The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5451, 16 September 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1878.

The Government have pledged themselves to stand by their measures, or to go to the country ami fall wit.li them. They believe that their Land Tax Bill, and their Properly Tax Bill, and their Bill for taxing local enterprise in joint stock companies whilst allowing foreigners to go free, are popular measures, and will be more acceptable to the people themselves than they have been to tho representatives of the people in Parliament. Ministers believe that it is il good tiling to starve still more the local bodies in both islands, and they hope to find a profit in making branch lines like the “ Tapanui” and the “ Nightcaps,” gross jobs, both of them, which would not bo tho less jobs oven if they had the sanction of Parliament, which they have not. The House last year decided that a property and income tax should be the basis upon which any new fiscal policy or change in the incidence of taxation should be founded. The Premier on his stumping tour excited immense crowds of people to what he called “ extraordinary enthusiasm” by showing, them that they were suffering wrongs which they did not feel or dream of, and were being plundered by tho capitalists upon whose aid so many are forced to rely; and he promised them a free breakfast table, manhood suffrage with one vote and one vote only for each man, redistribution and equp.lisation of representation, economy in administration, immense redaction of departmental expenditure, and complete and entire publicity of all official transactions, even to those in tho Executive Council of the colony. Which ono of all these pledges is to be redeemed by the measures of the Government now* before Parliament ? Not one. Tho Government have neither obeyed tho order of the House nor fulfilled the promises of the Premier to tho people. There is no opposition on the part of tho friends of the late Government; on the contrary, there is, ns we see, on the part of Mr. George McLe.vn and many others, a manifestation of friendliness and of a desire to aid Ministers in getting through the public business, which ought to be welcomed and accepted but is not. A r ery nearly two months of tho session have now elapsed, but nothing in tho shape of work ha? yet been done ; and as Ministers appear incapable of managing a House in which there is no opposition, in which, as Mr, Sheehan says, and-perhaps believes, they have a largo-majority,—no work is likely to bo done. One by one the Ministerial measures are condemned and pulled to pieces, not by opponents, but by their own friends and supporters, and it is under these circumstances that this “strong Government” talks of appealing to tho people against their own friends and adherents, and of going outside—with their broken pledges and their muddled policy—tosoek tho confidenceand support which they cannot find, because they have not deserved to find it, within tho walls of Parliament. The Ministers know that there is no desire on tho part of members of the House to disturb them in their seats ; they know that there is a desire to give them fair play, to let them have the “chance” for which so many pathetic appeals were made last year, and, although they havo misused their “ chance,” to lot them try again. This is the purport and meaning of Mr. McLean's proposal, and that proposal, wo think, deserves favorable consideration.

Tho Electoral Bill, and tho Land Tax Bill, and tho Beer Bill, and all tho rest of them ought to be withdrawn gracefully and at once; the Estimates should bo passed, and tho session brought speedily to a close. Then,-—sadder, wo may hope, and also wisermen;—honorable gentlemen of tho Cabinet may, during tho recess, apply themselves to real work, in order that early in tho next year they may bo able to meet tho Assembly with a scheme of policy about, which in the first place they themselves shall, if possible, havo agreed, and which, with the aid of “information received” of lato, may bo made acceptable to tho Parliament and to tho country.

If they have not tho wisdom to take Mr. McLean’s friendly advice there must, wo suppose, bo a dissolution. Even Sir George Grey cannot do tho trick of the stump a second lime, and

Ministers will now be judged by their acts not -by thoir words ; not by what they may promise to do, but by what they have already proposed to do or leave undone. There cannot be a doubt as to the verdict of the country.