Indiscreet Speeches

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 120, 2 April 1891, Page 2

Indiscreet Speeches

♦ The Ministry so far have been unfortunate in their selection of speakers and subjects at public banquets. The Hon. Mr Seddon was guilty of : a number of indiscretions at the Nel ' son one, while the Premier, at New Plymouth, has gone even farther on • the downward path. Mr Ballance is reported to have said in his afteri dinner speech : — "After seeing New Plymouth harbor he thought a' great task had been accomplished, and that a small expenditure would make the > harbor capable of whac it was intended for.-- A little more determina- ; tion would ultimately make the harbor a complete success. A small expenditure in dredging would enable , the largest interprovincial steamer to ' trade with New l'lymoubh. It has been said in the House of Represen- ; tatives that money had been thrown ' "away, but he thought it had bfceu well spent, and the harbor was as good as those of Timaru, Oamaru, or . any other ocean harbor in the colony." : This was very " pleasant fooliog" for the good people of Taranaki, but it * was hardly discreet on the part of the Premier, unless he- intends to find the money "to enable the laigest inter ; provincial steamers to trade with New Plymouth" by lengthening the breaki water, and keeping a proper depth ofwater alongside of it by dredging Nor was it"~kind. of Ml 1 Ballance to I raise hojfes that cannot be realised in the present state of the revenue of the colony. It would be a strange freak on the part of the Ministry to squan*. der the money saved by " retrenching policemen" in playing with the sand alongside the Taranaki breakwater.