THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 40, 18 February 1868, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

To the Editor of thb Nelson Evening Mail,. Sir —The paragraph in your last Friday's issue, in reference to the remarks made by Mr. Fox, as to what appeared to him to be the chief causes of the prosperity of the people of South Australia, bears so pointedly on the subject of my two letters, that appeared recently in your paper, that I ara anxious to call further attention to it. After stating tbat Mr. Fox had asserted that " South Australia is oue of the most prosperous of the colonies," it continues, " the chief cause of this prosperity appeared to hira to be the 80 acre farms, and the facility with which the woi king-classes can attain them." Ie my opinion there is more truth to be learned from this little paragraph than the whole of the debates of our General Assembly. It proves that all that is necessary to make a country prosperous is to give the working-classes, «the producers,' fair play. The same wisdom ! that would lead the legislators of South Australia to frame its laud laws in a spiiit to afford facilities for the working man to become possessed of the 80 acre farms referred to, has no doubt led them to frame the other laws of the country, so as not to weigh and press unduly on the producing classes. Mr. Fox says the population is 145,000, and every individual appeared flourishing and well off, proving that the laws are not made for mortgage makers and money lenders, as they are out here, but for tlie masses, and I feel sure that no local government acts, nor any other acts, will be of any avail until the masses of the eouutry learn and feel the paramount importance of their labor to its prosperity and welfare. At the present time the people are existing for the benefit of the Government, instead of the Government existing for the benefit of the people. Were it not so, the General Assembly would not have rejected the system of 'deferred payment for land,' passed by the Nelson Provincial Council some years ago, and which, together with reduced public expenditure and equitable taxation, would at once relieve the embarrassment of the colony. I am, &c, A Member op the League. P.S. Is the tariff of South Australia a necessaries-of-life tariff like ours ? I think some information on this and other matters in reference to the legislation of South Australia would be useful and interesting to your readers.