Mataura Ensign GORE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1884. RESTORING CONFIDENCE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 404, 28 October 1884, Page 2

Mataura Ensign GORE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1884. RESTORING CONFIDENCE.

The policy of the Government is , action. Theoretical bills form scarcely any part of their programme. Sir Julltjs Yogel declared in his first deliverance on New Zealand politics in the present campaign that want of confidence was the disease from which the Colony was suffering. Since then he has been busy concocting and administering stimulants, mostly of a palatable kind, to make tho patient rally. He is determined that New Zealand shall not, like Mrs Dombey, die for want of making an effort. If she has no mind or will of her own he will galvanise her stiff limbs, and inaka her go, like himself, gout or no gout. Hitherto the effect upon the body public has been but •slight. Some incredulous twitchings have been observed about the corners of the mouth, the eyes have opened wide now and then, and the right hand has made some convulsive clutches in the direction of the pocket, as if anticipating the doctor's bill. Bub the effect upon the miniature body upon which the. wizard experiments is amaz'ng. It capers round as nimbly as if to the "lascivious pleasing of a lute, in a lady's chamber." The body representative is thoroughly under the influence of the magician. He says 14 Go "and it goetli, *< Come" and, it cometh. It has discovered that after all credit is not exhausted, and that several millions can yet be spent, and thatthtey had better be spent at ones and by it. In short, as far as the House is concerned, confidence is nor, nuiy restored, bui there is no small danger of roasouaije confidence being exceeded. Hugo proposals which a year ago would have been simply laughed out of court are now swallowed like cherrits, without information, or calculation. Some of the SuJls are little more than leaps in the f'Wfc, and are saturated with the spi i of gambling and speculation. But confident and reckless as the. House as ji whole appears to be, it is cautious -enough taken individually and keeps si iirm grip of tii« strings of the private purse, and that js emblematic of the condition of the Colony. There \h eonfrdenea or HstleFsnes.es about in it tera thufc concern everybody. Bu L . i here is no indi.vt!ual and priv.-t? oo n ljd once. We do uoi hear of tin lioai'Js of tho coloni 1 inilteonasLrea i t;ing unlocked lor the employment of: labor .or of properties changing iuuids at good prices. Whether Sir.--4sXivs will jet succeed in galvanising

bbc public remains to bo scon. There is certainly room to hope tint whmj his schemes have time to gut undor <v« igh the stimulants, now t'-.-lt by ihhead only ? will make tho \eiy litter ends and toes glow with a comfortable warmth.