THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 16th MAY, 1896.

Southland Times, Issue 13456, 16 May 1896, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 16th MAY, 1896.

The latest development of Ministerial sagacity is the dispatch of the Colonial Treasurer into the wilds of the west coast of the North Island, there to address the electors at various* rural centres on colonial finance, the banking measures and other matter*, whic'a might have been deemed somewhat beyond their capacity. Why these particular districts were chosen for the "last speech " and confession " of Ministers before the opening of Parliament, and why the Treasurer, of all members of the Cabinet, should have been sent on such an errand, when hp> might reasonably have been expected to be especially busy working op the Financial Statement, is one of those things wbic^, as Lord Dundreary might say " no fellah can understand." Possibly the somewhat troublesoms task of concocting a toothsome dish to tickle the palatea of the House and tbe country had been too much for tbe honourable gentleman, and he required relaxation, having the proud consciousness that he bad done bis duty in manufacturing a big surplus and manipulating the Treasury returns so as to remove them from the scope of ordinary intelligence ; or was it that he could not stand the feeble cackles of the hardly fledged members in Cabinet and was glad to get away on any terms, leaving the Premier to duly impress his new colleagues with a sense of their own insignificance and the desirability, if they do not want to be " chucked," of sinking any individuality they may possesß, The only epeech of the series which appears to have been reported in full is the one delivered at New Plymouth on tbe 12th inst., and it seems to have been a curious hodge-podge of ironsand, the everlasting breakwater, and other subjects locally of absorbing interest ; profusely garnished with the ordinary Ministerial bunkum now bo familiar to the people. Tbe Taranaki people although they have in timea past sent to the House men who becamo eminent in pnblic life, are by no means keen on politics ; their rreed is rminly confined t) a firm faith in the ironsand, and in tbe eternal fitness of New Plymouth as a harbour. Any candidate who dops not proclaim these shibboleths has no chance of election in the dist ict, however otherwise excellent his qialifications. Mr Ward, who, his best friends will admit, is endowed rather wth the wisdom of tbe aePpfmt than the guileless- I nesi of the dove, piped in tbe p pular key and was accorded an enthusiastic vote of thanks and confidence. The

honourable gentleman took for the text of the political portion of his address the recent attack upon the Government by Sir Robert Stout at Wellington, which appears to rankle in the Ministerial breast for the ver? obvious reason that his powerful indictment cannot be satisfactorily disposed of, either by repetition of statements of fact or by special pleading. It would, we are disposed to think, be wiser in Ministers to leave him severely alone. They certainly do not venture to tackle him on a Wellington platform, which would be more to the purpose than violent declamation in out ot the way country places and before very imperfectly informed audiences. Sir Robert Stout, Mr Ward said, b&i been very severe on the present Administration, and bad made very rash statements, and he instanced the charge as to the withholding from the House returns asked for with the purpose of ascertaining how far the statements of Ministers on important matters, especially financial, could be substantiated. Mr Ward makes a very lame defence. First he says that " majorities would not allow "minorities to dictate to them what should "be done," which is equivalent to declaring tnat Ministers, so long ea they have a servile majority at their back, will refuse what returns they please, Then he adopts the rather exploded argument that two blacks make a white, stating that " the former Administration" had refused more returns than the present one. l'his may bo so, 83 Sir Harry Atkinson had to deal with a most obstructive and unreasonable < ppositioD, but it hardly proves that Mr Seddon has been justified in declining to afford the information asked for during the last four or five sessions. The TreaHurer is not much happier in his explanation of the visionary surpluses which he has annually shown, ;and which, like magic lantern picture?, leave a clean sheet when the artificial light ia shot off. The honourable gentleman avoids entirely the main isgue. The j Opposition had argued, he said, that we should not place any of the surplus of the preceding year to the next year's account. The Opposition have never been so silly; what they do contend is that there has never, except in one year, during the Ballance-Seddon reign been any real Burplu?, and then it was very small, Surpluses have been literally manufactured by taking into revenue account moneys which have not accrued as revenne at all, but in many instances were part of the capital of the colony, the product, moreover, of loans, or the realisation of floating securities. Into the justification of the banking legislation, which was entered into at some length, we do not care to enter, but would express our incapacity to understand why Ministers on every possible occasion persist in justifying a course which was almost universally accepted by the colony as inevitable. There ia a French proverb to the effect that he who is for ever excusing himself must needs have some « thing to excuse himself for — ' ■ qni s f excuse s 'accuse ." We hope there is no real applicability in the present instance. Referring to the allegation by Sir Robert Stout and others that the colony was in a bad financial condition, the Treasurer meets this by a blank denial, asserting that " the " income of the colony per head was the " highest in the world." This hardly proves very much, except that the policy of spending is far beyond the income, and bolstering up the finance by kite flying is less justifiable even than is generally believed. As to the Customs tariff the honourable gentleman admits that the total increase of revenue from this source during the past year has been L 70,00 of that turn he says L 21,000 was in the duties on sugar and tobacco, which have not been raised. L 38,000 he declares was " all that was " due to the alteration of the tariff, the " remainder to the increase in the pros- " perity of the colony." He omits to take into account that L 40,000 was, uselessly as regards the consumer, taken off the duties on ten and other articles. This amount added to tbo L 35.000 represents the adJitional indirect taxation on common articles of use and consumption levied nnder the new tariff. Jn regard to fature policy the Treasurer bad very little to say. He declared himself altogether opposed to the project of an elective Executive, but personally in favour of the referendum. The Government, he said, would submit to Parliament a scheme of State fire insurance, which had been very carefully considered, and he hoped would be acceptable. In respect of other measures on the Ministerial programme as announced by the Premier,he appears to have been silent, and concluded his address by declaring that " the Gov- " ernment had done their best to help '• the colony along and their merits " would be more fully recognised ten • years hence than they were to-day.' As the Irishman said " pig^ m9y fly, bat " they are very unlikely birds ! "