Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1887. The Issue Before the Country.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2076, 3 June 1887, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1887. The Issue Before the Country.

As we write, the questions of granting supply and passing the Kepresentation Bill are being hotly debated in Parliament. The result of the discussion on those two measures will probably reach us before going to press. Whatever be the result, it is certain that Parliament will be dissolved and that a general election will take place in due course. The question then arises,— What main issue will be presented to the electors on which they will have to give their decision at the polling booths ? The issue can hardly be altogether one of “ Protection v Freetrade.” It is true that the present Government have made proposals in the direction of protecting certain colonial industries, and that this was one feature of their recently rejected Tariff. But it was not mainly the protective clement in the Tariff which caused the House to throw the measure out. The thing which roused the strongest antagonism to tho "t - nosals of tv- •' '■ mar , m ■ as purposes lie country .v y additional proposed, and i. - ill' was sinn- , ; _. r■■■ Tim general feeling iu the House was that the existing deficiency should be made up, not by additional taxation, but by the adoption of a rigid and comprehensive system of retrenchment The Government had never attempted retrenchment, and so it lost the confidence of Parliament. In asking for a dissolu tion the Government are appealing from the decision of Parliament to that of the count) y at largo The issue, therefore, to bo placed before the electors is plainly and clearly defined. Ll is this:—“Do you, the electors, approve of (he policy of the Government and the largely increased taxation which thoy consider is necessary to carry it out ?" Or on the other hand, “D> you reject that policy iu favor ot the adoption of such a wh do sale and rigid system of retrenchment as will render any additional taxation unnecessary ?" Wheu such an issue is fairly placed before the electors we have very little doubt what the answer of the great majority will be. The people of this colony are not able to bear any addition to the heavy load of existing taxation which is crushing them dowu. They are therefore certain at the general election to return a large majority of members pledged to support wholesale retrenchment, and to resist to the utmost the imposition of any further taxation. No doubt the question of protection will come to the surface during the elections, but it will be subordinate to the main issue already stated. Protection to colonial industries is no new thing in this colony. The existing ad valorem and other Customs duties, imposed for revenue pm'pj'es, have all been protective to many of the industries f and manufactures already e listing iu the colony. Without these t\i toms Duties on imported articles, many colonial industries would not have come into existence. Tho present Government tried to afford a further measure of protection in the case of two or three of those industries, but tho general feeling in Parliament was that sufficient protection already existed iu tho shape of the present Customs Duties, and that it would be impolitic to go any further in that wav. *V<! At’f of opinion that a v.ijo-i' . t galh.ieuj . n wn'ten - -e.ii to iv ,! ait ii a t • practically

i.b •• i ego iii.njoiity of the i 'ecloiH will .-npport candidates deli uiii-ly pl( dged to carry out retrenchment and to determinedly oppose an\ attempted increase el' taxation. In a new Parliament in which a majority of members held those views the fate of the present G ■vcnmienl would soon he scale-i.