THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7783, 29 January 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS.

The New Zealand Herald alluding to Sir R. Stout's speech says : —" "With every disposition to give credit to Sir Robert and his colleagues for an honest desire to deal fairly by the Native question, we yet take leave to tell him that his Native policy is not more free from defects than was that of another Minister whose wish was in that matter to act with equal integrity. Our readers will be gratified to learn from him that the Government will be able to report largerxeductions in general expenditure. Should this promise be amply redeemed, any weakness will be overlooked, for, like charity,retrenchment in relation to politics covers a multitude of sins."

The Christohurch Press says:—"The announcement of the probable intention of the Government to revise the tariff in the direction of Protection will be received generally throughout the colony with regret. We believe that if they raise that question in a practical shape they will meet with the most strenuous opposition, and it is a thousand pities that Ministers have thought it desirable to associate a policy^ of Protection with the policy of self-reliance so vigorously proclaimed iv the Premier's Duuedin speech. Rightly understood, these two policies are mutually antagonistic. It is just possible, however, that the Government may yet see their way to avert a struggle over the great question. The first point to be ascertained is: Can taxation possibly be avoided ? If it can, Ministers are not likely to precipitate a great political contest when, on their own showing, the tariff should only bo revised in the direction of Protection in the event of more revenue being required."

The Lyttelton Times says.-—"The Premier's extremely plain statement of the Government's intention with regard to future borrowing ought to take very few in the colony by surprise. As we have elsewhere stated, the taperingoff policy began last year. Most Premiers would have miuced matters a little more than Sir Robert Stoutj that is all; but then Sir Robert never was given to mincing matters. His very emphatic avowal must, nevertheless, rouse painful feelings in certain parts of the colony. If the voice of wailing is not speedily heard in Auckland and the central districts of Otago, we shall be astonished. Wellington, with her railways completed to Taranaki on the one side and Napier on the other, will be in a happier stato. But even Wellington has something ,to lose in the way of great expectations. It is only poor Canterbury which can afford to face the" cessation of borrowing without a tremor. We are getting nothing; we are expecting nothing." •