The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 22nd AUGUST, 1879.

Southland Times, Issue 3485, 22 August 1879, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 22nd AUGUST, 1879.

-The ! address^ of Mr 'Stout, to over. 1000 of Ms fellow citizens the othW day'is a curious study.- It •is difficult to infer from it either his motive^ his object, or its use in tlie present state of political excitement. , Why he should appear as 'an apologist for a Government which he deserted in 'its -hour of sorest 'need we "cannot' understand", or how he can suppose that either the -apology "or the apologist would- go for much under such ,circumstances. . .We can only regard his speech as 'an innocent ~ and " harmless letting off-of the sjjQam no longer needed for working purposes. If this is a physical necessity,"" as~it may be, from the capacity, of Mr Stout's generator, we r must snbmittto it, but he migli^at least,^ have theSgood.taste'tdletit.off as quietly ~ as possible J l ' r In f 'making* tolas' r loud' as -possible, .perhaps- he' y has,; some; lurking 'intuitire,idea]!thai{ i 'ltfmayj^e' s ,tHe longer i remembered,' arid .that ,it may ncome' in useful' to himself at some* future time, 1 wh'en L a"g'6Vernmeniiis w.an^d iti-harmpny with its pitch . o If tliisr I mference. is correct, , we 1 .would ..advise- him,' for jhis chance^ df'dueceHS/tb modify whistle a little, so as to make it a little less grating to the__ea£ of man as at present constituted. We can assure him, and we db'sb y ds > a''friehd^'thfft fiomeOof its notes are as ,his country's which, thougn sweet 'and 'inyfodibus to his own ' -eaEj/and probably, jbocaTPan^inte^r, does not much delight the world at large. We hear notning^ut his eternal drone on. ilap^aßi^al, wealth, labor— , without being able to near the harmonies, 1

■M-a-a-M-a-B-aaRaEsaaanaHMBnsHHHaaMMMHU i" v ' so to speak, or if we do, they are ve*y - Blirill and small. It is veiy evident he hardly understands, their harmony himself, i As .those .fond of too loud^sonnds ' geneVallyiiave bad ears, so Mr Stout has. *" ', ear v for true^ r harinoii|eß ot, apolitical sofind. We could' not give him better advice than his own to his op*pojMnts F vi&,-*tOrg^tc^the^ for a year to study "the social" harmonies" or,Cat4leastf|o a^gher and' more thorough SG_fobl-thair'' L lie < ha^^ever'yit^beem at iiD the science of -sociology. - - 7 ,B l9 , BlE^Erße^_r^^ las.the followin^:^ PraStTcP^speakingi itheve were only two .things that could be {taxed. They could tax land, and they 'could tax wealth ; savings and labor could jnot be taxed," and immediately following jwe have "labor and land were the only two things which constitute wealth." 'Why, what is saving but labor ? Crystallised labor Bastiat calls it — a very 'appropriate and expressive designation. tin such assertions as the above nobody ,ever believes Mr Stout no more than we believe the*r43marjc§;qn> apiece -of music, of a man^witli"*an i execrablj' f lkd ear. ,Anu yet it is strange that such people, , with hopelessly .had ears for music are always loudest , in ( tjbeir. remarks^ on. its performance.'' ' Mr Stout' does not see tlie ' fine relations and inter-relations, checks ,and counter-checks, the self-regulating ■ processes I',1 ', and automatic actions, of the body politic, and~apparently wants the ' faculty of learning them. He docs not i perceive some of these processes working under 'his [ very eyes in Victoria, to" which hehimself refers. With this very mail the newspapers tell us t*hat, employers are paying off their hands, aiid tell them to look to' Berry fbr employment, and mauy of these newspapers are attributing this action to partizan motives, and' are loud ip their "denunciation of such conduct. What is more natural?-' As .Jong as human nature is what it is, will anybody think of 'improving property whbse'title is called in question. Can it be expected that men. will borrow money to engage in any enterprise "when- that enterprise is threatened with such conditions — taxes or otherwise — as render it unremunerative? Will anybody 'give for labor more than it is worth to them ? Nobody can blame anyone for iherely looking i>td Mb 0wn ...-interest y employers .are .doing nothing more^^heri.they ai-e'^ischkrging hands they can .no.. longer employ profit-ably-to-themselves;- This, thing must happen; and^iiries iriust Wrti bad . for allyemployer as^ well as ■employ^.' When agitation and political excitement destroy confidence iii the permanence of the existing state of tilings, and threaten the return of profits that must be waited for, for long, years in many ca^es. Working men— Mr' Stout included— may' 1 rest assured, if-thcy cannot see it, that labor will turn less valuable ( " if it cannot be taxed" ) if the demand for it lessens 7 and that the demand for it will diminish, if it is seen, or even prospectively, likely that it will not be profitable to the capi-; talist. To dream of such a state : of things, as , every , man , being. r his own employer — his own capitalist- — is assuming human' "natm-e: to be different from what it is. There will always be '■ rich and poor as long as one man' is- born: with greater ability or with more forethought than another- All that we can do is to make the two so work in harmony, as will mutually benefit each other. Our intuitive idea of 1 that harmony is called /justice. between man and man, and we have only to extend that intuition to justice* J 'bfetween ; ' class and class to govern properly. One essential condition to growth., and prosperity Mr Stout constantly overlooks, and that is stability, or, as. he would probably call it, permanence, br laissez-faire; if lie -wished to be equivocal.; Change^ are necessary evils, and should be made as gradually as possible. It does not do to be always transplanting a tree to find out the soil that suits it best, or to be always turning the log to make it burn. The chances are that the death of the one and the extinction of the other will be the result. A little repose and rest will often be more invigorating than a direct stimulant. So it is with our laws ; ■people ' J a'dapt' themselves to-'- even' an indifferent system ; interests grow up under it, which it would be greater loss to destroy than the gain resulting from a change even .to a slightly better. 4. young country feels this the most in- - 'tensely,- and- the mbst injuriously where ', 'everything is prospective, ; : and where - enterprise is difficult to initiate. Money is; .^high in. price, plant is having to be imported under high freights and other expenses at colonial rates ; a market is uncertain, the prospective increase of population often forming the basis of the calculation of a demand at ' all } 'everything >as ■ prospective 'and contingent on growth and the general expansion of tfadey.as well as the con- ,', . tinue.d .prosperity, of all classes, and the stability of« the, relations 7 ; between theni. It is easy to see how injurious another uncertainty will be to young enterprise, viz., the uncertainty of fair, play, of security of property, and a right to the -prbfits that ihayidt imay '; not [result/ from such forethought. Experiments are r most safely performed' in; corpora. vilo, aiid 'we'#ouid''advise ! lfc attempt his on this young and promising country till he has made perfectly sure of every effect that will-follow, and correctly calculated its true magnitude and value.*.