A YITAL QUESTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

A YITAL QUESTION.

m . ... If (asks tihe Napier 3Te«.'s) Captain jßussell, Sir Eobert Stout and their followers were placed in power to-morrow, •what policy would they pursue? This is a question which the electors and this colony have been left to answer for themselves, in the absence of explanations from Captain Eusßell, Sir Robert Stout and the Conservative Press. Would tbeir policy be one of progress or of retrogression ? The methods of the present Government we know, through iteration and constant reiteration, are abhorrent to them. The members of the present Administration are erponenta of the gospel "Government of the people, by the people, for the people." With such a policy the main body of their opponents can have no sympathy. They are bound by traditional ties, and by the dictates of self-interest to promote legislation, having for its object the guardianship of the "sacred rights of property"—property as represented by large landed estates, and the [sheep upon a thousand hillß, owned by one person. The present Government has 'encroached upon these "sacred rights of property," and has stretched out a firm hand to put a stop to tiie mopping np by individuals of the land •which they rightly maintain is not the heritage of here and there a man, but of all men who choose to enter upon it. and cultivate it to the best advantage. Wherefore the Government is anathema.