THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1893.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9881, 12 April 1893, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1893.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, eitabliihed 1845, and the Hew Zealander,

Mr Seddon’s speech at Hokitika has three chief merits. He justified the Ministerial finance, he made good the Ministerial claim to public confidence, he vindicated the Ministerial policy as a policy of reliance upon the self-reliance of the people of New Zealand. Of these, the first which requires notice is the first named, because the success of the Ministerial finance justifies the second, while it is an outcome of the third, The main sign of the success of the Ministerial finance is the unbroken series of surpluses by which it has been distinguished. At the outset the policy was attacked on three grounds—--Ist, fulfilment of the Ministerial promises was impossible; 2nd, the new policy would drive away capital ; 3 d, it would land the Colony into either a deficit or a loan policy. The Government, having obtained a fair trial, fulfilled their promises, changing the incidence of taxation with due thoroughness. The result is that capital has not been driven off in alarm, whi'e the Ministerial policy has steered safely to an unbroken aeries of surpluses, by avoiding on one side the loan, and on the other the deficit, towards both of which it was said to be ‘ galloping.' The event has, however, brought to the Opposition not conviction, but simply a change of rhetoric. They now rail that the surplus is not due to the Government in any way. At the same time they should remember that their chief, who at the Balclutha banquet adopted the ‘ galloping ’ prophecy uttered by one of his colleagues during the session previous to that festivity, has recently declared that were he in power he would by no means change the fiscal policy. Ho has seen the value cf it. He knows that it will avoid loans and deficits. It requires no ghost to tell him that a policy which m two years has devoted over L 400.000 to things (chiefly public woiks) formerly provided for out of revenue, is invaluable to a Government which wishes to retain the confidence of a self-reliant people. Mr Seddon was to have been crushed, wo remember, by his angry constituents for his conduct towards the Midland Railway Company ; but his explanation was received by them with applause. We are now informed that anybody might have known that Hokitika would have whitewashed Mr Seddon, no matter what he might have had to say. It is a petty thing, but typical of the Opposition criticism. The Midland Railway has, of course,furnished one of the grounds for the public confidence in the administration, which is ready to make concessions tor the sake of a great public work, but only such concessions as are reasonable, not such as would he necessary to remedy (he bad financing of any public company. The Cheviot property tells the same story of confidence, for it is the story of an important new departure, inaugurated without loss, and possessing strong probabilities of permanent success. Moreover, the new departure goes a long way to justify economically the policy indicated in the Land for Settlements Act, which may have consequences of the widest and most beneficial character. Kindred to this subject is the land policy under the new Act, which is filling the country with witnesses to the case for public confidence. Another set of witnesses are the new members of the Legislative Council. They not only show that the Council now represents every shade of opinion, but their appointment is the outcome of the establishment of the true constitutional theory of responsible government. The successful stand of the Government in that mat'er was the fitting termination of the work begun in 1854 when Wynyard was Acting-Go-vernor, and Clifford was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and FitzGerald led the party which demanded Ministerial Responsibility. In our local concerns, the Sovereign’s representative occupies towards his advisers exactly the position which the Sovereign occupies with respect to her advisers ; nothing more and nothing less Reduction of the expenses of Government, increase of the Education vote, maintenance of the full benefit of the Education Act, the solution of the ‘ unemployed ’ problem on practical lines of progress, the Labour Acts and the Native Acts, of which the healing of the open sore of the West Coast is the first fruit—these and other achievements of the Ministry strengthen their claim to public confidence. Mr Seddon, we ob serve, made the most of them in his Hokitika speech. The future glanced at by Mr Seddon looks as hopeful as the past is excellent. First and foremost the Government has set its face agaipst borrowing. Selfreliance is the key-nofe of the Ministerial policy. There is already an outcry against it by those whose instinct it ever was to deprive their opponents of the means for carrying out their ideas. In the days of the Grey administration taxes were refused by the Atkinson Party, which, whop tb.ey subsequently got into power themselves, they got passed. The deficit qf the StoutVogel Government, due to nfl recklessness or bad management on theft part, was more than doubled by the refusal of their opponents to grant them the taxation (they) wanted; which taxation they knew to be necessary, and demanded as soon as they got the opportunity ; and we may add obtained with the aid of the men how in power, who provpd themselves above unpatriotic courses. Noi y the appearance of a surplus is greeted with the 4cm and for reduction of taxation, which may lp3dS us Jkack to a deficit, which is the only contingency left tor the Opposition to make capital opt of, The pressure of taxation is npt intolerable in New Zealand. It is better, as Mr Seddon implies, to give a man the means to pay for a breakfast than to enable him to save a fraction of a copper on the breakfast which be cannot have. A self-reliant people is ready to find the sinews of war for a prudent Liberal policy in the hands of an administration in which it has confidence. To improve our estate out of our means, to deal justly by opy own, to find openings for the industrious, aqd to promote trade with our neighbours—that is a, prudent policy; and the men vho arg carrying it out have made good their claim to the pub’io confidence. Their reputation is great abroad and will endure at home.

Xt is a piece of condescension on the part of the Post to discover that the State farm is not intended to be ‘ a mere damping ground for tlje unemployed.’ That journal will perhaps be surprised to learn that such a- plan of dealing with the unemployed is entirely contrary to the principle on which the unemployed difficulty has been dealt with by the Government. The unemployed have never beep ‘dumped down’ anywhere. They have beep treated according to a system which relieves the congestion in the towns by introducing the men to remunerative employment ip the country. That is the secret of its past success, the hope of its future, and its justification as a system to be adopted in all countries where labour is concentrated in great centres to the disorganisation of tho labour market. As for State farms, they will undoubtedly play a part in a systeip of relief as indicated by the Post. But .they will, wo hope, have a bettor part to play than the relief of the aged. 4-P educational process is required by many of the able-, bodied whose proper place is the land, from which they can swell the returns of the producers of the Colony. That process the State farms will, we venture to hope, be able to supply. They may, therefore, eventually play a very important psrt in the settlement of the country.