THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2522, 16 July 1902, Page 51

THE WEEK.

" NaiqaM aiiad Datura, ailud aapieatia dizit." — JoTaniL. "Qood nature and tood tease must orcr join." — Form.

The resignation of Lord Salisbury, although far from unexpected, The Kesisrnatiou comes upon the Empire with of Lord a certain shock, involving, Salisbury. a s it does, the practical dis-

appearance from public life of the man who, with two brief intervals, has held the high office of Premier of the United Kingdom for the past seventeen years. But Lord Salisbury has reached an age — he was born in 1830— at which he has a rightful claim to the retirement so well earned by long and distinguished services to the Empire. It is significant of the character of the man that he should have firmly but respectfully declined whatever promotion or decoration the King desired to confer upon him, being doubtless quite content with the consciousness that he has served his country faithfully and well. Lord Salisbury's life has not been wanting in elements of romance — notably his youthful adventures in Australia, where he gained that close acquaintance with the conditions of colonial life which in after years served him in such good stead. Perhaps two of the qualities which have contributed to Lord Salisbury's signal success as diplomat and statesman are his delight in hard work and his cherishing of high ideals. His innate love of retirement has ever conflicted with his sense of duty to liis country, and of late years, as the cares of office have lightened, he has been gradually disappearing from the public view. Consequently, to the rising generation, although still a name to conjure with, he is one of the least known — so far as personal characteristics are concerned — of the leading statesmen of to-day. It is undei stood that Lord Salisbury intended holding office until after the Coronation, and it is therefore proof positive of the satisfactoiv state of the King's health that the Premier should have deemed it safe at this stage to tender his resignation. Coupled with the news of Loid Salisbury's resignation comes the announcement of the Right ITon. A. J. Balfour's appointment to the vacant office. Piobablv Mr Seddon— who, -while in London, somehow continues to put his finger in every pie — is right in saying that the colonies generally expected Mr Balfour to oucceed to the Premiership. The only otlier possible nominee was Mr Chamberlain, who at this juncture could ill be spared from the Colonial Office Moreover, we have the London Daily Telegraph's statement that Mr Chamberlain hns consistently dedaied his inflexible determination not to nccept the post of senioiity to Mr Balfour. It was in 1888, speaking at the close of the famous Haddington banTlip New quet. which was attended by Pri«e the leading Conservatives in Minister. the South of Scotland, that Sir Alexander Kinlock foreshadowed Mr Balfour's succession to the Premiership, to "which high position he was destined if his life was spared and his strength maintained.' This is all the more remarkable when it is remembered that the autumn of 1886 found Mr Balfour one of the less important members of Lord Salis-

