THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1896. THE MINISTER OF LANDS AT NASEBY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1290, 19 November 1896, Page 20

THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1896. THE MINISTER OF LANDS AT NASEBY.

Mr McKenzie’s speeches are always good reading, by reason of two qualities which they invariably possess. They are earnest and they are comprehensive ; the speeches of a man who thoroughly believes in the cause he represents, and is thoroughly qualified to defend it at all hazards, and does so exhaustively without shirking of inconvenient points. His speech at Naseby comes up to that standard very fully. One of its chief merits at the present juncture was that it covered the whole position. In other words, the Naseby speech is admirably fitted to be a guide to the candidates who are coming out in the Liberal interest pledged to the party which has succeeded so well. They could not do better than get a copy of the report, and study it carefully. Its simplicity makes it easy to follow, and its cogency is beyond the reach of all possible reply. By reading it carefully Liberals will see what the Government has done for them with their assistance during the six years that are gone, the most useful six years in our Parliamentary annals. Mr McKenzie has a useful knack of stripping off from his subject all the embroideries of fiction and the fripperies of one - eyed criticism, and another knack, not less valuable, of drawing the form of each detail with absolute correctness. Nothing could be happier than his treatment of the tariff of 1895. The charge that the tariff raised the cost of the necessaries of life has been made in every tone from deep pomposity to flippant impertinence, and with every emphasis from solemn denunciation to airy persiflage. To these taunts it has frequently been replied that the increased duties recorded in the books of the Customs had no more to do with the new tariff than they had to do with the man in the moon. Mr McKenzie quietly gave the exact figures for one year, showing that out of over =£loo,ooo increased duty received, the part of the tariff untouched in 1895 contributed no less than =£9,5.000, leaving <£15,000 to the debit of the new tariff. Bqt against that £15,000 there was a set-off, he proceeded to show : a set-off of =£45,000 of remissions, of the necessaries of life, tea alone absorbing £5-4,000 of the money. Take away that £15,000 from the £45,000, said Mr McKenzie, with remorseless logic, and there remain of remissions on the necessaries of life to the credit of the Government policy no less than £30,000. Tnis is the solid truth which confutes those politicians whoso object is not the truth, whose statements about the increase in the taxation of the necessaries of life are without not only foundation, but totally unjustifiable from every point of view. The reply has been made before, several times, but not so cogently as at Naseby. It is election time, we remember, principally because we were informed in the most solemn of all these tariff jeremiads that at the elections the public, having discovered that it had been deceived with dearer food, would hurl the wretched Government from power.

Borrowing, the sinking- funds and the purchase of lands were similarly treated. The other side attacked on those points long ago, has kept up its attacks, and is keeping them up. The Minister of Lands replied by making them three of the strongest points in the Government’s favour. The . borrowing was for purposes distinctly and repeatedly advocated, and of all the amount borrowed but a small proportion — less than a quarter of a million —costs the taxpayer anything ; the sinking funds are utilised by the Government under the Act drawn up and passed by. their chief opponent, and long since approved by the country, by the reason of the principle contained ; the purchases of Native lands are represented by assets many times the purchase value, and the large number of estates resumed are paying their way handsomely. The demonstration, clear, sharp and decisive, of the Minister is the best proof of successful Democracy which could bo desired. ho Demo* cratic ideas are good, as everybody admits; the Democratic administration of them lias been good, as everybody will have to admit presently; the administration of the futuro will, like the past, be distinguished for the good sense, public spirit and justice which are uaatfected alike by the hostility of foes and the flattery of friends, real and protended. The land policy will, in short, continue to be profitable to the State, Ist, because care will be taken, as before, to buy wisely 3 and 2nd, because, as before, the conditions of residence, rent and improvement will be enforced, with all the consideration possible, and fairness, but for all that enforced. The “live land policy/’ as its chief priest calls it, will remain very much so long as he has it in hand. Nothing better or more opportune than this sketch has appeared since last the hon gentloman addressed his constituents.