The Political Situation in New Zealand.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 124, 2 September 1887, Page 2

The Political Situation in New Zealand.

WHAT THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SAYS.

In a leading article on the political situation in this colony the Sydney Morning Herald says:— But "disorganised finance, acconqiaiiied as it always is by depression of trade and crushing taxation, is not the only source of misfortune with which New Zealand has to contend. As if the reckless and unprincipled system of finance introduced by Sir Julius Vogel was not enough to strain the resources of the colony, it has !>oeii subjected to another scourge in the shape of Sir Robert Stout's hairbramed theories about tin nationalisation of the land—the «nb

stitutiou of leases for sales—the compulsory resumption of private estates—and the establishment of fancy " village settlements," peopled by happy Arcadian shepheidi tending their flocks at the expense of the public Treasury. The colony has, in fact, become a field for the display of every conceivable experiment in the way of legislation that could find support among a crew of desperate financiers ou the one hand and crazy theorists on the other; and between the two the prospects of its early redemption seem to have faded so far in the background that no one can pretend to feel much confideuce on the subject. There can be no doubt iudeed that Sir Robert Stout trusts as tinuly in his theory of laud nationalisation as Sir Julius Vogel relied on his borrowed millions. Rut tLe practical result has beeu almost as disastrous in the one case as it has been in the other. To preach the nationalisation

of land is simply to disturb every form of landed security ; and the moment that public confidence is touched in that direction, the capital invested in land is withdrawn ; and as land without capital becomes unmarketable, every industry dependent on tbu land sinks into stagnation and decay. The tune will come, of course, when tho colony will have shaken itself free from the rule of the empirical agitators who have contrived to masquerade so long in the garb of statesmen ; when the fallacy of artificial wealth will no longer find a believer, and nsiouary schemes of Arcadian settlement will rank ou a level with fairy tales and romances of the nursery. But, in the meanwhile, the disastrous effect already produced by a long penod of

misgovsrnmeut and mal administration will have to l>e patiently eudurad. The fiery ordeal of their present experience will probably serve to convince the elector* that as no country can lie prosperous while it is bhdly governed, the first on the road to reform is not retrenchment merely, but the substitution of sound statesmanship for political quackery.