The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1886.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3589, 1 April 1886, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1886.

We fe<ar that the public will be some* what disappointed with the speech delivered by Major Atkinson at Auckland on Tuesday night. We admit that it would be mifair to judge of every point of the speech by the Press Association's abstract which we publish this morning. The " boiling down " process has not, m all respects, been successfully performed, and iv one or two instances the speaker's meaning has been rendered obscure if not altogether unin- J telligible. We may be quite sure that what Major Atkinson had to Bay was put m the plainest language, and the deficiencies of the abstract are no doubt attributable to tho conditions under which it had to be written. The reporter was, we suppose, instructed to limit his message to a certain number of words, and he bad to perform his duty m the most hurried manner, so as to suit the arrangements of the various newspapers dependent on him. Unless on special occasions, when verbatim reports are famished, our public men all suffer more or less when whatissupposedtobethe substance of their speeches is transmitted by telegrapb at a late hour of the night. At the same time we feel pretty safe m saying that, m our opinion, Major Atkinson's speech will somewhat disappoint many wbo have been anxiously looking forward to it. He commenced with the proposition that it was not the duty of the Opposition platform, to propound plans, and he added that "as the Government had out-lined no policy, it was m the interest of the public that someone should speak out. The Opposition should step out of its ordinary line, and outline some sort of scheme." In the first place it was hardly fair to say that the Government has no policy. Notwithstanding the fact that individual ministers have intimated m their recess speeches that each was speaking for himself and without previous definite arrangement m the Cabinet, it is generally understood that the Stout- Vogel Government is prepared to go much further m the way of borrowing than their opponents would bo if they were m power to-morrow. It may be truo that the great £10,000,000 scheme will not be pushed forward m the coming session, but it will not be abandoned if Ministers succeed m retaining their seats. We take it to be quite clear that the policy which meets with the approval of the present holders -of office is — (1) increased loan expenditure on public works of a supposed remunerative character, (2) the fostering of local industries by a tariff tending strongly m the direction of protection, and (3) the systematic introduction of immigrants, of a stamp likely to do well m the colony. The principal public works of which, the Government may be said to have signified its approval are the Otago Central, the North Island Trunk line, and the East and West Coast and Nelson line. That, we believe, is a policy on which Ministers are m accord, and we Bay it with a full recollection of Mr Stout's Dnnedin speech. In short nobody really doubts that such is the policy of the|,Governtnent, though there may'not be much disposition to press it forward until after the general

■election. Ifc is the policy by •which, the Ministry is prepared to ' stand or fall, if not m the coming session, at least on the first occasion iLafc an appeal is made to the peoplo. When we examine Major Atkinson's speech we find that a very large portion of it was devoted to criticism of Sir Juliu3 Vogel's bygone finance, to an examination of the effect of Captain Russell's motion for retrenchment, and to a commentary on that Ministerial policy which twice m the course of the evening Major Atkinson said did not exist. Towards the very close of his speech he did allude m the briefest manner to his own views, but, unless the abstract of the speech did him very grave injustice indeed, he cannot be said to have fulfilled the expectations he raised at the beginning of his speech — expectations which, indeed, have been m existence for some time past. He did not announce a definite policy, and the public know very nearly as little about the position and intentions of the leaders of the Opposition as was known before the Auckland speech was delivered. The questions of protection and f reetrade he appears to have shunned altogether.