bury's Ministry. One of his warmest admircis, Mr H. W. Lucy, wi iting of him, say= :— " Up to the day when all the world wondered to hear that Mr Balfour had been appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was a person of no consequence. His rising evoked no interest in the House, and his name would not have drawn a full audience in St. James's Hall." But with! the resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill, Chancellor of the Excheouer and Leader of the House of Commons, followed b}- the retirement from the Irish Secretaryship of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, came Mr Balfour's opportunity, which he was not slow, to grasp. The Irish press, immediately upon Mr Balfour's appointment to the Chief Secretaryship, let loose upon him a flood of epithets which, in the light of to-day, make amusing reading. He was described' as " a lisping hawthorn bird," a '• palsied masher," and a "scented popinjay." "A rather effeminate physique, long aud~lanky ; legs as erratic as Henry Irving's on the stage, and a decided weakness for highlyperfumed pocket-handkerchiefs," were, according to one of the cleverest Irish journalists, the features which Mr Balfour exhibited to the observer. But the new Secretary early justified his appointment, and the "silken aristocrat" was discovered* to have a heart of steel. The Crimes Bill was pushed through the House of Commons with unflagging vigour, and the Irish began to mutter that a new Cromwell had arisen — the most unflinching administrator of iron rule that had been known, since '98. But it was in 1889 that the culminating point of Mr Balfour's popularity in Scotland was reached. At that time there was much talk about Home Rule for Scotland, and at a banquet in Edinburgh, Mr Balfour, in a powerful :irgument. showed that Scotland had gained incalculably from her union with England, and that the two nations were indissolubly one. His hope was that Ireland would eventually enter into this close alliance. His speech on that occasion showed that he yielded to none in love and honour for his native land. "I speak to you," he said, "as a Scotsman to Scotsmen. The British Empire gains instea*d of losing by the fact that all Scotsmen feel bound to other Scotsmen. It gains — it does not: lose — by the fact that a Scotsman, even though he feels himself at the same time to be a British subject, feels himself always a Scotsman. But as you may direct tin 1 ? great feeling of nationality to good ends, so by stupid perversity, or to obtain some temporary electoral triumph, you. may direct it to evil and pernicious ends." A recent ciiticism levelled against Mr Balfour's leadership of the A Machine-mad* House of Commons is that Douse. he has reduced it to the level of a machine-made House. This critic complains : — " Mr Balfour's House is not the House of Mr Gladstone. 'It is not a House of high ideals, constant; conflicts, quixotic contests for impractical! objects. It is methodical, mechanical, time-serving, easy-going, fond of dinner, and intolerant of those surprises which were formerly connected with the great game. In the days of old the questiom hour tested the Government, and gave play to the emotions of the House. Ministers were badgered by members, who tried how far they could strain the rules without' being named, and there were possibilities of scenes and sensations. Now all is changed. The Commons live a dull, monotonous, colourless life. The questions are only half their former number, and debate feegins in an orderly, tranquil, apa-. thetic spirit. Members come down in leisurely fashion when their occupation elsewhere is over. A House which meets after an early lunch feels need of tea. Most/ of the members look in by 6 o'clock, but. if the proceedings are not attractive they retire to write their letters for the night mails. At half-past 7 the sitting is suspended ; the great majority go ' home * to dine ; at 9 the Speaker returns to an, indolent House ; an hour later the ordinary diners return, many of them in evening dress, and one commonplace speech succeeds another until the big guns fire from the front benches. This is Mr T>alfour's machine-made House. How soon will tile machine be smashed?" We confess to a certain amount of sympathy with this view,' but for all practical purposes Mr Balfour's leadership is probably more efficient than was Mr Gladstone's. The art of Budget-making consists m tha juggling of figures so that Tie Acting* the average individual is Premier's left, in the dark as to the Budget. real financial position of the country in which he lives, and the art of delivering a, Financial Statement lies in embiacing every conceivable subject under the Mm, so that the unfortunate members who listen are soothed into somnolence, whilst newspaper readers gaze with dismay upon the eight and a-half columns of closely-set type and figures which spread themselves out before them at breakfast time. The majority of men carefully put the paper away with a grim determination to peruse the statement at a more convenient season, which in nine cases out of ten never arrives, the one impression. 1 left upon tltcir minds being the headline, " A Loan for £1,750,000." This, then, is the pith of the business — anoth* loan, which comes as no surprise, being the inevitable outcome of the present policy of the Government. As showing how the bad! ha/bit of continual borrowing grows upon Governments, as well as upon individuals, it may be noted that in 1896 half a million alone was asked for, and in 1897 a quarter of a million sufficed. In 1898 the amounts again went up to half a million, and ever, since it has been on the ascending scale—* viz.. 1899, £1,000,000;. 1900. £1.000,000 %t 1901, £1,260,000; and 1902, £1.750,000—^ so that we are becoming gradually inured! to the process of heaping up burdens fop. posterity. Of course this means that the indebtedness of the taxpayer is all the tima increasing. For instance, last year's taxa-, tion equalled £3 19s 6d per head of the* population, as asainst £3 10* per head iiu

