The New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8036, 25 August 1887, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887.

The issue put before the country ii the present political contest being whether the general body of the electors are in favour of or opposed to the Stout-Yogel Government, we have no hesitation in saying that it ii the duty of the constituencies to returi only those candidates who pledge them selves to aid in ejecting that Govern ment from office. As we have alreadj pointed out, the first duty devolving or the electors is to insist on all the can didates explicitly declaring whethei they are for or against the Ministry and the second duty which they owe alike to themselves and the country is to vote only for such candidates as are prepared to take their place in the ranks of the Opposition. The critica condition of the colony renders both 01 these duties imperative. This demands of the electors that they give no countenance or support to any candidate who wants to adhere to a non-committal policy; and also that they accord similar treatment to any candidate who avows his intention to vote foi retaining the present Ministry in power. The appeal which the Ministry have made from Parliament to the people on the assumption that they possess the public confidence requires that every candidate shall be fully decided as to the course he means to take; and the peril in which the country has been placed by misgovernment demands with yet greater urgency that, if elected, he shall endeavour to effect a change of Administration. It were a work of supererogation to recapitulate the facts which impose upon the electors the necessity to resolutely pursue this policy. Despite a falling revenue, the Government have persisted in conducting all the departments of business on the most extravagant scale ; and, instead of attempting to enforce retrenchment to such an extent as will keep the expenditure within the margin of income, as all private establishments are wisely aiming at, the Government can devise no other means of meeting the emergency than that of aggravating the burdens already oppressing the people by largely increasing the taxation and going in for further heavy loans; while, by their visionary theories about perpetual leasing and nationalisation of the land, they are destroying all confidence in the country's security, and causing its invested capital to be withdrawn. The serious cumulative charge which this state of things constitutes, the Government have done their utmost to refute. Ludicrous attempts have been made by them to show that their administration has been the most economic tho colony has experienced for many years; that their manipulated system of finance is the soundest conceivable; and their hair-brained theories respecting the tenure and settlement of the land, they vaunt of as the acme of statesmanship. But their egotistical defence is of no avail to remove the deeply-seated distrust of the people, and they have, therefore, been obliged to resort to such shifts as that of representing the accusation brought against them as a mere device jf the Opposition to secure their places. Such arguments, however, are as the efforts of men beating the air. No ievice suph as that alleged will account tor the settled repugnance of the people. That is mainly, and indeed, solely due to the pressure of stern tacts", social distress, and personal mpoverishment which everyone sees md keenly feels—everyone—save the 11 embers of the Ministry and their official minions, who are in the enjoynent of inflated salaries. The judgment if the people respecting these things jannofc be mistaken, because it is the result of a bitter experience. By them ;hey are viewed with very different ;yes from those with which they are regarded by the Colonial Treasurer, who in his" last budget, by which the Ministry have resolved to stand or fall, ieclared his absolute belief that, notwithstanding the excessive burdens ind pecuniary embarrassment they are iow enduring, the people are well able ;o bear the heavy further taxation which he proposes to lay upon them. Despite these jaunty, heartless, and llusionary theorisings of the Ministry,

the people feel thafc the country is in a ba:l way, and that its condition will not improve so long as the men who are misleading it retain the reins of power. The opinion, moreover, which has thus been formed and is now prevalent among the people of New Zealand is largely shared in by all persons of discernment outside the colony. From the extracts given in yesterday's issue from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australasian of Victoria, our readers will have learned the views which have been taken in the two principal neighbouring colonies of our political situation. Referring to the disorgai nised finance and the fanciful land tenure | and settlement theories which have i rendered the Stout-Vogel Ministry notorious, the former of the journals alluded to thus speaks of New Zealand : " The colony has, in fact, become a field for the display of every conceivable experiment in the way of legislation that could find support among a crew of desperate financiers on the one hand and crazy theorists on the other, and between the two the prospects of its early redemption seem to have faded so far into the background that no one can pretend to feel much confidence on the subject." That substantially expresses the feeling which the view of the situation has engendered within the colony, and this opinion, , which, free from the heat of a political contest, has been impartially formed in the adjacent colonies, is without doubt entertained by many in the mother country. Whether looked at from a distance, or from the actual field on which the doings and sayings of the Ministry are observed and listened to, there is only one conclusion that can honestly be arrived at, namely, that under the present administration the colony is travelling swiftly in the direction of ruin, and that its only chance of recovery is to place its administration in safer hands. The course of the electors is therefore very clear. It is incumbent upon them to get rid of the StoutYogel Ministry at any cost. The verdict which they ought to return at the approaching election, in answer to the appeal which has been made to them, is that the said Ministry does not possess the confidence of the country. All sentiment must be made to give place to a sense of duty, and even the feeling of personal friendship must be sacrificed to a patriotic regard for the public interests. The question as to who shall take the place of the men who have been so disastrously governing the country is not one that at present need concern the electors. That can well be left for settlement by the representatives whom they may -eturn !to Parliament. Their paramount business now is to select from the candidates soliciting their suffrages those who will undertake to have the present Ministry forthwith removed from office, and who may be trusted to put in their room the men whom they may deem most worthy of their confidence and the confidence of the people.