Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APBIL 21, 1896.

Manawatu Herald, 21 April 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APBIL 21, 1896.

The Prosperity of the Colony. Now thai a general election is drawing nigh we shall have the Government by the mouth oi Ministers and also by the few papers that profess to uphold them, declaring with all the assurance that is natural to them that the colony is in a satisfactory position. To have to deny this is most unfortunate, and figures have but little attraction for the multitude, and thus statements involving the enumeration of figures, made by either Government or Opposition are carelessly glanced over and laid aside. It is such an easy thing to deny the accuraoy of any financial statement by the hackneyd quotation i that figures can be made to prove anything. Thu3 public writers ' I avoid figures and by doing so get < I placed in an inconvenient position I

to explain that which appears wrong , in their eyes and to the disadvantage of the State. On this coast we have had the experience of the unußual furore occasioned in favour of the present Ministry last election, for though the Government candidate was defeated by the sitting member, he polled more votes that his best friends expected. We did not support the Government then and are not likeiy to at the coming election, but we have in no way exaggerated their faults nor have we withheld the publication of anything to their credit. We have endeavoured to act fairly by both <odps and phall still try to do so, but what we have to eay will qbow that, the Government have done nothing this past three years for this electorate likely to have increased their popularity, but rather otherwise. The present Government got into power under the idea that their labour legislation would give the workman, work, and the small settler an outlet for his produce at enhanced prices. We all know, to our cost, what dismal failure this has been and that every man woman and child in the colony are worso off than they were three years ago, and the colony is deeper in debt. Look nearer home; Has the Government done any good lor us. They have a State farm at Levin which has acted as a clog upon the efforts of independent settlers, for the manager could only understand how to get a revenue by acting in direct competition with them, and thus cutting down the price of their labour. Surely this is not a Liberal success ? To the many thinga the Government might have lent a hand to further develope the Otaki electorate they have turned a deaf ear, and on the important subject of aid to the flax industry have obstinately provided a sum which has been proved too small to effect the object for which it waa offered. Before the last election " a long felt want " was supplied in the establishment of a Liberal newspaper at Shannon, and in spite of its efforts to advance the township it represented, the Liberal " boom *' has so collapsed that busi*. ness there may be termed dull, and it is rumoured the inhabitants, are contemplating as wholesale an emigration to some spot aa was made by Brigham Young from the United States to Utah. If this is the result of supporting Liberalism, or is the work of Liberalism, then any other kind of ism would appear better.