SIR JOSEPH WARD AT MASTERTON. A Complete Answer to the Pessimists.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 97, 10 May 1902, Page 8

SIR JOSEPH WARD AT MASTERTON. A Complete Answer to the Pessimists.

THE nuineious tribe of New Zealand pessimists have at piesent but a poor peg on which to hang a growl Even the wail that New Zealand was heading towards destiuction on account of the low price of wool dies just now, as the product is righting itself We had no right to incur increased expenditure, no right to help the Old Country, no right to do anything but cover ourselves up in sackcloth and ashe*,. and weep for a prosperity that was lapidly fizzling out Very likely the pessimists are still busy with the midnight oil and Sir Joseph Ward's figuies, fired off as only Sir Joseph knows how, at Masterton, on Saturday Of couise, the Government hoodwinked the people by telling them a pack of fany tales about things m geneial, and finance n. particular • * * The cntics wanted eveiybody to wait until the financial position of the colony was known Everybody waited more 01 less (especially less) in feai and trembling The expenditure, as the cntics point out, was tiemsndous Sir Joseph cheerfully explained at the time that the receipts would far outweigh the expenditure Of course, he said this without forethought, and with the intention of bolstering the people up with false hopes Curiously, the moment Sir Joseph is m a position to disclose the financial condition of the country, he takes the people into his confidence and proves conclusively by his figures that he had previously carefully weighed the position before he declared that there would be no rum. * » * The Government by tellmg the people it would have to 30 slow gave another sop to the pessimists, but really, without going so veiy slow, the colony is m a better position to-day than any State m the Australian union It will be seen that the Government has been wide awake during the slow-going period It has hammered away at the s\ibject of new industries and new markets, and the increase in trade has shown that, with decent management. New Zealand cannot help going ahead. In spite of that largestsized bogey — the low price of wool — the colony has emerged triumphant

with a large credit balance, which Sn Joseph Ward, who may be deemed to be making the statement after caieful consideration, says will be increased m another year to half-a-mi 11 ion. » • • Now, that there is no longer a slump in New Zealand wool on the London market, and every prospect of still better things ahead, the colony may congratulate itself m having tided over the alleged bad time that was only visible to the numerous tribe aforesaid. Nobody will advance the theory that the Government is solely responsible for the happy position the country is at present in, but everyone should give it credit for careful and capable administration of its affairs It would require a very long regime of mismanagement to "knock the battom out of the country ' The able heads of the Government have shown by a wise policy of advancing the industrial, farming, and commercial interests by every means in their power, that they are fully worthy of the confidence that is reposed m them.