The Feilding Star, Oraua & Kiwitea Counteis Gazette. Published Daily. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1895. A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 154, 31 December 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oraua & Kiwitea Counteis Gazette. Published Daily. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1895. A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

m We have again the pleasure of wishing our readers " A Happy New Ye ; *r." So far as we may judge there is every indication that during the coming year there will be no change in the material prosperity of this district, except for the better. The land 13 fertile, the people industrious, and the prices to be obtained for their produce promise to be much better than was the case last year. At one time it looked as if the year 1896 was to be distinguished by a war betweeen the United States of America and England, brought about by the criminal folly of a professional politician. Fortunately that calamity has been so far averted, although at the cost of the ruin of thousands of unoffending persons. In a few months this colony will be in the midst of the turmoil and trouble of a general election — which, in our ease, means a struggle for place and power. Tlve true welfare of the people appears to be the last consideration of a vast majority o£ those who seek to become their representatives in Parliament. However, New Zealand is no exception in this respect, and we believe our House of Representatives will in the near future, as hi the past, compare favourably with that of any other in the Australian colonies wjiene payment of members obtains. Wi>fctluj* the present Ministry or the Opposition will win the victory is very uncertain, aad th/atfy aro indications that tUe aext occupants o£

the Treasury benches will be what is sometimes termed a Coalition Ministry — whose vices, like their virtues, will be ot negative quality. One thing ii certain — that the prayers of all good colonists should be offered up for the advent of a Colonial Treasurer who will have the ability to grasp the situation, and help to litt the finances of the colony out of the mire they have been plunged into by the present " non borrowing " Ministry. No sensible man would pretend to say that the Ministry were responsible for the depression which New Zealand only shared with the rest of the world, but it is notorious that instead of doing any thing to mitigate the e\ il they accentuated it by bad management. Whether the new borrowing policy j which we are told by those who profess to know is to be brought for- J ward, will find favor in the eyes I of the people remains to be seen, but prudent men will ask if the administration of such policy, if adopted, should not be entrusted to the hands of a Ministry whose political views are not subject to such violent changes, and whose political ethics are beyond suspicion. This is by the way. The year 1896 is big with the fate of the colony politically, but with such a splendid climate, a fertile soil, pushing and energetic settlers, the probabilities of prolonged peace in Europe, and the certainty that commercial prosperity all over the world is increasing day by day, we have very little, if any, hesitation in saying that the people of New Zealand will enjoy and appreciate A Happy New Year. j