THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1888. THE LOAN BILLS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2610, 18 August 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1888. THE LOAN BILLS.

Although it is to bo presumed that the Government will be able to carry through their Loan Bills, yet there will be no doubt a considerable amount of hard fighting before they pass. And, indeed, it is naturally to be expected that a good deal of wrangling should take place when the very crude proposals of the Government are taken into consideration. We have several times given it as our opinion that the whole of the loan proposals have been based on no broad policy, but on one of expediency. The linos laid down in the original Public Works scheme have been abandoned for the sole purpose of gaining votes. It has been endeavored to propitiate the Otago members, for instance, by the offer of their Central Railway—although, by the way, the attempt has not proved a success for in the no-confidence debate they almost all of them declared against the present Ministry. But wo have not hitherto drawn attention to the remarkable hurry in which this policy was taken up, and which has resulted in the present state of confusion. Before Parliament met nobody had the slightest idea as to the determination of the Goverment with regard to loan proposals. From what has since transpired it is strongly to be suspected that the Government itself was, up to a very late date, as much abroad as anybody else. If wo mistake not the signs of the times, the matter was settled at the last moment, when it was altogether too late to mature the proposals. Hence in the late debates on the loans it has

been made very evident that Government 1 are not able to guide the House to any settled conclusion. They have no ideaas to the proper route of the North Island main trunk line; they have quite as small an inkling as to the proper direction for the extension of out line north; and, if they are somewhat less hazy as to the Otago main central, it is because the Otago members have taken the matter out of their hands, and have made up their own minds as to the route it shall take. Seeing that the Government policy was one of expediency, only, we are not prepared, however, to assert that there may not be some advantages to the present holders of power,, as a matter of party tactics, in the loose' manner in which their schema has been presented to Parliament. Holding, as we do, that Ministers are not in their hearts at all devoted to their offspring, they are more free to shape their course when the groundwork of their scheme is of so very unsubstantial acharacter. Wo should say, from what has transpired that Ministers would not be in the least annoyed if the whole onus of the Northern Main Trunk line were | shifted on to the shoulders of the next session of Parliament. The idea obtaining most favor at present is that the proper route should be ascertained and then laid, after the recess, before the House for confirmation. Northern members are evidently dissatisfied at this proposal, which would leave their lino still a thing of the future. Then again, with regard to our Northern extension, ithas yet to be seen whether a similar proposal will not find favor with the House. Mr, Dargaville has only postponed his motion that “no money be expended on the Blenheim South, Waikari North, and Otago Cental linesnntil the routes have been fully surveyed, the cost estimated, and the plans, &0., approved by Parliament.” With regard to the two first of these lines it is possible that the proposal will be entertained, because the same makeshift policy will be a very convenient one for Government. As to the Otago Central, we shonld feel much surprised if Ministers are allowed to shilly-shally. There is indeed no question about the route in this case, because all the land wanted can easily be acquired, the railway is already pushed on to a certain ex. tent, and the country to be opened out is quite determined on—at .least by the Otago members. The matter then comes to this, that the least desirable of all the linos proposed is the most likely to benefit immediately by the Government scheme. A line, in short, which is nothing more or less than a branch line,, is in a much, better position than those which satisfy the requirements of the Public Works scheme as being main trunk lines. And' this is purely the result of the Government policy of expediency, backed up bya total amount of preparation. It would be a wonderful satire on the Government if. the session were to close with the Northern Main Trunk Railway, and our Northern Extension schemes ehnnted on to the. shoulders of another session, the only important line that was to be immediatelyproceeded with being the Otago Central. And yet this is quite on the cards. And, moreover, we do not suppose that Ministers would be particularly grieved if this state of things were to eventuate. Indeed we are not at all sure that they would not rather chuckle over the donoumenf. They would probably think that they were well out of the wood, and would feel quite prepared to exclaim “ sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” But this certainly cannot he called statesmanship ; it cannot even be termed business-like. Ministers have had ample time to mature their plans, and should have laid before Parliament their proposals cat and dried. Instead of this they are entirely at sea, and are likely to come to a determinate result only in the least desirable instance. And when we ask ourselves whether the Opposition, if they had been in power, would' have acted in a different manner, we are forced to the conclusion that they would not. In the debates on these Bills not a spark denoting any higher aims than have animated the Government has been struck out of the Opposition benches. Isolated individuals alone have taken a higher key, and even these members havo confessed themselves to he overborn by the weight of circumstances. We have no wish to be pessimists, but still it isimpossible to examine the present mnddls without arriving at the conclusion that the action of the Government has been feeble, weakly rash, and time-serving, while that of the Opposition has not been one iota more satisfactory.