The Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1887.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4774, 27 January 1887, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING

GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1887.

A SAY-NOTHING SPEECH. The Premier made a speech at Dunedin two evenings a^o, but judging by the abstract printed yesterday he aaid very Jittle. Ministers perhaps have learnt by disastrous experience the wisdom of the saying that the purpose of language is to conceal thought, and he talks now in a very different strain to that in which he used to. The enormous confidence and the self -satisfied assurance with which what should be done was promised are not now seen. The huge disparity between saying and doing in the past has a wholesome checking influence now. The different points ho touched on do not call for much remark. Wo knew before that the " depression " is not confined to New Zealand, though perhaps in contrast with previous flushness under the demoralisation of gambling with borrowed millions it may be more felt here. To say also that the Customs revenue has fallen off is to say that Queen Anne in dead. Sir R. Sfcout says if there is to bo economy the different districts must bo prepared to do with less help from the Treasury. That is a very suitable warning to those districts which have had help hitherto. Here, however, it does not apply, for the best of reasons. As to what he said about the natives, of course it id useless to make any remark. Sir Robert is "gone" on that subject, and we must assume he ia sincere in what he says, no matter how nonsensical it may be. It is always waste of breath to argue with Exeter Hall that English colonists ara not fiends incarnate, and that all aboriginals are not guileless, unsophisticated, helpless beings. The claim that the four Maori members all supported the Government because they believed in its justice and mercy to the Maoris is beautifully simple and amusing to those who saw behind the scenes at the time. It would be ludicrous to compare the Premier's assertion on that point with Dr Buller's private thoughts. In this to believe even in the Premier's sincerity is very hard, but he may not have known what happened. The Premier says last session's local government Acts will put an end to log-rol-ling, but here he is either over sanguine, sophistical, or actually insincere. There will never ceaae to be log-rolling till we have a much different stamp of politicians, that is till they average better, and certainly not while there is borrowed money to vote. As the community is, though, so are its public men. The Premier claims that more people were settled on land last year than in any year before. If that was so and if the settlers all remain on the land the Gorernment will deserve great credit for ifc. Past experience, however, hua shown that many people settling on

all sorts of special and exotic systems have not remained. If all the settlers do well and atop, however, a great problem will have been solved. Even those opposing the Government will hopß they will have a permanent triumph in that matter. Sir Robert appears to have glossed over the subject of protection, perhaps having found out that the question is a ticklish one, as indeed it is, his and Sir J. Vogel's ardent protectionism (though both of course strenuously deny it) being quite opposed to the views of three-fourths of tho colonists. If the Government save £50,000 a year, as he promises, they will do a very great deal, bub with the laughable comparison between their talk and action about economising in the past, no one now will believe till he sees. Saving os on soap and wasting thousands is not fche way. The pretended economy so far has been just the reverse. He again declares for stopping borrowing. So he did before, but he borrowed afterward. We cannot believe in politicians' utterances on that poi nb— they are nearly all perverters alike, and Stout is the worst : but we have a better guarantee for stopping borrowing than a politician's word, in the fact that our four per cents, are £5 10s below par. All politicians equivocate, but the money-lenders will not. The Premier now only " hopes " to pass a Representation Bill next session. Last session he pledged himself to it in the strongest possible terms. Many disbelieved his pledge thnn, after all his recent tergiversation, and many more will disbelieve now. The speech may— unless the summary belies it — bo summed up in the words " There's nothing in it : " it is one quite unworthy of what many used to believe the Premier to be, but quite characteristic of what he has proved to be.