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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9166, 22 September 1888, Page 4

In his recent speech at Newton Mr. Withy gave a picturesque description of how, for many years back, since 1870 at all events, the gentlemen who have represented the constituencies in the Parliament have been engaged an exciting but disastrous game of "grab." Everyone has been engaged in the game. Jiach man endeavoured to gain an advantage for his own locality at the cost of the colony. Whether the object -striven for was right or wrong, proper or improper, fair or unfair, did not much matter. The grand purpose was to have money spent in the locality. It might be a railway, a railway siding or a railway station, a bridge, public offices, or indeed a public work of any sort. Of course, if a member went in for this sort of thing he had to allow others to do the same. He was unrighteous himself, and lie had to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness in many different shapes. He might think that the objects which other members desired to attain were altogether wrong, but he had to help them to attain their purpose in order that they might help him to attain his. The colony was forgotten in the feverish desire of each member to reach fame by getting public money expended in his district. The consequence was inevitable. The colony has sunk under these manifold burdens, piled upon it for the supposed benefit of localities. And, as for the localities themselves, they are worse off than if they had never got a sixpence of public money. This is the end of the game of grab, as played in New Zealand. The evil has for the present conic nearly to an end, simply because there is no money to be scrambled for. And yet the very men who have been engaged in this most dishonest form of gambling, so disastrous to the country, have mourned and groaned over the trifling and comparatively harmless gambling that takes place on a racecourse. They have wrung their hands in agony over the iniquities of the turf, while they have been gambling away the welfare and the future of the colony. But the current of wrong-doing, and of calamity for the colony has now set in in another direction, and unless it is watched, and precautions taken, the second inundation will be as disastrous to the colony as the first. Parliament has, within the I last few years, besides incurring I enormous debts on account of the

colony, authorised local bodies all over the country to assume huge responsibilities on their own account, and what we are threatened with now is that through combinations of members in the House of Representatives all these Mill be rolled back on to the colony. This is the new "game of grab," at which our members have begun to play. One would naturally think that the Ministry should be the guardians of the interests of the colony, but it is not so. Ministers have been, and are, the most willing and eager to sacrifice the interests of the colony for the benefit of certain cliques. We all remember Sir Julius Vogel and the flood of local borrowing Bills which he had introduced, and which were called the ".little pigs,'' and which would have become law but for the Legislative Council. As late as 18S4, Greymouth and Westport were authorised to borrow £600,000, to be spent on their harbours. The local bodies went to work in such a way that the Government were compelled to take over all the enterprises and all the responsibilities, find these are now comfortably saddled on the colony—comfortably for the localities, but most un-

comfortably for the colony. Then during last session the Governments, deavoured to pass a Harbours-fUll which would have fixed on the colony the entire responsibilities of the Tars'naki and other harbours. Then we 'had a District Railways Bill, a supplement to the measure of a few years ;■"« which provided for the purchase ° 0 f these lines. When the District Hail, ways Act was passed a portion of th'r* responsibility was still left on the localities. During last session, several niern bers representing districts in wltVu the people are still liable, strove mirrjjjami main to have them relieved— the ! cost of the colony. We have quite % 1 crowd of embarrassed boroughs tin'' i to be relieved. The more we relieve th?. I more we shall be asked to relieve. ' \\\! have no hesitation in saying th;it ju.-t as the great feature of New Zealand legislation since the commencement: of the Vogel regime up till now has i Jr ..-. r , "the game of grab," to gain ino:^ v from the colony to be spent in localities so the feature of the next few years will be efforts to roll over on to the colony ! obligations heedlessly incurred by loe"i'. ities in the past