Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue IV, 26 July 1902, Page 205

Topics of the Week.

Peace, But Hardly Goodwill. It is earnestly hoped by us all that we have not been too sanguine in regard to the position of affairs in South Africa now that the war is over. But it is impossible to shut our eyes to incidents which would seem to mean only too plainly that goodwill is not going hand in hand with peace in the country as we expected. Or did we expect it? Did we not rather endeavour to persuade ourselves against the misgivings that assailed our less prejudiced judgment. and made too much of the conciliatory attitude of the Boer leaders who had been foremost in the field ? Was it not expecting rather too much that the conquered burghers would within a week of the declaration of peace forget and forgive everything, and settle down into the subordinate position they had fought so long and strenuously to avoid. The attitude of the leaders is not a fair criterion of the feelings of the people. A gallant Botha or De Wet has the chivalry of the natural soldier, and when conquered may be relied on to accept the altered state of things with philosophic resignation. Loyalty to their own honour will keep them loyal to the Empire. But the narrow spirits among the Boers may consider it quixotic to be bound by any oath of allegiance. We have seen how Mr Kruger was able to reconcile the most fervent appeals to the Supreme Power with the most shameful duplicity. And there is always the danger that among the ruder section of the population the Kruger ethical code will continue to be believed in, while in the settled centres there will not be wanting discontented spirits to fan into flame whatever embers of enmity are about. The war attracted to South Africa hundreds of such individuals, and brought to the front from among the native-born population those whose natural business it was to stir up strife. Now that the war is over their occupation is gone if they do not devote themselves as assiduously to en-

gendering bad feeling between Boer and Briton as they did before the war. Unfortunately, their task is much easier now, for they are dealing with people who have no doubt suffered in relatives and property as well as in their independence. Immediately after the war the glad relief which the great majority of the

burghers undoubtedly felt overwhelmed all other feelings, but it is not natural that relief should last

for ever, and when the people get accustomed to the presence of gentle peace among them they are bound to realise more keenly the change. It

would seem that while anything approaching harshness in our treatment of the Boers has to be avoided, our clemency must be marked with firmness, and any attempt to take advantage of it summarily dealt with. Another Borrowing Device. What has induced the Government to think of taking up the business of fire insurance no one seems to know precisely. It may have been because of a cry among the insured that they were being rated too heavily by the existing companies. But if that was the reason it is equally fitting that the Government should take up the trade of general butcher and baker, for there is always more or less of a feeling among the mass of the people that they are being charged too much by the middleman, and the latter has an equally good ground for complaint against the wholesale merchant, who waxes fat on his profits. If it is merely to satisfy the discontent of a section of the community that the Government is going to come into competition with the companies, it is illogical to limit themselves to one particular line, and there is no particular reason why if they mean to extend their operations the y should single out fire insurance for a start. That Is no particular reason, I should say, from our point of view, from the

point of view of the few individuals who are running this colony—and running it heaven knows where—any pretext or device on which money can be raised is welcome; and the Bill now before Parliament provides power for borrowing a quarter of a million and more, if necessary, for putting in operation this new scheme. Of course, it is represented that this money would be sacred to the purpose for which it was borrowed, but as a fact in our New Zealand system of financing there is no guarantee of that. If we are to judge by what has already been done it is certain that the money raised for insurance will virtually find its way into the general fund. Its identity will be preserved in the annual statement for appearance’ sake, but to all intents the quarter of a million and the sums that follow it will have gone into the maelstrom of public expenditure and debt. Our financiers would persuade us that such money is not debt, because it is invested in a remunerative channel. That blessed word “remunerative.” It has nobly stood sponsor for the last five or six millions we have borrowed. But we are beginning to be a bit suspicions

of it. And as applied to any money invested in fire insurance, we have much reason to be, if we examine the very narrow margin of profit on which some of the largest insurance companies in the world do business.

Another circumstance leads us to invest with the sinister character of a mere borrowing device this Govern-

ment fire insurance scheme. It appears that there is no serious intention to make it a real State affair.

The Bill provides that business is not

to be started until arrangements have been made for satisfactory reinsurances here or abroad. That is to say, in short, that the State is merely to constitute itself not an insurance company, but au insurance agent, and I presume to live as agents do on what it can make in the matter of commissions. o o o o o Plain Talk for the Colonies. The Under-Secretary for the Colonies has had the courage of his opinions in regard to the, question of the colonies’ contribution to the naval defence of the Empire. Discarding the sentimental obscurity in which the Imperial Conference appears to have discussed the responsibilities of Imperialism at the outset, he has laid before the colonies the plain, unvarnished truth touching their duties. This Mr Chamberlain dees not seem to have done. He evidently felt handicapped by a desire to show the utmost consideration for the feelings of the colonies. Probably his position forced him into the position of not stating the plain, unpalatable facts as they must have presented themselves to his astute mind. At all events he gives the impression of allowing the Conference to proceed as it was doing, in the lead nowhither fashion, and the meeting might have ended in nothing more effectual than a unanimous resolution “that it was most desirable for the Mother Country and the colonies to do all in their power to draw closer the bonds of Empire.” It was as if the Colonial Secretary had said to himself. “Now we must on no account introduce disagreeable money matters;” and the colonial Premiers, conscious that it was so very much to their advantage to eschew financial considerations, heartily seconded Mr Chamberlain, so that the discussions resolved themselves into a sort of academic symposium on Imperialism. in which both sides kept clear of the monetary aspect of the question. But Lord Selborne al one fell swoop demolished the miserable fiction, when in his outspoken speech last week he as good as told the pampered Premiers that all this talk of theirs about devotion to the Empire and willingness to contribute of their best blood in time of trouble was mainly rhetorical boast, and that the thing required of them was that they

