New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4967, 22 February 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1877.

The colony in general seems to be fully alive to the steady business-like work which the Government is carrying on. From disappointed place-hunters, or gentlemen with too elevated a sense of the rewards to which their public services entitle them, or from pseudo-journalists of cumbersome vanity who have been rejected in public life, we of course hear the claptrap parrot phrases about an incompetent Government, and are assured that the publicbusinessof thecolony is drifting into confusion. In almost all cases the motives of those complaints are plainly traceable. It may be that some blusterous

gentleman imagines himself destined to be placed at the head of the whole’Civil Service, in order that he may effect reforms therein. He cannot understand that his presence in such a position would not be tolerated by the colony for a day, nor can writers in his interest, and .prompted perhaps by him, understand this. Hence we hear of the necessity for energy and activity in the public service, - and under a thin disguise the Government are asked to make an appointment which would not only be wrong in itself, but would cost them their existence the very first day of the next session. Fortunately Ministers do not apparently permit themselves to be disturbed from the work they are doing by the isolated and individually-prompted attacks which occasionally find publicity, and which are so worthless as to be only regrettable, inasmuch as they prevent that proper criticism of a Ministry from the standpoint of a broad opposition, which is the life and soul of representative government.

As a matter of fact, however, it may be said that the manner of conduct of our public affairs at present is one which can be criticised as purely a question of men and not of measures. It is perfectly obvious, and .the country seems quite agreed upon the point, that no matter who happens to be in office, there is but one course pointed out by the inevitable logic of circumstances towards which the policy of the Ministry should tend. It is absolutely necessary that the Public Works policy, which has so greatly benefited the country, should be proceeded with at a steady and consistent pace. At the same time the utmost economy and retrenchment, consistently with the due administration of affairs, must be exercised in carrying on the government of the colony. That is the clear task which sets itself to any set of men in power. It is inevitable in the construction of the Government railways that there should be a certain sum of money each year absolutely expended on public works, and yet giving no returns. This sum of money represents the cost of uncompleted, orrather, unopened, lines. Now at present £4,000,000 may be said to be lying thus unproductive, representing an annual charge for interest on the Consolidated Revenue of £200,000. Whilst the Consolidated Revenue is thus temporarily burdened it is plain that for all other purposes it must be expended with the greatest carefulness. Not that under any circumstances it should not be so .expended, but that under the existing condition of things sacrifices must be' really made which in a different state of affairs might not be required. Apart from all questions of policy, as regards other subjects the first duty of the New Zealand Ministry is to act in recognition of the facts we have stated, and we have yet to learn that the members of the present Ministry are not straining every nerve to accomplish the work so plainly set before them. On the contrary, from the Premier downwards it is known, and generally admitted throughout the colony, that each member of the Ministry is noted for capacity in the direction of departmental and administrative work, and for an honest downright earnestness in their different offices, giving them the very qualifications most required. The same questions which the Ministry have to face must also be met by the people. The public works of the colony must be proceeded with, and at the same time the ordinary expenditure must be reduced. It is quite- possible that both should be done'; indeed,'so far as the first is concerned, the Government are, we believe, in a position, without further borrowing, 1 to carry on the construction of the main; line of railways, for some time to come, at the rate at which such construction has proceeded during the past few years. But the only alternative to a reduction in the general expenditure is an increase of taxation, and that; every colonist will agree, should be avoided. That is what the Government are successfully endeavoring to avoid,; but; in doing so they; cannot avoid the imputations cast upon them by gentlemen whose overweening estimate of their own abilities it is found impossible to recognise. We have said that the public works of the colony must be proceeded with. Of course by this it is understood that the Government must not pause in the construction of the main lines of railway. To do so would be simply to practically throw away all the money previously expended in this direction. Experience has shown that the colony • has but to persevere in the course on which, underthe initiationof theFox-VoGELMin-istry, it so wisely-entered, in order to become the foremost of England’s dependencies in the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand has the example of Victoria before her. In that colony the earlier railways 1 were constructed at a cost that . nowadays would seem perfectly enormous.: With the completion of the line from Melbourne to Echuca, in 1864 or 1865, there came a pause in the progress of railway construction, which, materially retarded the advance of the country, and prevented its development. But with the energetic, maitoer in which.railways have been pushed forward during recent years has come a wonderfully increased development of the resources of Victoria, and an equally wonderful increase in her progress in every respect.! Our railways, which are being constructed on a scale amply sufficient to meet the requirements of many years to come, coat' but- a trifle per mile in .comparison with the earliest of those in Victoria, and on an average very much less per mile .than all now completed in the sister colony. They are the all important factors in the problem of our development, and no Ministry should be tolerated for a day- . which would leave them incomplete, and practically inefficacious. The,present Government are pledged to progress in rail-' way construction, and are not men likely to break their pledge. They are pursuing the right course for carrying it out, and will have the; support of all but those with whom opposition proceeds from fanaticism, or of those .whose enmity is on the whole far preferable to the disrepute engendered by their support.