MR. ORMOND, M.H.R., ON THE FINANCIAL POSITION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 154, 29 June 1880, Page 4

MR. ORMOND, M.H.R., ON THE FINANCIAL POSITION.

*• [« New Zealand Times."] \ Mr Ormond's speech in tbe financial L debate on Thursday rjight 1 was a : very able one in some respects. The SBgar city with which he contrived to pot in "the bitterest way, within the limits of a '- "short and conspicuously temperate .address, any- grievance (hat any ae'c tion of the House felt against the policy of I Attic Government was very striking. AH the preceding speakers on: the '*-'- * Opposition* side put together bad not ' succeeded in making half 'so.eff^otive attack as he, made., They evidently 'rfecpghise'd that it was so, for they ap■*pla*uded him enthusinstically throughout his speech, as if they felt that he '^wa^ really' a credit to them His repeated assurance that he waa a sup- . Ypprter of. the Government, and. that all ' J his" "strictures were only in the way of friendly criticism, but added piquancy to a speech which far surpassed in bosTtility any delivered by their avowed - -opponents. He is, we think, the Jonly speaker in the debate who has not; said one, good word for the Government. ;3Eveh' Mr Bryce, whose native administration is admitted on all sides tb en.'"ltitleV'WinVfo'eom'e' credit, failed to draw ''"'mm' him a sign of approbation. Yet, with all this severity, Mr Ormond displayed no trace of party feeling. On •" tiie [contrary, heTwas eminently impartial- iv .his distribution, of blame. ; He went to great pains to impress upon the House that he had no confidence in anybody living. He began by showing ;; that he could not possibly ; put any confidence in Mr Macandrew, owing to lhe unpractical nature of bis proposals. Then he announced, his total want of confidence in the Government, after which* he went more into detail/and explained why he left himself constrained to withdraw bis confidence from each individual, Minister. Next he declared that he had not the slightest confidence in himself, and that he was prepared to swallow, everything that he had said or done' for the last ten years. Finally be announced that he could not EkPB- or -' J^h _Bjnendjnent because he; had no confidence whatever in Sir George Grey. Now, that was a thoroughpaced no-confidence speech, and none of your half-hearted, one-sided affairs. The only weak point in it was where <Mr ■' Ormond invoked the shade of ; Sir jDon aid McLean, and said be did not think he would have countenanced corruption. But for that filmy outline of a different sentiment, Mr Ormond's speech would have been a perfect ex- '■'--■ presaibn of want of confidence in 'the whole human family. Regarded, though, in a dramatic light, that single exception was powerfully affecting. On the one band stand all the puny, - - -fresh^and-blood realities of the passing - hour— no.t. worth ; one moment's - trust "'" ■■■■■■' XAi A. 'AX

from him. Ho, in the middle stage, stands uncertain, trembling. But on the other band, reared aloft, immovable, transcendent, Stat noininis umbra. Classic tragedy,' however, ,is not politics, and. Mr Ormond's attempt to seize the House by such a pold appeal to their mere intellect was a solemn failure. "Of the dead say nought bot what is good/ is a maxim by itself. It loses force by sudden contrast with its converse, VOf the living say nought but what is bad." Apart from its unique oharacter as a deadly attack on a Ministry by one of their" most prominent supporters, there was not much strength ih Mr Ormond's speech. It was palpably selfish to the last degree, aad the abBPuce of all decent covering for its' selfishness muet, we think, be deemed a great defect in it as a work of J art. Mr Ormond did not even pretend" to have any public spirit, or to' conceal the panic of taxation which was shaking the very coins in his breeches pocket. Now, that is not a favorable frame of mind in which to propound an elaborate scheme of polioy; and we are bound to say that .Mr Ormond's secheme bears evidence of haste and trepidation. He first proposes to relieve property from all taxation. ; Well, that is simple enough, and highly satisfactory as. far as it goes. . Then he';pro- v poses to dismiss a quarter of a million's worth of eivir servants and to cut down the salaries of the rest. That is easy enough, and nothing could be more pleasant. A Government that cannot do an easy little job like that are not worth their wages. Then, though, .he begins to get a little loose. He proposes to put on an income tax, but only on professional people, mercantile men, and vulgaires riches of that kind. \ We admit, of courae, that great property owners are the salt of the earth, and that lawyers, and doctors, and bankers, and the trading classes generally,^ are exceedingly low. But still they have their feelings. A worm will turn, and we fear that if nous autres stand quite so much aloof as to escape all taxation, it will cauße a coolness which is just as well avoided. Then Mr Ormond proposes to sell all ! tbe Crown lands except what are euitable for settlement. Not lands near railways wbich will always fetch their price, not fertile plains which can be cut up and sold joh deferred payments for settlements of working men,~not these, but pastoral lands. All . the snowy, mountains in Canterbury and Otago, all the Kaikouras and that sort of country, all the pumice deserts of the North Island — bring them to the hammer" and knock them" do writo ; the highest bidder without the slightest regard,for .the highest bidder's /feelings. Thirteen millions of acres — does it; not sound a lot ? Yee, but bow much

an acre will it fetch ? That is the question. The other question isl how much would it cost to survey, and how much would be; left towards paying off the debt of thirty millions ?"• Yet Mr Ormond calls Mr Macandrew unpractical merely because he wants to convert the superannuated civil servants into sturdy yeomen at one wave of his spectacles. Mr Ormond's next happy thought is to sell all the railways to a private company^ ahd to give jt:hem besides as an encouragement to finish' the lines, all the land wbich has ' been already reserved for settlement. This, of course, is a mere question Yof price ; but we cannot help thinking thai the price which would suit the company "would not suit "the' colony. What we mean is that it would be depressipg to sell for three or four millions whaij cost us twelve, and to see a foreign company coining money out of the railways ( while we were still paying interest on • three- fourths of their cost. It occurs to us that Mr Ormond may not quite have thought out this part of his ] subject. One thing, though, he has quite made up his mind about, and that is that the provincial system ought to be restored, with modifications. These modifications, if we understand Mr Ormond rightly, are the elimination of the legislative and "executive" "elements, and the substitution for them of a genial' and inexpensive oligarchy. How this reform would aid in setting the finances of the colony straight Mr Ormond omitted to explain. Perhaps he was afraid of giving rise to recrimination. We never knew so tender a politician as he is. He began his speech by expressing his extreme anxiety to avoia recrimination, and he repeated that phrase at every convenient period until the end. The intervals he occupied by treading on everybody's toes, and flourishing, red rags towards every bull, big or little, in the field. We very much .fear that LMr Ormond was not designed by Providence to save the country. — •*' irr.f-^Ti mi mii i**