1890. The Acting-Premier put the position very clearly when he said that the colony was now passing through a very important epoch of its history, and legislators fcrere face to face with the question of jirhether the colony was to be kept going ahead and the prosperity of the last few years maintained, or whether it was the /wish of the people to go slow. Sir Joseph (Ward expressed the opinion that it would pc a ruinous thing for the colony to adopt a " go-slow " policy at the present juncture, because to Btop or to curtail the colony's development would lead to a wave of depression throughout New Zealand. But it may be questioned how far it iw safe to bolster up a seeming prosperity by dint jipf persistent borrowings. The colony's natural buoyancy has hitherto helped us jthrough, but with our limited and slowlyincreasing population, too heavily weighted With debt, we must in the long ran founder — it is only a question of how long we can keep afloat. The financial situation has yet to be honestly faced, but when on the eve of a general election the Government can scarcely be expected to undertake the task. The easier path is once again to play to the gallery, and float a loan. Unfortunately, although the Actmg-Preniier sees in a loan for public Unpardonable works the path of prosBnnffling. perity, his Government is \ not making that provision for new markets for the colony"* produce Sby which alone prosperity is possible. Although for the moment attention has been 'diverted by the South African war, and the consequent War Office contracts, from ithe colony's dilemma, yet upon the horns of that dilemma is exactly where New Zeafland producers stand. The ports of the Commonwealth are tightly clo«ed against us by a protective tariff, and the ports of ( South Africa are shut off from us for want of direct and regular communication. In the course of his Financial Statement. Sir ; 'J. G. Waid declared that he had every reason to believe that a contract for a ( ,very satisfactory direct steam seivice with South Africa would almost immediately be signed, but the Acting-Premier has since '.admitted that the seivice referred to — the •Blue Star line — if ever it does commence running, trill be most unsatisfactory, in that very condition claimed by the Union fcteam Ship Company — viz., the right of call at Australian ports, has been allowed. fThus, after dangling before the producers' eyes for many wea-ry, waiting months the rpromise of a super-excellent service, better jtlnin anything the local tenderer could pro.vide, we are to be treated to a nebulous something -which bids fair to defeat the '.very object for which it is being instituted. •In other words, the New Zealand Government will subsidise a service in order to snake it easy for Australia to capture the South African trade. The Police Commissioners report for the year ended March 31 last • CrlMtnal makes anything but nice ' .Statistics. reading. Crime is alarmingly on the increase, the number of offences reported to the police •being 1551 more than in the previous year, and the largest for many years past. There were 8057 charges of drunkenness during the year, an increase of 758 ; 4220 of these ca&es were first offenders. This is most significant and painful, as going to bear out the frequently-made assertion that the youth of the colony are giving way to the drink habit. The unsatisfaetoriness of the existing licensing law is shown by the number of arrests for drunkenness on Sunday, and the fact that out of 219 prosecutions against publicans, only 91 confrictions were recorded. In fact, the moral of the whole report w the necessity of dealing drastically with the growing evils emanating from the drink traffic. It cer•tainly seems as if the only way of solving this exceedingly difficult problem was the adoption of some measure of municipal or State control. The news, that the South Australian Government is opening up lgriealture in wheat areas in what is Aniitralla. known as the Ninety-mile Deseit, and that 80,000 acres have already been, taken up, calls attention to the condition of agriculture in 'Australia. The extent to which the Commonwealth, in the face of a protective tariff, will be compelled to draw upon New Zealand for cereal and produce supplies is a much debated point, and additional interest attaches to the subject since Mi Barton's declaration against recipiocity at the Empire Coronation Banquet. Recent returns issued by the several Commonwealth States show that the total cultivated area of Australia, exclusive entirely of fallowed Jand and land sown with grasses, is gradually decreasing. The pgures for the three" leading States — viz, Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales — compare as follows : — CULTIVATED AREA. 1899-1900. 1900-1901. 1901 1902. Acre«. Acres. Acres. Victoria .. 3,159,312 3,114,132 2,965 524 8. Australia 2,238.240 2,3G9,6=0 2,236,550N.S.W. .. 2,440,963 2,446.767 2,274.493 Totals .. 7,838,520 7,930,579 7,176.569 Kote. -Exclusive of fallow lands and areas sown with grass. Thus the total cultivated area for 1901-1902 is. less by 454.010 acres than in 1900-1901. In Victoria last year there was a decline in the area cultivated of 149.608 acres, or, compared with two years ago. of 193,788 acres. South Australia's cultivated area is, 133,128 acres less than a year ago, and in New South Wales the total has dropped by 172,274 acres within the year. An analysis of the figuies reveals a very considerable decline in wheat alone, the total acreage being 565.496 less than in the previous year. Victoria made a decrease of E62.904 acres, South Australia a decrease .of 169,795 acres, and New South Wales a decrease of 141,175 acres. Of the wheatgrowing States, Queensland alone is making progress, as the following figure « will show s—

