CONTEMPORARY OPINION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1601, 6 January 1886, Page 2

CONTEMPORARY OPINION.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph, commenting on the speeches of Sir JnLius Vogel and Hon. Mr Stout, says : — "We must confess that when we readj these speeches they seemed to us more fatally discouraging than any amount of depression. The danger to the patient is not from the malady from which he is suffering, but which the strength of his constitution would enable him in time to Bhake off. His peril is in the nostrums which political quackery is offering him as a medicine. Surely there must be a large number of people in New Zealand who can see that the only genuine remedy af ainsfc the consequences of past extravagance is present retrenchment ; against the difficulty imposed by debt, is the resolution to borrow no more, or as little as possible, and against the depression of the leading industries due to fall in the prices of their product is to reduce in every wav the cost of production ; an end to be reached rather by lightening taxation than by increasing it. With what feelings must they see the Ministers in charge of their finance tell them that the best remedy against the effects of over-borrowing is to borrow more ; and against depression is the increase of taxation ? And above all, what must be their reflections when the Treasurer complacently assures them that the restraints of Parliament on the' Government are all ineffective, and that if they can raise the money they do. hot cure what were the purposes to which Parliament restricted its application? In private life we all know the inevitable termination of such a financial career as that here outlined. We shall watch with interest for the saving conditions which will yet, we hope, save New Zealand from such a catasfcronhe."