OUR COLONIAL PATRIOTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2107, 14 June 1873, Page 3

OUR COLONIAL PATRIOTS.

Mb. Tbollope writes in his book on " Australia and New Zealand," concerning our public men as follows : — " lv considering the matter of borrowing money for public works, it must be remembered that, unfortunatoly, inducements other than those of the direct public good may allure ministers to ask for loans, and may allure members of Parliament to grant them. Or even if the motives of ministers and of members be as pure as patriotism herself there may be lacking the sagacity necessary for the profitable expenditure of publio funds. Or, as is much more commonly the case, the motives and the sagacity also, may be mixed. A minister may assure himself that his sole object is hia country's good, that he is spending himself night and day on her behalf, that he is remunerated by a olerk's beggarly salary for energies and intellect which would make a fortune for him if devoted to trade, and in this way he may bo as sure of bis own virtue as were Pitt and Peel. But not the less does he teach himself to think that the one thing tnosc uecesaary for his country's welfare is his own continuance in office, and to effect that, — simply for his country's good and to his own personal ruin, — he will make compromises with dishonesty, or perhaps rush into a polioy of which the only value to his country will consist in the fact that it will obtain for himself a popularity among voters outside sufficient to keep him in office. When a minister aohioves the power of handling millions in the manufacture of railways, the temptation to waste hundreds of thousands is very heavy on him. Each portion of a Colony, each district, or each Province, wants its railway. c A railway for you gentlemen down South !' says a northern member. ( Certainly,— but on condition that we have one here, up North.' To an eager politician, anxious to please his own constituency, it matters little that it be shown to him that there will be nothing for tho northern railway to carry, while the others may be expected to do a fair business. Votes are counted, and the northern gentleman has his way. Then, again, it comes to pass that a large part of the population in a new country finds so great a benefit from the immediate expenditure of tho money, — labourers who get the Government wages, and of course, vote, and tradesmen who cater for the labourers, and of course vote,— that the patriotic minister, anxious only for his country's good, finds that tho country will certainly be robbed of his services unless he maintain this popular condition of things. In such circumstances a minister is apt, — I will not Bay to become unscrupulous, — but to allow a great latitude to his scruples. And then there is also the danger,— from whioh nations, as well as Colonies, have suffered,— of there arising some Cagliostro in politics, some conjuror in statecraft, who shall be clover enough to talk steady men off their legs by fine phrases, and to dazzle the world aronnd him by new inventions in the management of affairs. Such men can invest democratic measures with tendencies purely conservative, can run into debt upon theories of the strictest economy, and commingle patriotic principles with cosmopolitan practices in a manner very charming to weak minds. A statesman of this class is of necessity unsorupulons, and to a young community may be ruinous. It is his hope to leap to great success by untried experiments, — and being willing himself to run the risk of extermination if he fail, he does not hesitate to bind his country to his own chariot-wheels as he rushes into infinite space. Such a minister in a Colony, should he get the power of the purse into his hands, will throw his millions about without any reference to the value of the property aoquired. He will learn the charm of spending with profusion, and will almost teach himself to measure the prosperity of the community which is snbject to him, by the amount which he owes."