Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1885. The Tariff Bill Abandoned

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1706, 13 July 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1885. The Tariff Bill Abandoned

hkbk will be a feeling of univer i satisfaction experienced that the ; vernment, after experiencing a 1 lies of the most humiliating defeats hj res nee! to their tan’ll' proposals, re abandoned them altogether The i to to! the allair is full of interest. 1 so ed.icsd.iy night the House went n o Committee of Supply to eon--oici the tariff proposals in detail. : i ey agreed to the spirit duty of i ds 6d per gallon, being an increase oi Gd pei gallon Jhey also agreed to tbe increased duties on foreign and Australian wines, and were even so complaisant as to assent to a proposed duty on “ preserved bananas ” —a preserve which nobody in the colony ever heard of before. But cue I louse made short work of all the rest ot the proposals. They wouldn't have the increased duties on tea, bacon and hams, cornflour, boots, shoes and slippers, butter and cheese, and carpet bags. Item after item of the tariff was rejected as soon as proposed. Thou the Government began to see that it was of no use bringing down the remainder of the proposals, so progress was reported tod toe House adjourned. (In Thursday a Cabinet meeting was held consider the position, while simultaneously a meeting of Minis■enal supporters took place To cut a long sinry short, the Ministerial supporters and the Tree Trade section of the House plainly told the (Tavernincut that they must abandon 'heir tarilf proposals altogether, or be forced to resign. At this point Sir Julius Vogel and the Government completely “ caved in ” and conceded everything demanded. They offered to abandon all of the new tariff not then agreed to; to excise the borrowing-upou-subshly [lowers from the local luaiico scheme ; to reduce the period ■ >f subsidy-guarantee from 25 years, not merely to live, as requested, bill to two ; also to provide for defence expenditure out ot loan, and to con Time the previous year’s deficit as a floating debt for two years more. Tiieso proposals were accepted by the meeting, and an announcement to Hint effect was made to the House by the Premier on its meeting that evening. Ihua happily ends the whole business. The Customs Tariff remains exactly as it was before the introduction of the now proposals, witn the exception of the slight increases in the duties on wines and .spirit-!, which nobody will object to. There is a moral to this story of the rejection of the Government proposals, which he who runs may rvid. It is this:—Sir Julius Vogel ha proved a conspicuous failure Last year Sir Julius told the people of this colony that he would bo their financial ia • iour ; that he would convert a delicti into a surplus, and largely reduce taxation. In his proposals daring the present session not one of those oromiscs has been fulfilled. Sir Julius instead of “ converting a deficit into a surplus,” has really largely increased the deficit ; while his financial proposals -now in part happily rejected—would have increased taxation by something like £300,000. May Heaven deliver ua from such a financial saviour as Sir Julius Vogel Recent events also teach another lesson, viz., that the deliberately, made statements of the present Ministry are not in the least degree to bo relied upon, 1 hiring the parly part of the session, Ministers declared that their policy bills must bo accepted as a whole, and that lbey would give up no Hugh l parr or thorn. In short they were going to stand or fall by their policy as a whole. Well, Hu, main portion of their policy, as declared in the Tariff Bill, has been torn ;n pieces artel summarily rejected, yot

Ministers have accepted their defeat meekly and still remain in office. Never before in the histoiy of this colony baa any Ministry been so bullied, worried, humiliated, and contemptuously kicked about, alike by friends and foes, as the present one—and yet remained in office. The Vogel-Stout Ministry at least possess the Christian virtue of meekness. When smitten on one check, they turn the oilier to bo smitten Like “ Uriah Keep ” they are habitually “ umble.” And like the American politic,an they are continually declaring : —Them’s my senterments and policy, hut if they don’t soot, they kin he altered."