The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1298, 4 June 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1880.

It is quite the fashion in these days of falsification and unblushing effrontery for the present Ministry and their supporters, trumpeters, and tag-rag and bobtail to lay the blame of the Colony's present financial position at the door of the Grey Ministry. Because the Glasgow Bank failed, and it was found necessary by the banks in this Colony to put on the screw in order that the New Zealand and Australian Land Company might be provided with cash to send Home to meet its engagements, the Grey Government have ruined the Colony ! Because a large number of colonists were driven crazy by the inflated prosperity of the Colony, and rushed into speculation, the Grey Government have landed us on the verge of bankruptcy ! Because a large number of colonists, abetted by certain banks, who granted them extensive overdrafts for the purpose, made haste to be rich too rapidly, by trafficking in lands at abnormally high rates, and because these discerning the . small cloud in the horizon portending an approaching storm, were terrified into speedily shortening sail, and making everything taut, the Grey Government are to blame. These are fair specimens of the arguments —heaven save the mark !—that We are treated to by Ministers and their blatant followers. The thing is outrageously unfair and indecent. It is not warranted by any political emergency. No doubt the Grey Gevernment made many mistakes and have much for which to answer, but they cannot be held responsible for the falling off in the sale of public land, caused by the banks being compelled to decline to assist speculators by continuing large over-drafts; nor for the falling off in the revenue derived through the customs induced by the spending power of the people being very seriously curtailed. At the door of Major Atkinson must be laid the greaterportion of the blame. He it was, when the Colony's coffers were well filled with borrowed money, sanctioned, and even defended the spendthrift system of paying interest upon loans out of borrowed money, instead of at once inviting the Parliament and the country to consider some means of raising sufficient revenue to meet our engagements. He it was who, when funds ran low, indulged in the dangerous expedient of issuing Treasury Bills, instead of boldly facing the difficulty. He was' one of the members of the Ministry which, session after session, pooh-poohed the warning raised by Mr. Montgomery that a time of financial trouble was coming, and laughed to scorn the advice to at once face the difficulty, and make provision for the impending re-action. Now, what do we experience ? This same Major Atkinson and his colleagues and trumpeters have the audacity to attempt to shift the responsibility of the Colony's present position to the shoulders of a Ministry that found the Colonial Exchequer almost empty and a host of Treasury Bills in circulation. This is political mendacity. Had Major Atkinson boldly faced the matter in 1877, when warned to do so, the Colony would not now have been in its present deplorable condition. But not only did he and his colleagues refuse to act upon wholesome advice, but they continued on their prodigal course, paying interest out of borrowed capital, unmindful of the rapid approach of the time when that capital would be exhausted, and the Colony would be driven to the necessity of making provision for the payment of interest. Even when the Grey Government took office and set to work to pkce the finances of the Colony on a sounder footing by imposing the land tax and other taxes, Major Atkinson was one of those who declared that fresh taxation was not necessary. With what a bad grace, then, comes the assertion that the Grey Government are responsible for the present disastrous financial position of the colony. To say the .least of it, the assertion is not what we might have expected from a class of men who profess to be morally, mentally, and socially superior to the majority of the colonists.