EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 10017, 7 December 1908, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

There were great doings, it seems, m Timarn on Friday night, *' very like at the Assembly Rooms. A wail." The occasion was not, as the name of the place of : eeting might lead one to suppose, a tripling it on the ''light fantastic." It was a rhapsodic tribute to the god of the Opposition for his goodness in very nearly sending Mr Campbell to Parliament—a sort of "Great is Diana of the Ephesiaus," with Mr Massey thrown in, and Mr C. A. O. Hardy—he of Rakaia—bringing up the rear with cap and bells. Mr Campbell was given 150 sovereigns because he exhibited "ability and courage in contesting the seat." It should have been more. Very few men would care to do it at the price; and what is money to that luxurious political class to whose admiration and gratitude Mr Hardy, with self praise, gave expression". Any man who enters the political arena as a champion of the Opposition deserves all he can get. If he falls in the combat, because people do not like the variety, he has nothing on which to reflect save that he has lost his good money and not improved his character. Mr Campbell appears, however, to lie an exceptionally clever follower of the Opposition Padishah. We are told that he "had succeeded in a few weeks in presenting the Opposition Party's platform so lucidiv and powerfully before the electors as to "produce the keenest contest for the seat witnessed for the last 30 years." Perhaps it was because. Mr Campbell presented the Opposition platform —such as it ; s — S o lucidly that he lost the election. What is "the Opposition platform?" On his personal merits, he ought to have commended himself to the electors, but the handicap was too great. When a man has to explain and uphold what is called by courtesy 'the Opposition platform" his case is hopeless. Personal attributes and intellectual qualifications may do much for him : but he is bound to go under. Tf Mr C. A. C. Hardy had anything to say which would render the Opposition tolerable, so that Mr Campbell untrammelled by such a dead weight of political humbug, might have prevailed, on the strength of his own ri'dit arm, then he should have said it before the poll.' But Mr C. A. C. Hardy was unusually loquacious. He thought it necessary to tell the audience that "Mr Massey was a man of the people, earning a. living from his farm, and largely from his cows" —as much as to say: "Who would have thought it?" . Then he swelled himself out, "referred to the people of New Zealand as spoonfed, and strongly advocated a return to Samuel Smiles' policy of ' Self-help ' "—which means "Help yourselves, gentlemen 1" though the said gentlemen generally do it without being asked. It" vexed Mr C. A. C. Hardy's righteous soul when he contemplated how "the present Government bought and sold the people with their own." With nicely" simulated indignation he proclaimed that "it was time that this was stopped." But why does he not stop it, if he desires that the Government should buy and sell the people with what is not "their .j own." But the Government does not buy and sell anything or anybody but the Opposition ; hence Mr Hardy's tears. It is Parliament that authorises the votes for public works, if voting money is what is meant bv Mr 0. A. C. Hardy. But itsounded like music in. the Tory ear to hear the Government abused and the Opposition praised, for they have been getting more kicks than halfpence. Exiled from the Treasury Benches for more than half a generation they naturally seek comfort wherever thev can find it. So they praise one another, "thank the fates that they are physically alive, though politically dead, and shake their fists and hurl imprecations at the honored of the people.

THE half-vearlv meeting of the Bank "of New- Zealand was ban-k of new held in the midst of Zealand. favorable . auspices. The business of the institution has been .good and profitable, and its finances are sound, -notwithstanding that the world's outlook has been so <doomy durine the year. The diminution of 'deposits under all the circumstances was not unexpected. It was occasioned by' the decline in the prices of some of our staple products, and speculation in land consequent on the mania for frehold, which makes this kind of property, as it passes from hand to hand, k) dear that it becomes too hot to hold. Prospects are, however, most promising. -The cheerful and confident Chairman of the Bank said in his address : "With the cessation of speculation in land" and the reduction of imports and "more economy in private expenditure, our financial equilibrium ere long will be restored." It is the Bank's duty to discourage speculation in land and a tendency to private extravagance. But, after all, even banks must, in a great measure, "trust the people." To undulv check business operations would be to create stagnation. We believe that a financial readjustment will come about almost automatically as the result of improved nrices. the opening up of new markets, and cheap money everywhere. Both in Britain and America capital is awaiting investment, and will be circulated to the vitalising of trade in those countries and throughout the world as soon as the financial scare has ceased, to paralyse. The auguries are all in the direct-on of returning prosperity. The severity of the financial wrench is only fully realised wiien it is measured by the extraordinary rise in the Bank of England rate, which was 7 per cent, at this time last year and is only 24 per cent now. Mr Beauchamp referred to the difficulty in floating local loans, notwithstanding mat money is a drug, and said that the British public were shy of such investments. As we shewed the other day, it is not the Government's borrowing-, nut the borrowing by local bodies, that has to be feared, if there is anything to fear. Btu. if the British public only knew enough about the position of affairs in New Zealand they would lend, witn thanks, money on the security of rates, for the ratepayers are not likely to so overstep the bounds._ of discretion as to be incapable of meeting their obligations to the money-lender. There seemed to be a strong desire on the part of certain of the shareholders' directors to decrease the amounts set apart for reserve and increase the dividends. In advocating the interests of shareholders who "depend upon dividends as a means of living," Mr Watson went on to exnress an opinion that "the bulk of the money lost by this Bank many years ago went'directly and indirectly to pay for labor, and some of it even now swells the deposits in the Savings Banks. Many a shareholder worked hard for the money originally invested in our shares." We do ° not 'doubt it, but the bulk of the money lost by the Bank of New Zealand was lost through the lending, and even the taking by directors, of money, without due consideration, for purposes of mad speculation. However, that is _ past, and none of use wish to remember it save as a warning to be more careful. The Bank is now conducted on right lines and is one of the most flourishinp- of our financial institutions with a directorate that has no inducements to indulge in the folly of an extravagant and improvident policy.