Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JUNE 23,1887. THE POLICY WANTED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4896, 23 June 1887, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JUNE 23,1887. THE POLICY WANTED.

So far there is no defined policy before the country for tho electors to decide on. There may be time enough between now and polling day for policies to bo formulated, but it is high time that any issues to try should be settled. At present, both as to Ministers and members, it is a mere question of men only. If Stout has a believer or the Government a friend left, he may assert that the Premier has laid down a policy in his Dunedin manift?sto. But that assertion would be like most of the Premier's own assertions, and need not be answered. Though he said a short time ago that retrenchment waa impossible and the demand for it a sham, Stout now declares for it. But even if he were sincere that counts for nothing, because ceryone — even Vogel — is or professes to be for retrenchment. Indeed on every part of the Premier's so-called policy he now professes the exact opposite of what he did a short time ago. His change on every subject is so complete as to suggest that he treats politics like his briefs, taking the oases which pay best and appearing eifher for or against the same man according to occasion and p^y. The recent arr'eiit advocate of freeholds now clamors for land nationalisation, and yet gives millions of acres of freehold to big foreign companies ; the denouncer of freetrade as " robbery by the atrong arm of the law" now pins his faith to protection ; the politician who reviled State education as "the most degrading national pauperism" now says the State system must be maintained at all costs. But it is wasto of time to dwell on the man who has brought the Premiership to dncredit and contempt op to criticise tho stuff he calls a policy. There is so far no policy before the country, r.or any leader to propound and cirry one. This colony now oQors a splendid opportunity f<>r a strong leader of men to appear to proclaim a strong policy. But there is no sign of man or of policy yet. Tho occ^ion has come, but, has not pro d iced tho man. Tho great majority of colonists. — at any rate, of those who hay« anything to lose— know the policy that is most urgently wanted, But they look {

around in vain for a leader great enoui'h and strong enough to formulate and tight it. The policy that is wanted is one of huge reform, reform n<';irly all bised on, or that would bo involved in, retrenchment. Such retrenchment ia possible in the business of this country that there need not bo one penny of increased taxation, and such retrenchment must be effected if tho colony is to continue solvent, — assuming it to be so now. What is lacking as yet is the man strong enough to carry such a policy, Every othor amendment would follow from a rapid reduction of our yearly expenditure by nearly half a million. A man who would show the way to do that, and be prepared to do it at all costs, would carry tho country by storm. But in tho face of an election the general run of our weak-kneed and weak-backed politicians are afraid that any specific economy would be unpopular and would risk votes, and so it looks as if, every man beinj,' afraid to state how retrenchment could be effected, the new Parliament will be elecied merely on a general profession, and what genoral professions result in we all know by sad experience. Tho retrenchment that is demanded, and that will have to come unless we are to break, is an enormous and most radical lowering of things to the level of pre-bor-rowing days and proportioned to the country's s'raitened means. That lowering must affect every individual drawing public money, and the number of those drawing it will have to be lessened materially, ft is useless to say it cannot be done. The only alternative is national bankruptcy. Those left in the public service (except the Judges), from the very highest to the very lowest, will have to take less. The change will have to begin with the Queen's representative and go down to tho youngest errand boy. Every individual will be really better oft" when it is all over, for then there will be security and safety instead of continual apprehension. Besides, this general lowering will have a great social and economic effect throughout the entire country, and as much will, when things have readjusted themselves, be able to be done with the reduced money as can now be done with j more. No part of the public business can be excepted. The half-million that education Coßtacan ba lessened by a third, and eventually by a half ; and besides the saving of money the indirect economic consequences and gain will be enormous. Anything that checks the manufacture of hordes of clerks and the extinction of laborers and mechanics will be of incalculable value to the country. There is not, except as to the Post and Telegraph Departments, any part of the public service that does not cost ne.irly double of what it would be reduced to in private businesses at the present time. Even in the Post and Telegraph there must bo some saving. Those who have had oxperienco in soveral departments know well where the economy can be effected, and know — ; t nd have benefitted by it — thar the s;ime waste and extravagance prevails in all. Every department is overmanned, and in every one the officers handle the State's property with the very opposite of the care with which they treat their own. Even those going into the service, and, from force of habit, trying to save for the State as they would for themselves or a private employer, soon give up the attempt when they see that a dozen times a3 much as they can save in a month i 3 wasted in a moment by someone else. All are brought to the one level of waste. Of course every individual officer can show most plausibly that the utmost care is exercised, that he is worked to death, and th*t if he or anything about him were touched Ihe country would bo ruined. The huge and farcical wasto on defence must be nearly all stopped, and a number of people strutting about covered with gold lace the country cannot pay the tailor for muat be made to earn their bread. A man who cannot pay his baker cannot afford champagne, and a country that cannot make ends meet, and with a largo proportion of its citizens breaking, cannot afford useless toys and ornaments. Thoao who have had practical experience of the working of tho administration, but have not been in it, long enough to lose their individuality in the ruts and grooves of officialism, know that enormous reductions can be made. And thoso reductions must be made, for the people cannot stand any more taxation, and tho State must meet its obligations. No one expects that public business will ever be done so cheaply or so well as it would be if it was private business, but the enormous distance between the two now can be very much lessened, and it must be. This applies t"> overy service on which public money is spent. There are many colonists who, whila knowing and deploring the inevitable consequences of huge retrenchment being much longer delayed, yet doubt if the bulk of the electors realise the colony's position and danger sufficiently to cause them to insist on the remedy at this election. It is to be feared that many who ought to appreciate the position do not yef do flo, because it has not been brought home close enough to them. But a great and original leader could carry the country on an heroic policy of retrenchment. Everyone could be made sensible of the general danger if efforts were made by proper means and a proper leader to do so. What ia wanted for the salvation of the country is the man. The man that is wanted could carry the country just as Yogel carried it for the disease that ha 3 now to be cured, and as Grey carried it for his promised reforms a few years ago. But, unfortunately for the colony, the man does not yet appear. There may be yet r<»om for hope, but up to tho present it sefins as if the breaking country would havo no choice but to again trust its fate to some or other of the political failures and breakdowns whoso rule has brought New Zealand to its present desperate plight.