The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1882.

Kumara Times, Issue 1698, 9 March 1882, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1882.

All well-informed politicians appear to be unanimous in holding the opinion (liat another New Zealand loan is inevitable, and it is stated that when Parliament assembles, the House will be asked to authorise the raising of another five millions. Now, further loans mean more taxation, and more burdens on the people, who will have to pay equally the interest on the loans and eventually tho principal as well. But they mean more than this. They mean in sober fact", that certain parts wf the colony are to get the benefit of the expenditure of the money, while others afe to be left out in the cold ; that is what they they really mean. They piobably mean (hat Otago will receive twcr millions, Canterbury an equal amount, while Taranaki may and doubtless will, consider itself entitled to receive the balance of such a loan. With regard to financial matters it is altogether vain to suppose for a moment

that ordinary party ties will influence the House, There will certainiy be the usual scramble, and every one will try to obtain as much as he can for his own distiict ; that in certain. But all the argument and all the lighting cannot destroy or remove the fact which stares us in the face—that Otago and Canterbury possess a preponderance of the voting power in the House, and in the event of a rtew loan being raised, the two favored districts will make common cause and apportion the vrioney according td their own swteet Wills. Everything points to this, and in spite of what may be silid by leading journals throughout the colony as to this or that members being for of agaiust the Government, when the scramble tor the money comes on, there will be united action mi the part of thdse who have it in their power to do what they like with loans or anything else! Under such circumstances, the representatives from many parts of the colony will be placed in a rather awkward position. It may be that they are opposed, on principle, to the raising of further loans, knowing that New Zealand is at the present time owing more money in proportion to its population than any other in the world, or they may hold the opinion that their chance of obtaining a fair share of what is going is remarkably small, and in either case may vote against the Government proposals. If they do this, they will at once he told that they are always crying out for the expenditure of money in their districts, and that when an opportunity occurs to undertake the works said to be required, they do all they can to defeat their own object. It must nob be forgotten that in the present Parliament an exceptionally large number of members are entirely new to political life, while a score of others have just as much experience as has enabled them to obtain a dim insight into the forms of the Hounb, and possibly a still more indistinct view of the past political history of the colony, and of a portion of its legislation. As for the House being divided into two parties, Liberals and Conservatives, that is it I ter nonsense. There are probably not more than half-a-dozen thorough Conservatives in what it is now considered the correct thing to call “ the Lower House.” With those exceptions, the distinction exists hut in name. As for the Government not being able to hold their own against all comers, we do no not. believe a single word of it. They understand the situation precisely ; they know exactly how the laud lies, and will doubtless apportion the proceeds of tiie loan, should such he raised, in such a manner as to meet the views of the majority of the House who are henceforth to rule the colony.