POLITICAL STARS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 7222, 18 July 1884, Page 5

POLITICAL STARS.

Theee of the most prominent politicians of the colony, Major Atkinson, Sir Geoege Geet, and Mr Beyce addressed their constituents on Thursday evening. It is our duty to say something with regard to each. The Premier’s speech was a sound and statesmanlike exposition of general policy, thoroughly worthy both of the occasion and the man, and contrasted most favorably with the bombastic selfeulogies we have had of late from Sir Geoege Geet and the ad captandura claptrap of Sir Julius Vogel’s deliveries. Major Atkinson did not study much how best to please his audience, but he did something much belter—he put them right about the facts of the present position and the alternative courses of splendid extravagance and steady economy, either of which it was open for them to adopt. He commenced by clearing the ground of some existing fallacies, which have been circulated by interested opponents to his detriment. With regard to the expense and inconvenience of the present dissolution of Parliament and general election, he pointed out that whether he or any one else had been in office now there would have been a dissolution. The resolution, carried by a majority of the House of Kepresentatives at Mr Steward's instance, was avowedly for that purpose, and the mover distinctly stated that his object at that particular time was not to displace one Ministry and put in another, but to force a dissolution, so as to get an appeal to the constituencies on the question who should be in office. Having disposed of this, Major Atkinson went on to another fallacy, circulated by Sir Julius Vogel, namely, that there had been a large increase of the floating debt of the colony,because deficiency bills, amounting to £398,000, had been issued and were not as yet paid. Even this amount, however, was not owing in full, as the cash in hand, £215,000, reduced the sum to £152,000, the amount of the actual deficiency in the revenue. But this formed no addition whatever to the floating debt of the colony, deficiency bills being payable at short dates, usually within the year. No man in the colony knew better than Sir Julius Vogel did that this was the fact, but ho was not ashamed to mislead the ignorant on the point. Coming to the general principle of taxation, Major Atkinson adopted the view which has commended itself to the soundest political economists of the Home Country, and especially to the leaders of the Liberal party there, that direct taxation is more conducive to the welfare of the people at large than indirect taxation, and that the property taxis the fairest and wisest tax which could be levied. He went further, and showed that a property tax had even a direct advantage, in the fact, that it acted as a check on extravagance, because men of property, who are usually very careful in looking after their own money-bags, feel at ones where the shoe pinches, and restrict needless expenditure,, when they have to pay for it themselves, and that, too, “down on the nail.” Obviously the only logical deduction from this statement would be that in an emergency like the present, if it should be necessary to impose additional taxation, it will be by means of an addition, perhaps of another id or -£d in the £, to the property tax. ' In either case, though the capitalists and large land owners would accumulate wealth more slowly than before, the people at large —all those who have not £SOO worth of property—would lose nothing at all directly, and very little indirectly. The Premier did, indeed, admit that there was one way of warding off even that taxation, and that was by borrowing money heavily, and capitalizing the interest on the loan. This would cause a marvellous increase of property for a time, and those who wish shortly to clear opt from the colony might reap advantage from it; but, for all tho majority of the people, those who are in any strict sense settlers here, such a policy would only mean of necessity far worse depression than anything we have now ; to many, utter ruin, and to the colony at largo serious damage, if not stoppage, of credit in the Home money market, Such was the substance of the Premier’s speech at Hawera. It was a wholesome tonic, bitter in the mouth perhaps, but excellent for the stomach in its after effects ; in fact, a sort of political Cocele’n antibilious pill, Sir Geoege Gret’s prescription, on the other hand, rather resembled a cheap but sickly and poisonous colonial “ lolly.’’ Its main drift seemed to be to point out that 4-uckland was the

only place in the world worth speaking of, and that ho was the only man in the world fit to rule Auckland, or the colony, which was the same thing. “He appealed to his past career in South Australia, to his first Governorship of New Zealand, and his rule at the Capo of Good Hope.” Sir George forgot to mention that the governorship of a very primitive colony is something very different to that of a highly advanced one, and that there have been some people—the late Mr Edwakd GriißON Wakefield, for instance—who have not formed a very high opinion of the merits of most Governors of British Colonies. But even if we were to grant that ho was a splendid specimen of all a governor ought to bo some years ago, it does not follow that he should be faultless now, and in a totally different capacity, that of leader of a Parliamentary Opposition. An excellent admiral nt forty may be a sorry sailing-master at eighty. As a politician he possesses a facile credulity, which makes him an unsafe guide. lu reference to the North Island Trunk Eailway, for instance, he snaps at the idle canard, long sinco admitted to be such, of Mr Mitcuelson’s adoption of the two lines as being both suitable for construction, and to be both proposed to Parliament. Then, with regard to the reimposition of the grain rates, at which the Canterbury members have growled so loudly, ho admits that it was an act of justice to Auckland and other places, but says that “ for whomsoever’s benefit these reductions had been made, it was certainly not for those in Auckland.” How does Sir George know that ? Does ho really think that the Ministry ought to have forwarded a cheque to Auckland for its share of the increased rates, enclosed in an envelope to Sir George Grey, aud that then public justice would have been satisfied ? We presume so. Sir George’s clients, the old serfs on gridirons in Canterbury, being apparently dead, he trots out the Auckland gumdiggers in their place, but forgets that it was while he himself was in office that the iniquities he complains of wore perpetrated. But if what be tolls us is the fact, that though he is not in office now, he still rules the colony, why does not ho avail himself of his omnipotence and assist his humble friends ? Surely he ought.