The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1892.

Thames Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 7081, 13 January 1892, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1892.

In a recent issue we alluded to the fact that at length the Liberal section of the Vteas of ,the colony were wakening to the desirability of cornbatting the unfair and untrue statements which are being so industriously Srculated regarding thei policy o! the owwt Gove^nmeut, andiwe axether^ ;; to obwfya that to koto

land Star, in a leading article in Monday's issue, is most outspoken on the subject. In the course of his remarks the writer points out that in' 1870 Sir Julius Voge] began that ruinous course of borrowing, extravagance,* and. folly, which—carried on chiefly by Sir Harry Atkinson, with the exception of the short lease of office by the Grey Ministry—never ceased, till in twenty years these blind leaders of the blind had plunged the colony in a gulf of thirty-Beven millions of debt. Under this wild and wasteful regime, taxation had been enormously increased, agriculture depressed, population lured from the country to the towns, or driven out of the colony; hopelesneas had taken the place of the old-time hopeful spirit; big estates had grown bigger, and their owners enriched; small owners had been ruined, and absenteeism greatly increased. This was the result of the Yogel-Atkinson policy, and of the support of that policy by the newspapers who no w seek to cast the blame on the Ballance Government. In twenty years the colony had been reduced from hopefulness and prosperity to despair and disaster. Vogel and Atkinson were, it is true, the leaders in this policy of ruin, but its most persistent and powerful supporters were the " borrowing" newspapers, who, like hounds in full cry, never ceased their clamor so long as there was a million to run down. Now, when the borrowing game is up and the millions are run to earth, when the country has to be rescued from disaster by the bold policy of retrenchment, by shifting taxation to the shoulders best able to bear it from the backs which have been well-nigh broken by the unjust burdens laid upon them, those same newspapers make the welkin dismal with their howling. Something had to be done to restore prosperity to the colony, and the Ballance Ministry boldly stepped into the breach. Under these measures, unjust taxation has been removed from thousands of farmex-s, the backbone of the country; the owners of large estates are being made to bear their fair share of taxation; and settlement on the waste lands is going on at a rate which has not been seen for many years. This safe and just policy is denounced by the newspapers which supported the reckless policy of the past.

In like manner they are loud in their outcries against the taxation of absentees. Let us advise them to shout less, and observe and think more. They can then hardly fail to learn that the absentee system has long been recognised as a curse to the Australasian colonies. It is a growing evil, and must be repressed. From time to time various measures have been proposed to check it, but nothing had been done until the Ballance Ministry boldly levied an additional tax of 20 per cent, upon absentees. This is the last straw -which has broken the back of their endurance. Do these people not know that this absentee practice has been one of the chief causes of the ruin of Ireland ? The Irish landlords for generations have drawn their money rents from Ireland and spent them in London or Paris, thus every year stripping the country of its .wealth. Under such an exhaustive system Ireland became poorer, and its people grew more discontented. In like manner our absentees draw large revenues from the colonies, and spead them in England or elsewhere, taking no part -whatever in the hard and necessary work needed to make the colony prosper, unless, indeed, writing discontented letters or inspiring ignorant leaders in the Home newspapers be doing the "heroic work" of colonisation. A neighboring colony is said to remit annually £300,000 to one family, and £80,000 to another. Ought not these " absentees" and all their clan to be taxed? Absenteeism has long been a curse to the colonies. We repeat, it is extending year by. year. Many attempts have been vainjy made to cut the Gordian knot. At last '3&r Ballance has cut it, by specially taxing jL-hose who diw revenues from the colony aijd live pat of it. In doing this, the present G-oyeranaenf; haye aroused the ire of the absentees and their friends in Jhe newspaper Press at Honi6. They %M$ S'lso stirred up the bile of tiie newspaper jn the colony which have beenthe chief supporters of borrowing, extravagance, abaente,ei^, j,nd many other abuses. . Let Mr JSaJfcncp b.o|dly face such "music" and laugh ftt.it, Sfe is not responsible/or the enormous indeltftness of the colony^ which he refuses to incsre^.se— nor for the pauperism borrowing &as engendered, which he is struggling to resaG^erc-nor &3? the extravagant expenditure of the pasfc,whishhejsgreatlycurtailing—nor for the heayy aad. unjustly-levied taxation, which ke has . sac,oeese.d in reducing and in putting the burden on the right backs. Let the wrong-doero, i%& men and newspapers who have iba&Eg&fc tbe colony to the brink of rUiPr-'&0 bi^m.^d.. To browbeat the man who is straining. „cy j ery...nerve .to undo the evil that has been d^a by those who have preceded him in-oftioe is an actipo,.so manifestly unfair, so transparesitly .unjust Jhat to name it is to secure the : honest ( <soia,4emnation <ii the general public. People wl^o carelessly set Losses pn fire ought, at least, to stand aside $&d let thefiremen get to work, instead oi abusing them' and^yen accusing the brigade of having caused! the conflagration.