should pay a fair share of the cost of keeping up the navy, on the efficiency cf which their independence and the safety of the Empire hung. He might have told them that all their so-called sacrifices- to the Boer War were nothing more than England could justly claim of them, that after all they had done they were still her debtors, and that it ill became them to take any other view of the relations. If he had told them so it would only have been the truth, and the sooner we clearly recognise this the better. As it was, he avoided such frankness, so far as his actual words went, but it is not difficult to anyone who reads his speech to see that that was the feeling in his mind when he reminded us how, if we were independent States, we would each have to pay a million sterling per annum for a protection which hardly costs us anything at all now. It is not a very agreeable reflection for the already heavily burdened taxpayer here to think that at the least we ought in justice to be paying a quarter of a million yearly as our share towards the Imperial navy. But the obligation is clear, and if Imperialism takes definite shape it will have to be met. That is part of

the price we must expect to pay for its consummation. Alas’ that by reckless borrowing we should find ourselves so heavily burdened that we must hesitate to accept a responsibility which both patriotism and honour require we should assume' o o o o o

Boom or Burst. It is pleasant to many of us to

hear of our Premier sounding, in South Africa, the praises of New Zealand in his sweet strains of unpremeditated art, And, in all the nice things he said about our colony, or, rather, his colony, there was a sufficiency of truth. None of his statements are less likely to be gainsaid by New Zealanders in general than his description of the country as a land without poverty —chance visitor and native-born alike acquire that impression from casual observation. It would be interesting to discover just how much of this apparent absence of poverty in our midst is due to the resources of the colony and the industry of the colonists, and how much to the presence of the British bondholders’ money. It would seem from some remarks made by Sir J. Ward at a journalistic dinner in Wellington the other day that the British bondholders’ money has more to do with the prosperous appearance than one likes to think. At all events, the Premier’s understudy implied with no uncertain voice that it would be ruin«is to New Zealand to discontinue our borrowing policy at the present time. Yet the apparent prosperity of the colony, everywhere visible just now, would lead one to think that no time could be better than the present for managing the affairs of New Zealand without further help from abroad. When is the colony to be able to run alone? Even the most sanguine believer in her potential destiny would not like to say positively, if he has reasoned the question out a little, and keeps his imagination in its proper place, that New Zealand will quit borrowing within the next five, ten, twenty years. The wave of depression that, according to Sir Joseph, is sure to engulph us if we don’t keep damming it back by piling up our debt ever higher and higher—is not that wave likely to continue as a standing menace that can always be urged to justify our getting more loans? For our sure protection against such a danger, the dam of real prosperity that we are raising on a solid basis of industry and well-judged enterprise can only be built with comparative slowness, like all things of lasting worth. And certainly it will be a long time before we have raised it high enough to place it beyond the risk of submersion by the wave of depression that, must, almost of necessity, follow the stoppage of our borrowing policy—whenever that takes place. Have we got to go on borrowing then for • an indefinite length of time, or till we come to the fatal impasse when we have fully mortgaged our assets and can get no more loans? The average New

Zealander, occupied with the cares and pleasures of the day, and vaguely confident of the resources of the colony and its people, is apt to respond indifferently, "What better is to be done?” Well, there is the obvious to be done, the right thing, that stares us all straight in the face; but I question if we are bravo enough to do it. and I am diffident about suggesting doing it lest I be taken for a propounder of doctrines inimical to the present comfort- of His Majesty's lieges in New Zealand. Still, I can’t see anything amiss in hinting that, looking unselfishly beyond the present, the colony should now do at once what it will inevitably have to do some day—stop borrowing, and brace itself to endure the dreaded wave of depression. The depression will pass without doing our real prosperity any permanent injury, for that is a solid structure, and it cannot fail to do much good in readjusting the sadly-displaced values of many things amongst- us. And surely we can live through a few lean years while we labour, with the assurance of gaining our end. to make their successors fat with a fatness that comes not of borrowed money, and must endure. The Collapse of the Budget. No doubt it is a very serious and very shocking state of affairs that there is so little interest in politics even amongst politicians, that the debate on the Financial Statement was allowed to fizzle out .in glorious collapse. but the situation is not without humour and not without its compensations. The press gallery men and Hansard reporters have, I make no doubt, already drunk the health of those who manipulated the rather clever and successful coup. Fancy looking forward to about a fortnight of dry as dust speeches, and having to sit through them willy-nilly, and then condense the weary columns of verbiage into the paragraph which is all the newspaper reader of to-day wants. Fancy expecting to sit up night after night, till the “wee sma’ ’ours,” and hear platitude and peroration succeed each other in endless from one eloquent gentleman to another, and then, fancy finding yourself let off with about a couple of hours or so of plain speaking and a brief Ministerial reply. No wonder there was a sound as if of many hornpipes being danced from the vicinity of the press galleries, and no wonder the Hansard men have never slice ceased to smile radiantly at the very members whom they were eyeing with such dread apprehension earlier in the week. The fact is all the members are desperately anxious to get done with this Parliament and start electioneering for the next, rhe speeches they might have made in the House will be far more suitable for their constituents, there will be fewer interruptions most likely, and more important still they will be reported at far greater length in the press. As for borrowing, the general feeling of members seems to be that it can’t be helped, and the less said about it the better. Facts are often disagreeable things to look at—the future, when it will be necessary to "pay. pay. pay” is a cold, hard, and highly objectionable one to face, ami this Parliament is evidently determined to turn its back on it. have nothing to say about anything so unpleasant. They feel like the great Louis of France, who would never have death mentioned in his presence. It’s got to come, but why get miserable over remembering it. Why not forget. All that remains now to be done is for each to grab as much as be can for his own district, and then return in triumph to make an effort for another three years' job at £ 300