CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1831, 3 May 1888, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

As USUAL there is, speaking generally, Very little interest being taken m the Local Option polls which have been or are proceeding m the various licensing districts of the colony. Here and there, owing to local circumstances, there is an exception to the rule, but the rule is that bat a very insignificant proportion of the ratepayers record their votes. In many instances only a half-dozen or so of ratepayers have recorded their votes, . and m several one [solitary individual has alone decided the issue as to whether there may or may not, for the next three years, be an increase m the number of licenses, while it has at least once happened that nobody attended the poll at all. It will not do, however, to infer from this that total abstainers and the advocates of prohibition are not m earnest m the views they advocate, or are content with a policy of words, not deeds, the explanation of their apparent apathy at polling-time being the circumstance that m but very few localities is there the smallest probability of any increase m the number of licensed houses being grantad or even asked for. Owing to the existing depression it is a very exceptional thing to find anyone who is desirous of investing capital m establishing any new busihessr m particular 80 risky a business as that of the licensed victualler, and even where such an individual can be found the teetotallers and prohibitionists scarcely need to bestir themselves, a9 sufficiently powerful opposition may be almost gafely counted upon on the part of the trade trade itself, which is certain to resist an increase m the number of mouths licensed to consume the very limited amount of cake (by which term we mean the profits of hotel-keeping) which the straitened circumstances of the public provide. Thus it happens that for Once licensed victuallers and teetotallers ate all m the same boat, and there is no fighting because all the forces are ranged on the same side. It is, however to our thinking, abundantly manifest that there is no necessity for a double set of machinery, one m connection with the election of Licensing Committees, and the other m connection with the taking of the Local Option polls, and it would tend towards economy and the public convenience if the Committees were elected triennially instead of annually, concurrently with the takiDg of the Local Option polls, and under the same machinery and management. This has been proposed m a Licensing Committees Election Bill twice brought m by Major Steward, but which has always been hung up, and will we hope form a feature m. the first Government proposal for the amendment of the existing Licensing Act. We are glad to see that the desirableness of this course was affirmedjby the Selwyn County Council a few days ago, and if a few other similar bodies were to join them by sending like recommendations to the Government, there would be a fair prospect of the early bringing about of a much-needed reform m this direction. The London " Standard " notwithstanding, the recent report of the Bank of New Zealand is of a nature calculated to reassure those timid persons at Home and elsewhere, who had begun to believe that New Zealand was rapidly descending into the avernus of commercial ruin, and who professed to fear that the ugly spectre of " repudiation " was not afar off. The Bank is a very faithful reflex of the condition of the country. It has had its losses no doubt, but its condition like that of the colony is nevertheless healthy and sound, and with prudent management there is no reason for fear as to the future either of the one or the other. Despite bad times, the colony, to use a current colloquialisom, is " as safe as the Bank " and we may add that the Bank is as safe as the colony. The truth is that the cry, and the fact of the depression notwithstanding, New Zealand has been, and is going ahead through it all, just as a steamer though she encounter adverse winds, and heavy seas is always making headway — and we are going ahead faster than many people think. This was shown very conclusively m the capital speech made by Mr Rhodes, M.H.R, a few days ago at Temuka by a reference to the growth of our export trade. Our exports m wool have increased from 59,415,940 lbs m 1881, to 90,850,744 lbs m 1886, m butter from 246 cwt m 1881 to 23,175 cwt m 1886, m cheese from 3056 cwt m 1881 to 16,429 cwt m 1886, and m frozen sautton from nil m 1881 to 346,055 cwt m 1886. All this is plain proof of Bound progress, notwithstanding the depression caused by low prices, and leaves "absolutely no standing ground for those miserable croakers who like the editor of the " Standard " are never happy except when they are prophesying disaster.