OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 3, 25 December 1856, Page 2

OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

I do not like the phrase—public men are public property but that the politieal acts of public men are public property no reasonable man will deny. Superintendent Williamson has worked his way to honorable distinction ; he holds the highest provincial office under the Crown, and upon the policy he may think fit to pursue will in a great measure depend the future of this Colonv.

It behoves us then seriously to consider what this important, personage proposes to do, at least, so far as what he proposes to do may be gathered from his promises, which, as I have in former articles endeavoured to show, are admirable.

But the promises of politicians, like the vows of lovers, are not always kept. It too frequently happens that politicians are mere “ wind-bags,” wholesale dealers in verbiage and nothing else, who turn lazy the. moment they get into a place. Pressure from without is a sure remedy for this evil. And all that we have to do in order to keep the laziest of Superintendents up to his work is just to create a popular opinion in favor of measures called for by the exigencies of the times. No people politically well educated will tolerate rulers who keep the word of promise to the ear but break it to the hope. The people make and can unmake rulers—on their breath depends not only tho form of government, but the way in which government shall be carried on. Opinion is omnipotent. If men are badly governed it is because they are badly taught; because they take crows for swans, geese for eagles, and donkeys for lions. An enlightened people will not allow their rulers to talk as if mountains were mole-hills and to act as if mole-hills were mountains. Reason contents them, but to be humbugged they will not pay. What then have we to do in order to make our Superintendent faithful to his promises ? Why enlighten the people; politicnlly so to educate them that their rulers who fail to do their duty will not find themselves on a bed of roses. I like the Benthamite apothegm—it is only BY MAKING TAE RULING FEW UNEASY THAT THE SUFFERING MANY CAN HOPE TO OBTAIN SUBSTANTIAL RELIEF. I am far from wishing to see the people of this or auy other state agitate for the sake ef agitating. But my advice is that they never cease agitating till they get what they ought to have, and what they ought to have 1 will endeavour to tell them.

Newspaper writers are usually nothing if not critical. My steep aim” is to be constructive as well as destructive ; to be a pointer out of right paths as well as a warner against wrong ones. Politicians who confine themselves to croaking and carping are uufeathered bipeds of very ill omen indeed. Now, amongst the promises Superintendent Williamson seems likely to keep is the promise to reduce our expenditure, more especially in regard to the cost of Government. We are to have it cheap. There are to be no more cats than are willing and able to catch mice. But it is quite possible that the Government our Superintendent might call cheap 1 should consider dear. The nasty is never cheap. What some people call cheap clothing I always considered particularly dear. Formerly in England hats might be had for “ four and nine but they were “ shocking bad.’ One at a guinea would better square with my notions of economy, for one good hat will last longer than half-a-dozeu bad ones. As with hats and small clothes so with Governments whose wisdom may be “ uncommon” dear even though we get it for nothing. Of course, where extravagance is the order of the day and Government handsomely paid for doing what it ought not to do or leaving undone what it ought to do, the candle burns at both ends, —an unpleasant sight for all but political tallow-chandlers. The case of a Government with regard to expenditure is precisely that .of an individual. I often meet men who take great pains to diminish their outlay but are incapabla of judicious measures jfor improving their income. They think more of saving what they have than of producing what they have not. No sane man will question that our expenditure is out of all proportion to our actual producing power. But I would rather see resources so developed that ample work might be found for such Government labourers as are “ worthy of their hire,” than see expenditure cut down to the dwarfish dimensions of a miserable system. Byall means let economy be accepted as a principle, but at the same time let us mind how we apply it, for a nominally economical Government may turn out to be really the most extravagant one. Broad-minded men are less intent upon contracting their expenses than upon enlarging their means. While their neighbours are higgling about sixpences they make a dash at pounds. The spirit of these men is the spirit in which Government should be carried on. We do not want a spurious economy with no other end and aim than perpetuating indefinitely the policy of stagnation. We do want a true economy whose entire scope and tendency will be the indefinite development of our vast natural resources.

Superintendent Williamson has a glorious chance, If the people at his back will let him put axe to the root of our political Upas I think him bold enough to make the attempt. What remains to be proved is the capacity of the man. Upon that vital point 1 confess myself dubious. Good intentions are common but genius is rare. No doubt Superintendent Williamson intends to manage affairs in the best possible manner and has raised the “cheap Government” cry in good faith. I should be serry to believe him either a knave in politics, or a hypocrite in religion ; and not until his acts justify so grave an impeachment will he find me among his accusers. _At present my attitude is expectant; the attitude of a looker-on who wishes to be pleased and will be first to applaud our Superintendent if that distinguished person demonstrates by nnmistakeable acts his ability to give us Government good as well as cheap, because in matters Governmental no less than in others quite different the cheap and nasty system will sooner or later produce enormous mischief. Reasoners who account for our present embarrassments by reference to the cost of Government in this I'roviuce are on a level in point of wisdom with the sage who accounted for the extreme length of au enbrmous cable by supposing that somebody had cut off the end of it. PUBLICOLA.