Mt. Ida Chronicle AND ST. BATHANS WEEKLY NEWS. NASEBY, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1890.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 1072, 19 June 1890, Page 2

Mt. Ida Chronicle AND ST. BATHANS WEEKLY NEWS. NASEBY, THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1890.

Mb." Scobih Mackenzie "seems" to be at his best and clearest when he is ex-" plainingcolonial finance to other people, and the address we published last week —which was only handed to us in time for publication does . not belie his reputation in this respect. It is rather , unfortunate for Mr. Mackenzie that his intense earnestness in the cause of what he reckons to be good government and sound policy should leave him, as - in the opinion "of a good many people I it does, somewhat narrowly furnished . with strictly local enthusiasm. He is j evidently, from his speech last year and j his address of the other day, conscien- j tiously persuaded, on the one hand that ' there can be no possibility whatever of Government money being available for i any local worKS here or elsewhere, (ex-1 cepb railways) unless such money is provided by fresh borrowing and increased taxation; and on the other, thatsuch fresh borrowing and increased taxation would be a disastrous policy for" the colony to adopt. He declares himself unable, without behing his past career, to advocate further loans at present, and he acknowledges quite frankly that until'the time comes when such further loans can be safely required from the English money-lender j he believes it will be impossible for any district in the colony to be provided with, any works except railways at the cost of the colonial exchequer, simply because the House cannot and will not vote money which the revenue , cannot. provide. These opinions of ' Mr. Mackenzie came out quite as strongly during his semi-public utterances here on the subject of the Ewe burn reservoir as they do in his political addresses. He held out little or no hope of any House ever consenting to devote so much money to this neighbourhood unless works to an equivalent extent were scattered broadcast over the other districts of the colonv —in other words, unless several hundred thousand pounds were provided for works other than railways throughout the country. The thing is, as lie reasonably enough" pointed out, not merely to propose thpse things but to get them, voted. Without saying | whether or not Mr. Mackenzie "con-' vinced us of the impossibility of securing the votes of Pirliament for the scheme, we are free to confess that lie put matters in such a way that we see little nope of it unless a new loan is decided upon, in which case, should Mr. Mackenzie then be in the House, no doubt' our share would be well looked after, When the H >use, against all the influence of the Ministry itself, Mfr. Vincent, Pyke, Mr. Scobie Mackenzie, and the whole band of Otago members,' delibera:ely refuses the modest demand to extend a;colonial work like the Otago Ce.itral Railway to Eweburn, after hundreds of thousands of pounds of colonial money have already been spent.upon it, it certainly seems as if a woik like the reservoir, which is not a railway, which belongs to a class of works nob undertaken by Government for several years p;ist. which probably would not have the adhesion of any Ministry likely to hold office in this country (certainly not under Mr. Ballance, who refused us even the railway), and which, worse than all, would certainly not command the unanimous support of Otago members, has a poor chance of any. attention such as its importance the hands of the present or any" future House. Mr. Mackenzie, however,; we; suppose, will see that, if there are any, similar votes on. the Estimates, this or" any Government that may be in power this session will he pressed to look into the matter. We are afraid the'scheme will be opposed by many of the .Otago members from the fear that the alloca- ■ tion of so much public money to Naseby would give a strong lever to the opponents of the railway for refusing the money necessary to advance it beyond Middlemarch. Naseby, however, will certainly look to her representative in Parliament, whoever he may be, to secure urgent attention to this work should the colony again appear on the money market as a borrower for general public works purposes. We are glad to see that Mr. Mackenzie condemns the proposed "consolidation " of local loans understood to have been proposed by Mr. Fergus at Queenstown, and we hope he will be followed in so doing by a substantial majority of the House. If all local loans were on the same footing, and that footing a sound one, there would be a great deal to be said for Mr. Fergus' suggestion ; but that is exactly what local loans are not. Some of the debentures are good value at 100 per cent, or more, some would be dear at 50, and some—representing total and absolute failures in engineering—we should prefer not to hold on any terms. We agree also with Mr. Mackenzie's views as to the necessity of compelling banks and financial institutions to sell within reasonable time the lands which have fallen into their hands. If this could be done it would remove one of the most paralysing influences from the path of progress.

We cannot concur with Mr. Mac kenzie in his opposition in the past to the appointment of a non-political railway commission, nor do we think, as he apparently docs, that that policy should be reversed. It is true that, in common with everyone who has really thought out the subject, we consider the policy to have been made

ridiculous by the failure to secure an experienced " railway manager from England or America as chairman of the Commissioners ; but a policy spoilt, in the execution may nevertheless be in itself a good policy. All the Australian colonies, without exception, have adopted the system of non-poli-tical management which Mr. Mackenzie condemns, but all hive been careful to get nrst-c.ass men as chiefs : and we have never heard it suggested in Australia that it would be better to revert to direct political control. 3 b is all very well for Mr. Mackenzie to say that "a government should be able to resist pressure, or it should not be there." He ought to know as well as anybody that, for all that, they do not resist; and Parliament is continually occupied' in devising similar checks upon the free will of the Ministers of the dav.

Mr. M&ckenzie is almost too moderate and civil in his reference to the treacherous conduct of Mr. Ballance over the Otago Central Railway Bill, which theOpposicionleaderdeliberately wrecked, after giving every indication of support: and that, too, when the Government had made themselves almost positively certain of being able to carry the measure through the House and proceed forthwith with the construction of the railway to Eweburn. It will be long before this district forgets the-shock of indignant disappointment which it suffered last year over Mr. Ballance's action, or recovers the loss which its prospects have suffered thereby. We are glad to see that Mr. Mackenzie holds out some prospect of the abolition of the gold duty during the coming session ; and we hear "with satisfaction that he intends to place his services at the disposal of the enlarged district. It is 100 soon at present to say anything of election matters, and we will content ourselves with adding that we are sure that Mr. Mackenzie's many friends here, both political and private, will be pleaded to be assured of his intended candidature.