THE FUTURE.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 95, 26 October 1868, Page 261

THE FUTURE.

rotten old l|^y®l^^^.^i^tme i^^)te^^ii/;i-the. ’■^^^'^^^^^.'''.^^’'.lJfbyinciaL^Groyern--I?^feijA J^j .§;' can-:no the colony—that sol vent^rovinces—will have to ’ :’!:]|^^^.^‘fbr^the’.cftst^of." their gdyern’Southland,\: and arerincluded in this list; ;'\the;Oovernment had been honest • 'I • enough to ldok the matter honestly in ?*%'fifffyHey 'they-'might have added «nepr two more: We will not*attempt to follow Mr 'Hall's, figures too: closely for.two reasons; first, because we ah ' ::together disbelieve! :in. the figures ot • this'class of estimates, and second be = cause it is nearly impossible to understand them astheyare given"' in the

■. //telegram.--.’-There is. matter enough, .; however, © us to a pretty accurate conclusion when we couple it with a general knowledge of facts as they ■:; -exist. : The ;'Miu istry ask for powers to raise, equip, and maintain a force of onethousand men—-the - rate of pay : to ,be ; five-shillings a day; this item alone will amount to i? 90,000 a-year. Add to this, the pay of the officers, the -clothing, arms, rations, and general ; expenses attaching to such a force, and - we may . fairly, .calculate that it will reach the sum of 200,000. Of course the Government say they can do it for y?ry much less, that they will most likely want only half the number of men, and that they can squeeze the money out of the balance of the loan, the recoupment from Southland, and the issue of Treasury Bills. By whatever process of financialfiuoodliug they may seem to obtain the money, it must come out of the taxpayer’s pocket, sooner or later.

Upon one thing we may congratulate the Ministry. At last they have discovered that “ the Maori contest threatens to assume propoitions requiringjargerprovision than was originally anticipated.” To use the hon. Mr John Hall’s own very poetical words, -■■■'** .dark clouds are hanging over otbes parts of the colony besides Patea” ihe public will be delighted to learn that the Ministry are at last alive to the iipmineuce of the crisis. To use their own words,. “ they are watching the....clouds,.anxiously ,- hoping they will disperse.” A tuo exacimg public might that this is precisely what vM?- e y hiave been, doing all the time the colony has been drifting into war, and .. .that; it they: have not any other plan oi meeting the difficulty, it is hopeless to expect they ever will. The people oi Uliristchurdi had arrived, two mouths ago, ..at the, point now reached by Mr Hall and his friends.

‘ We confess that we contemplate the fixture with intense, anxiety. War has commenced, and a war expenditure is . being quietly voted by a House tired bya third of.its mein- : hers.. Exceptional powers and large revenues are being granted to a Miuis--'-try.-which no longer commands the confidence of the country. Fresh taxatipp stares us in the face in every direction, and -this at. a time when our -own affairs are daily becoming worse and worse.' -If the news which reached yesterday—that vrool has again fallen from twhpence to threepence a - pound—:-turns out to be true, the con•sequences: will be truly disastrous to

this island. At the same tiine, every--tiling points in the direction of a serious iall in'the price of wheat all over the world, anil that will equally affect ; another ,of our chief producing classes. 3uch- a' time it is absolutely cr.uel money, ; Should be wasted : like water in the prosecution vof bloody quarrels , with the Native - on-by the and : of ; those towhomthe a ffairs pf ,the colony have •. i ,ifintriusted. It .is impossible, not ; ' to ' entertain the. most gloomy views of . thej future^ofxNewiZealandi hut there is one:grim satisfaction left. ; Hitherto;' looked-upon las ,cow s ;v : isgfa@t .dry;.: and : when that stage is reached there will be soni%hbp4ifoflUsV ~ *