WHEAT AREA. 1899-1900. 1900-1901. 1901-1902. Acres. Acres. Acres. Victoria .. 2,165,693 2,017,321 1,754.417 S. Australia, 1,821,137 1,913,247 1,743,452 N.S.W .. 1,426,166 1.530,609 1,389,434 Queensland 52,527 79,304 87,232 Totals „ 5,465,523 5,540,481 4,974,535 Coming to oats, the figures are of an equally unsatisfactory character. During 1900-1901 the area sown with oats in the three principal Commonwealth States increased by nearly 90,000 acres, but last year, notwithstanding the vastly-improved market offered by the imposition of substantial Federal duties, the area dropped back by 14,005 acres. The official figures are as follows: — OAT AREA. 1899-1900. 1900-1901. 1901-1902. Acres. Acres. Acres. Victoria .. 271,280 362,689 329,150 S. Australia 20,229 27,988 34.660 N.S.W. „ 29,125 29,363 32,245 Totals- .. 320,634 410,060 396,055 Reckoning, along with these figures, the regularly recurring droughts, the decline of the dairy industry throughout the Commonwealth, the steady tide of emigration setting in South Africawards, carrying- with it some of the pick of the labour and capital of the back-blocks, and the agricultural outlook in Australia does not appear too bright. New Zealand producers may take heart at the thought that even though, by Government bungling, they are practically cut off from the South African market, the Commonwealth -will in all probability remain a considerable customer for years to come. At the Coronation Banquet. Lord Onslow, referring to the predictions Free-trade that the result of the Inland British perial Conference would be Trade. the downfall of freetrade and the re-establishment of protection, said that he thought the result would more likely be the exact opposite ; for Knuli&bmen were confirmed freetraders-. This latter is surely not to be wondeied at when we con>ider that the growth of British trade in the second half of the nineteenth century »as, as a natural result of the freetrade system, altogethei in excess of the piogre&& of tho population. Between the five year> ended in 1805 and those ended in 1850, ihe movement was but slow, the exports of domestic produce rising from £39.000.000 to £61,000,000. an increase of only £22,000.000 in the half century. The av<Td:»e of the fi\e years ended in 1901 was £253,000.000. The progress by decades is- shown as follows : — EXPORTS OP BRITISH PRODUCE. Ir^. Inc. In sterling. pc. ' In tonnage, p.c, £ £ IPSO •.. 61,000,000 — 32,634,000 — 1860 .. 124 000,000 103.2 58,707,000 60.2 1870 .-. 168,000,000 51.6 73,198,000 24.4 1680 .. 201,000,000 C.9 J 33.250.000 82.0 1890 „ 227,000,000 12.9 164,340,000 23.3 3000 .. 253,000,000 LIJO 205,770.000 27.0 Increase in 50 years 31.4 51.5 Inciease in population, 50.6 per cent. The increases a* ropre&ented fiom decade to decade in pounds sterling are influenced by rise in prices-, and are therefore largely lllusory. The addition of £63,000,000, or no less than 103.2 per cent., between 1850 and 1860 was mainly due to the large amount of gold thrown on the money market by the discoveries in California and in Australia. For instance, £99 would have been required in 1860 to buy an equal quantity of 45 leading articles of merchandise which could have been bought in 1850 for £77. Measured by these iigurts the amount of exports in 1860 would have been £96,300,000, or about 58 per cent more than in 1850, which practically ai^rtes with the 60.2 increase in tonnage. The inciease in population between 1801 and 1851 was 11,492.000. and the export trade increased but £22,000.000. while in the latter half of the century the increase was £192,000,000 for an increase in population of 13,941,000. The figures at the three periods were : — Export domestic produce. Population. Amount. Per head. 1805 .. 16,020,000 ±'39,000,000 £2 8 8 1850 .. 27,512,000 61,000,000 2 4 4 1900 .. 41,453,000 253,000,000 6 2 8 Thus, while in the first half of the century the export trade of the United Kingdom decreased by 4s 4d per head, in the second half it increased by £3 18s 4d. And after allowing for all that is due to the discoveries and inventions of the age and the opening up of new avenues of trade by means of improved communication, there can be no doubt that this phenomenal increase was largely brought about by the "timulus created in the striking off of the heavy duties which weighted the English people in the natural development of their industries. In the face of such figures as we have quoted, it is hopeless to expect the Imperial Ooveinmpnt to adopt a policy ot protection.