The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1293, 29 May 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1880.

Ay Act should be passed to abolish gubernatorial speeches at the opening of Parliament. They seldom provide food for reflection, and the address delivered by Sir Hercnle3 Robinson to the assembled legislators yesterday proves no exception to the general rule. It is even balder than the ordinary run of Parliamentary, vice-regal speeches. That this fact is not attributable to a lack of ability on the part of the Governor we know, for Sir Hercules, in his speech at Wellington the other day on the education question, showed both ability and independence of thought, and we can imagine that his Excellency would rather have been excused from giving expression to such a mass of useless rubbish as was put into his mouth yesterday. These so-called vice-regal speeches are, we know, mere shams, perpetrated in fulfilment of a traditionary privilege of Peers and Commons to be addressed once a year from the Throne. They are deserving of no other title than that of "Ministerial Mystifications." While they pretend to foreshadow the programme for the session, they give anything but clear ideas as to the nature of the measures to be brought forward. But the speech delivered yesterday is even more tantalisingly wanting in clearness and definiteness than the ordinary run of such speeches. It deals in generalities, commonplace and well-worn expressions of opinion, and a few accepted truths. It tells us, for instance, that there has been a falling off in almost all the principal items of revenue, but it fails to foreshadow the means by which the Ministry propose to meet the deficiency. True, it says that Ministers "entertain no doubt as to the course to be pursued : expenditure must be decreased, luxuries must be curtailed, and the public works which have already been constructed must be made more reproductive." But we have been told all these things before. The public have indeed been led to believe that fresh taxation will be necessary, and they are therefore anxious to obtain some idea as to the form that that taxation is likely to take. They are naturally curious to learn if the Government has in store another " pleasant surprise" in the shape of a second edition of the property tax —another of those fiscal schemes so artistically prepared as to please their friends. Here, too, we may remark that it is somewhat strange that the speech makes no reference to the property tax. That it would require a large amount of nerve on the part of the framer of the Governor's speech to have said aught in its favor we freely admit; but want of nerve is not the besetting sin of the members of the Ministry, the prompters of bis Excel-j lency. In proof of this, witness the selflaudatory remarks anent " the firm but conciliatory measures" taken by the Ministry to settle the native difficulty—measures which, we may add, are costing the country LGOO a day. On the score of modesty, therefore, the omission cannot be accounted fop. Were the Ministry j afraid of the storm that a reference to the j property tax might create J or were they I

desirous of encouraging silence upon the subject in order that they might have the gratification of declaring that Silence to be an evidence of approval 1. Whatever may have been the motive from which sprang the determination not to put into his Execellency's mouth any reference to the property tax, the Ministry may rest assured that it will not burke, discussion or smother criticism and condemnation of one of the most unjust and utterly demoralising taxing measures ever devised by man. They will find that the public are only just becoming alive to the true nature of the tax, and that scarcely a man has been found to express approval of a measure that placed a tax upon energy and industry, frugality,andsobriety,upon every article of wearing apparel that a parent provides for his children, upon everything that a man possesses, from his house and land down to'his pots "and pans. "We hoped for some promise of amendment of the Act so as to strip it of some of its thousand objectionable features, but the Ministry have not been so gracious. The Ministry and their friends prefer to brazen the matter out. So let it be. The people will take care that their voices are heard in Parliament. They will insist upon their members abolishing one of the most unjust burdens ever foisted upon them. ■ In finance we have seen that the Ministry have little to offer for the consideration of Parliament, and a brief glance will show anyone that in other matters they have equally little upon which to invite the attention of members. We are promised a Licensing Law Consolidating Bill, very much resembling the old Local Option Bill; a Bill for the purpose of putting hospitals and charitable institutions " on a satisfactory footing," which we in this district do not require; another Bill in connection with the Electoral Law, to complete the changes of last session ; a Bill to readjust the representation ; and a Bill to amend the law dealing with native lands and the constitution of the Native Lands Courts. • These are the promised measures, and the list is certainly not a long one. The passage of the Readjustment of Representation Bill must lead to an earlier dissolution of the House than is expected, for, if the House declares itself not to thoroughly represent the people, to be consistent, it must favor a dissolution, and so immediately give effect to the readjustment of representation. Knowing that ■ the Hon. Frederick Whittaker, the Attorney-General, of cherished memory, has probably had a hand in the preparation of the Native Lands Bill, we have no doubt that it will bear the impress of his peculiarities. The worthy old gentleman has tried his hand at framing Native Land Laws before, and has failed, because he generally attempted to open up easy paths for speculators. We shall await the coming of this measure with no small amount of curiosity. Of the speech as a whole we can only say that its perusal is not calculated to entertain or instruct the public. If the subject were not so serious, one would feel more inclined to be amused, especially at that portion which refers to an abundant harvest and the increased value of the staple products of the country. Is this a grim joke ?