Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1880. THEORIES OF RETRENCHMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 97, 30 July 1880, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1880. THEORIES OF RETRENCHMENT.

There is a certain merchant at Wellington called Newman — a gentleman who is not destitute of "parts," but whose "parts" are vastly smaller than he himself believes them to be. He suffers from an inordinate thirst for popularity, and certainly loses no opportunity of trotting himself out. Two or three times he has " run " himself for the Wellington City Council, and been on each occasion beaten. Then, again, at last election, in direct opposition to the wishes and entreaties of numbers of friends who knew his weight far better than himself, he persisted in an attempt to get returned for the City. He held a meeting, he delivered a speech, and having by this time gained an idea of what the public really estimated him at, he retired, it was thought for ever, from the political arena. Not so, however, for a few days ago "A. K. Newman " unburdened himself on the retrenchment question, giving Parliament some advice for which no doubt " Honorable Legislative Councillors and Members of the House of Representatives " will be thankful to the degree it merits. The writer states eight different directions in which he believes retrenchment could be effected. Here is No. 1: —

By refusing to allow corporate bodies to borrow large sums in the English market, all of which lowers our national credit, unless it can be shown that such works will be profitable, and not like the thousauds thrown into the sea at Wanganui, Taranaki, Napier, Duu*dir., Timaru, and a host of other places, all of which, oven if ultimately successful, must ultimately diminish the national revenue by damaging the railway receipts. .

The mournful wail which closes the sentence, and the manner in which the railways are pitted against the harbours, suggests that this Solomon of the 19th century wishes to centralise the trade in the four large centres, and close up all harbours, so that water carriage may not compete with the railways ; in fact, in No. 2 he advocates retrenchment

By abolishing many of the useless ports of entry, some of which swallow as much as 85 per cent in working expenses. The simple effect of such a course would be to prevent merchants at places which are now ports of entry from importing* direct from European markets, and thus concentrating business in Wellington, to the direct benefit of such firms as that with which Dr Newman is connected.

A further means of retrenchment indicated by Dr. Newman is "By refusing money for water race construction." We doubt very much if he really knows what a water race is. If he does, he must be aware that water is absolutely necessary on every gold field, and that if there were no water races two-thirds of the miners now at work in the Colony would be thrown out of employment.. Such works as these are reproductive in the truest sense, as water power is to a miner what a good road or railway is to the farmer. Without a road or railway along which he can carry his produce to market the farmer's land is "useless, and without water to separate the gold from the washdirt the miner is brought to a standstill. With a strange inconsistency, Dr. Newman says, a few paragraphs lower down, " Parliament might try to help us to bear our grievous burdens by striving to develope the resources of the colony, by opening up our mines, by improving our agriculture, by extending and fostering our foreign trade." And how is Parliament to do all these things ? Is Parliament to foster foreign trade, by closing small ports of entry and saying, " You must deal at Wellington?" Are our gold mines to be opened up by Government refusing

assistance to secure supplies of water? Dr Newmans letter does not fit ■f|pgstfeer, ftucl however skilful be may,, lie as^flriiiedical man, or 'cute as a merchant, this effusion shows politics is a subject 'lie should 1 hot dabble in.