possibilities of the future, and for that reason prudence and a measure, of self-reliance should be cultivated as essential virtues. We are entirely in accord with Sir "I oseph Ward's view that llu; Tourist Department hat* more than justified its existence. "We have contended all alon«* thai it nn-riis even better consideration at tlie hands of Parliament, as any reasonable expenditure to make the colony attractive and comfortable for those who den'ms to come from other parts of the world and view the 1 sights we have to ofi'er, will be returned to us, indirectly perhaps, a hun-dred-fold. vSir 'Joseph shrewdly suspects that the (piestion of land tenure will provide a larefft porti. n of discus--iuh dumiLf ue\| session. He is in

clined to the opinion that tin amendment in the law will be made to extend the freehold privilege, but shares with his political leader the view that Lands for Settlement areas should not be made subject to that option. Sir Joseph's appointment to represent thjft colony at the International Postal Conference to be held in Rome shortly certainly could not be improved upon, and if he succeeds in the task he has set himself to secure recognition for New Zealand as a separate entity in the postal world, he will have deserved well of his country. Thanks to his efforts New Zealand has come out from the ruck of Australasian colonies in postal matters, and it is somewhat ol an anomaly that for deliberative purposes in the periodical Conferences we should have our identity merged (and lost) with that of Australia. It nutv be, us stated, that the other Powers are jealous of the predominance of British interests in matters of this sort, and that their refusal to recognise the separateness of New Zealand is due to a desire to keep that predominance within present limits. But that, as Kipling says, is another story.