MUDDLE AND FOLLY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 7, 10 June 1887, Page 15

MUDDLE AND FOLLY.

fHERE is to be a general election shortly, and a second session of Parliament this year. Nothing need be said about the expense of the election, as it should come this year in any case. But the second session will entail an additional expenditure of twenty-four thousand pounds sterling, and this is no joke for the Colony in these days of deficits and additional taxation. And what is it all for ? The good of the Colony, is it ? What a farce ! The good of the Colony, indeed ! No ; but to gratify the ambition of a few politicians who hope, in the shuffle of the cards, that something to their personal advantage may turn up. For this the country is to be put to the unnecessary expense of twenty-four thousand pounds . But, it is said, the Tariff proposals of the Treasurer were inadmissible. But what if the country should, nevertheless, approve of them ? Won't the Opposition look foolish then, and the Radical supporters of squatters extremely ridiculous ? And it is quite possible, nay probable, that the country will give Ministers a majority in the next Parliament. The necessity of appealing to the country, which the action of the Opposition rendered inevitable, was not so urgent that a few months' delay might not have been permitted. The proposals of the Treasurer could have been very well accepted for one year. At the worst, no great harm could result from such an acceptation even if the country should go against him at the hustings, and meantime twenty-four thousands pounds could be saved. So long as our hideous education expenditure is permitted to go on, money must be got somehow, and additional taxes imposed every year. All the financial troubles of the Colony took their rise in this immense expenditure. The history of deficits is contemporaneous with the Education Act, and until that Act shall be amended in accordance with common sense and justice, deficits or crushing taxation will continue. What was the expenditure for education during the last financial year ? From a return made to a motion moved by the Hon. Mr. Holmes this expenditure amounted last year to the enormous sum of £550,000, more than half a million sterling. Two-thirds of this sum are quite unnecessary—a wanton, wicked expenditure. At trie present moment there are twenty thousand children in this country who are receiving an excellent education without a shilling's expense to the Government. Why could not at least forty thousand more be educated at the expense of their own parents as well aB the twenty thousand first mentioned ? There really is no reason whatever. So here a saving of about two hundred thousand pounds could be effected at once, and then other savings in the education department could be easily brought about. But no ; this is not to be thought of, and whilst hundreds of thousands of pounds are annually squandered in giving a free education to the children of well-to-do parents, the country, in order to prolong this folly, is crushed with an insane system of finance and unnecessary taxes. Things have now come to a standstill so far as public works are concerned. There is to be no more borrowing, and this means no more railways, no more harbours, or bridges, etc. And why ? Because more than half a million a year has to be provided to pay for the free education of the children of well-to-do people. A people taxed to the tune of oier five pounds sterling per head is to be taxed again and again, over

and above these five pounds and more, and for what ? Why, to give free education to the children of well-to-do people 1 A. people whose trade, and commerce, and revenue are all declining, are to be burdened with additional taxes, and for what ? Why, to give a free education to the children of well-to-do people ! No more railways are to be made, or roads, or bridges ; economy, even penuriousness is to be the order of the day in all departments except one, and why ? In order that a free education may be given to the children of well-to-do people. The various public services, on which the advancement of the country depends are to be curtailed, and the salaries of all public oflcials, except schoolmasters, are to be cut down to starving point, and why ? Why, because, otherwise, a free education could not be given to the children of well-to-do people. Agriculture may go to the dogs ; mining be regarded, as it is by some, as a nuisance ; manufactures may become extinguished, but we shall have a people educated; so educated, solely at the expense of the State, that there shall be, by and bye, neither work for them to do nor bread to eat. This is what our sapient statesmen are working for, unconsciously, we admit, but, nevertheless, really. Such a piece of folly and blindness as our present systemgof politics is, the world never beheld before. And we are going to have a general election and a second session at enormous expense, for no other purpose that we can see than to emphasise this folly and blindness. Not a Minister or expectant Minister in or out of Parliament has the courage and honesty to say what we are convinced every intelligent man in the country feels, that a radical change must bo made m our educational system, or relief of the depression is not to be hoped for. Were it not for this insane system there would be no depression here.