The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1191, 10 February 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1880.

A Wrr.u.N'uTf>N' correspondent sends to the New Zealand Herald a communicatii n in which he sets forth the political situation in a manner that, judged by the light of passing events, aeeui3 to us to be reasonable. The Herald, however, whilst publishing extracts from this communication, enters a mmt( respecting some of its correspondent's statements, and takes the opportunity of expressing an opinion that "the Ministry is yot strong and will, *' unless they make some great blunder," meet the House with a powerful majority. Tiie communication states that the Premier and some of his colleagues arc thinking about reconstructing the Ministry. Tnere I*3 nothing more likely. It must be apparent to the Premier and his colleagues, and indeed, all men of ordinary sense, that the operations of the Ministry have not been signalised by that perspicuity and wisdom that they claimed to exist in their ranks, and by virtue of which others were made to give place to them. The Colony was before thi3 to liavo been elevated to a standard of prosperity by the exercise of their superior intelligence in mattere of administration. But what is the fact ! The cloud which they asserced had settled upon the Colony by the maladministration of the Grey Government lias not been lifted, or, if it has, nobody has felt the change. Yet we have had several months of the Hall Government's wise administration. A gleam of sunshine may now be discernible ; but it would have been as strong, or stronger, had there been no change of Government. In the ordinary routine of things such a Colonj as this must rise superior to any difficulty. All that is necessary is to keep within the narrowest bounds' the cost of government, aud to wisely administer the colonial lands. 2sothing of this kind has yet been attempted, if we except the frantic and spasmodic efforts of the Minister for Public Works to reduce the expensiveness of conducting our railway sj stem. That gentleman has, by reducing the number of trains running upon the lines, effected a reform that will save the Colony L 40,000; at least, so he says. But we have only his bare word for that. The whole tiling is an experiment which has been entered upon more as a coup cle main, than anythiug else. People who are given to investigating such matters will natural!j" ask whether the Hon. the Minister for Public "Works has taken into account the decrease in traffic that will be the inevitable consequence of his last move. True, he says that he has not completed his new policy—that he intends to further economise by discharging a number of the hands now employed 011 the railways, ll'ut he has yet to prove that he or "any other man is capable of doing this without impairing the efficiency of the department. Those who know somethin" about railway management— I perhaps as much as the Minister 1 for Public orks —say that a few I thousands at most; might be saved Kv making an experiment, the adtau--1 ta'gea of which are, at least, doubtful. I lifis true that Mr. Oliver may curtail the expenditure upon public works j he ma}, in fact, determine that only, as it were, a handful of men shall be engaged upon public works ; but what will be the consequence ? Will he succeed in maintaining such a position if he takes it up i We trow not. It would be useless for us | —aye, for the Minister of Public Works either—to shut our eyes to the fact that I there are several months in the year durin" -which thousands of men in ths i Colony are thrown out of work, consequent upon the closing of the hart est anti ; the teminationof what may fairl} be termed ■ the busy season, and let the Minister for ! Public Works be never so anxious and 1 determined to practice economy upon public works, such pressure will be brought to bear upon the Government to provide work that they will be compelled to yield. There is no use attempting to disguise the fact that we have been striving to become a full-blown nation somewhat too rapidly. ilated a brilliant public works and immigration scheme, and burdened with an amount of cash unprecedented in the records of the Colonial Treasury, we have endeavored to annihilate time and space by entering upon a career of forceo progress. 1 housatuis of people have been introduced to our shores by means of borrowed mono} , the plea being that employment would be found for them upon the public works, and that the surplus labor would be speedilv absorbed by private enterprise long before the public works contemplated were completed. Thcfaliacy of this theory is now only too painfully apparent. Our power for carrying on public works is well nijjli exhausted, but there are wanting satisfactory signs of the surplus labor being absorbed. Thus much we have written to show that there is little hope of much saving being effected in the curtailment of expenditure upon public works. \Vu must look in other directions for economy. What these directions are the present Ministry appear to be unable toperceive, and we are not therefore surprised to learn that the Premier and some of his colleagues are anxious for a reconstruction. But who is to reconstruct 1 and above all who ore to be unfortunate lambs of the Ministry that are to be sacrificed in order that the ains and short-comings of the balance may be atoned for, and a new lease of official life secured t Upon these points 110 information is vouchsafed, and it is perhaps as well that the details of the conspiracy being carried on arc not made public, more especially having regard to tiie feelings of those dear lambs of the Ministry thai; are to be sacrificed.