The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1891. THE PREMIER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2164, 17 February 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1891. THE PREMIER.

It would be interesting to know exactly what our Tory contemporaries expect of Mr Ballance. "Ever since he assumed the reins of Government they have been working themselves up into a state of great excitement. Visions of great extravagance, of ruined industries, ©f further borrowing, and of crushed capitaliots have floated before their eyea,and they have appeared as if really shivering in their skins. We wonder what do they think Mr Ballance is ? Do they think he will invest all the revenue in dynamite, and blow the whole country into space ? Cannot they realise that Mr Ballance is a colonist exactly like themselves, and as fully and as anxiously desirous of doing his best to advance "the colony as they or anyone could be. They could very probably if they wished to do bo, but that is not their policy. They wish to hold him up as something to dread, and are disappointed because the people whom they have so long duped, do not tremble I at the sound of hia name. He was j banquetted by his constituents the I other evening, aud ha made a speech I in which he sketched the future policy J

of the Government, and now our Tory contemporaries are astonished at his moderation. The Press says “the speech is studiously moderate,” The Otago Daily Times says it has about it “an unexpected tone of moderation,” and then it goes on to say it will be a great relief to farmers to read the Premier’s utterances. Was there ever anything more impudent ? No one has fought harder than Mr Ballance t® relieye farmers of taxation, yet efforts are being made now to picture him as the enemy of that class. For our own part Mr Ballance’s utterances appeared to us nothing more nor less than a crystalised sketch of his recent speeches. Instead of being moderate he was, we were glad to notice, more vigorous than he has been for a long time. We have frequently found fault with him because of the gentleness with which he generally treated his opponents, but on this occasion he threw off the kid gloves and hit straight out with his bare knuckles. Mr Ballance’a immoderacy is a creation of Tory brains maddened by the growth of democracy, but time will diaabuse the minds of the people of these erroneous ideas. It would be fair and right and proper to give Mr Ballance time to develop his policy before subjecting him to such unfair criticism as he has been subjected to, but no doubt he will not only survive such attacks but prosper under them. THE GOVERNOR. Thebe was one thing in Mr Ballance’s speech which we did not at all like, and we feel certain many of his followers will not thank him for it : that was his defence of the Governor. During the month previous to the assembling of Parliament recently, Mr Ballance protested against the appointments to the Council. He argusd that the Governor bad no right to take advice from a defeated Ministry, and showed pretty plainly that by confirming the appointments His Excellency violated constitutional usages. He set in motion a monster petition praying His Excellency to veto the appointments, yet now he turns round and tells us the Governor did quite right. Then we have only to tell him he, in the first instance, misled his followers throughout the colony. What will those who thought of censuring the Governor think now ? Will they not have just cause to complain ? And serve Mr Ballance right if they do complain, bitterly too. He could have done well and allowed the Governor to defend himself, for the Governor did not deserve defending, and no one knows that better than Mr Ballance. The Governor received a protest from the leader of the Opposition, accompanied by a very ably-put statement of the reasons why he should not confirm the appointments. This was backed up by all the newspapers— Liberal and Conservative —throughout the colony, and by a monster petition signed by the people at large. Had the Governor been disposed to act failry and justly, he would have said ; “ There is no immediate hurry for making these appointments. Let them stand over for a week, until Parliament meets.” That would have been the honest course for His Excellency to have followed, but he did not do it. He assisted the Tories to flood the Council with the representatives of Banks and Loan Companies, and now what does Mr Ballance tell us ? He said in his speech at Wanganui that he had the greatest difficulty in getting two i members of the Legislative Council j to move and second the Address-in- | Reply, and that there was scarcely I one member of the Council friendl/ to the present Government ? What does this mean ? It means that Mr Ballance mast appoint a fresh batch of Councillors, or else he will be able to do nothing. The Governor I behaved very badly, and be did not I improve matters by the snobbish way in which he received the members of Parliament who presented the petition to him, and it will not improve Mr Ballance’s position to defend . him now. He is inconsistent in doing ; so. THE LEASING SYSTEM. It will be remembered that for a long time we have advocated compulsory leasing of large estates, and also of Native lands. We bare pointed out that the leasing of Native lands is the beat possible way of dealing with them, because it secures a competency to the native owners, and a good bargain to the European tenants. If the lauds were bought from the natives they would spend the price of it, and become dependent on charitable aid. Under the leasing system such a result would not be possible. We are glad, therefore, to learn from the Premier’s speech that the Government will introduce a measure to give effect to this proposal during next session. If so, it will yield great blessings to this colony. We regret, however, to note that the Government contemplate buying large estates for the purposes of settlement, because we feel that so sure as they do that they will come to grief. Mr Ballance ought to recollect what happened a few years ago when he instituted his special-settlement scheme. It was the wisest, the most humane, and the best scheme hitherto suggested—yet because he spent a few thousands of pounds on it he was almost impeached and hurled from office. So sure as he is in office now the same thing will occur again if he involves the colony in lirge financial transactions in purchasing large estates. There has been instilled into

the hearts of the people a terror of' borrowing in any form—even though it could be shown that it would yield interest at the rate ot 20 per cent,— and, besides, the cry of the Tories is that Mr Ballance is extravagant. No matter how judiciously he may conduct these land transactions, therefore, they would serve as a handle for his opponents, and he ought to Know how expert they are at using it. We warn him, therefore, against land-buying, because better results can be produced in another way. Let him institute the compulsory-leasing system, and better results will be produced without the slightest risk to his Government or the State. We have already dealt exhaustively with this scheme, but, as we regard it of the utmost importance, we shall discuss it more thoroughly on some future occasion.