STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14245, 25 June 1910, Page 7

STRATFORD.

(From Our Resident Agent.) June 24.—Comparatively few people cared enough for polities to spend Wednesday evening in the Town Hall listening to Mr. Mine’s account of his stewardship as member fc/ the district. I don’t know whether wo are peculiar in this respect, but wo like our political pie hot i]i Stratford, and you can seldom get it hot eighteen months away from the general election. _ Mr. Mine was not m a very incendiary mood, and his criticism of the Government did not produce any heated rejoinders from its friends and supporters, if present., It really appeared at first that he was going to “bless” the Ministers “ altogether.” The vigorous prosecution of the Stratford-Ongaruc railway, the Dreadnought olfer, the new scheme of military defence, all commanded bis .approval,'the last with the reservation that the extension of the age of twentyfive was a mistake. Mr. Hiue was also inclined to bo sanguine as to the future good behaviour of bis opponents, opining that the fact of tho unexampled r.ctivitv of tire 1 üblic Works Depart merit in on’Opposition electorate would put an end to argument insidiously used at election timer; that we cannot afford to return an Oppositionist. -A ftor tins surely ultra-optimistic anticipation of the next electoral tussle, our member warmed up a little and developed a mildly questioning attitude as to whether the country had got full value for the £90.000 the recently opened seven ■miles’ section of the railway had cost. However, there was, I am glad to say, retiring half-hearted in his ccndc.’iumtic” of’the Government's horrible blunder in aboil king the Hoads Department without seeing to it that tho settlers did net suffer in consequence. Ho was also justifiably severe upon the short-lived retrenchment mockery and wondered how the public ccukl continue to support a Government that only a short time ago confessed to extravagances running into. £250,000 a year and now, because the revenue was again advancing, proposed to discontinue oven tho very feeble efforts at economy it had inaugurated: Mr. Hino got in a pretty forcible thrust against the State Guaranteed Advances Act, pointing out that the older settlements had raised their loans hinder the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, under which tho general taxpayer (including residents in tho new settlements) was helping to pay the sinking fund, whilst now new districts had to pay the whole of their own sinking funds and help to pay those of their prosperous and comfortable neighbours. Ho approved of Sir Josonh’s_schemo for the extinction ’of the national debt, ’which he thought would improve our credit on, the London, money market. He did not explain, and for-the matter of that Sir Joseph has not, explained either, what the money market has to do with ns if we are really going to repay the money we have borrowed. Continuing on the lines of “benevolent ncutralitj’,” Mr. Hine patted both Government and Opposition on the back in connection with the death and gift duties scheme, which he thought tended in the right direction, and he, as .•» finale, indulged i-> ft— re-n----fully hopeful opinion that the day of “taihoa” in regard to the u1:.. L ..t.,.. . Native lands was nearly at an end. So mote it bo, but Mr. Hine also seems to believe (ho said so),'that the day of party politics is going by, and that every member of Parliament- would in the near future bo found voting according to the dictates of Iris conscience. A grim prospect for some people wo are acquainted with, to whom the party system, with all its faults, has its sweet uses.