The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 9 October 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1880.

Sotwithstakdtn'O that the cry that jusiness is bad and money hard to :ollect lias not yet died away, there are ndications of a substantial revival in ;rade. We should before now have realised this fact more strikingly had it lot been for the wholesale economies of :he Government in wages and public ivories. Tradesmen will inevitably feel the depressing ejects of the retrenchment policy of the Government, for it cannot foil to affect more or less jverv class of tlieir customer?. That the present is a critical period we all more or less sorrowfully admit. There is a compulsory cessation of the scattering of money broadcast. The national body, built up, as it is, of human atoms, like the debauchee, requires lvst from its licentiousness. There is a 1 oundary bevond which neither may go without incurring the severest penalty. jSTo one can reprobate the reformation. What is to be deplored is the recklessness of which it is the reactionary sequel. But we cannot by mere penitence recall the past. To live the last eight years—the term of our profligacy—over again, is o: course, an impossibility. To sit ir sackcloth and ashes and bemoan oui lot would bo worse than a waste oi time. The present, not the past—ex cept as showing how we may profit bj its experience—demands our undivided attention. Courage and energy should place us in a position of pros perity for transcending anything wc have vet experienced. Since the in auguration of the Public Works policy we have enjoyed an ephemera! prosperity. The Colonv has made some substantial advancement, bui not sufficient to enable it to main fcain the high pressure state produced by a large expenditm-e of foreign capital. Dazed by the immensity oi our success, we neglected to establish ii bv taking wise precautions. We '•'"braced" the yards, but we neglected to " belay." We nourished oui body with intoxicants and created i nausea for solid food. Emaciatior has supervened, and, with a system disorganised by excitants and weakened by neglect, we have awakened to the necessity for reform. Lot ns apply tc the Colony the advice of the temper: inee advocate to the wretched victim af excess in strong drinks, " Be of good sheer; you have a good constitution, md, -by the exercise of abstemiousness, perseverance, and frugality, you will be enabled to re-establish your health, four social, moral, and commercial position," Notwithstanding what the London Times says, we have no feai tor Hew Zealand. " The Thunderer' : j{ Printing-house Square may institute Jisagreeable comparisons between this Colony and the colonies of Australia : but its information is necessarily imperfect, and its deductions, therefore, not reliable.' There is only one fact with which it has a perfect knowledge, wd that is that wc have incurred a :olonial liability of something like L 30,000,000 to the English money lender. Regarding our ability or inibilitv to meet the engagements n connection with this liability t knows almost nothing. It has irobably based its calculations and issertions upon Fnancial Statements md Ministerial speeches. If it has lone so, it sets more value upon such locuments than colonists do. Nothing :onld be more misleading than these >fficial declarations. Take, for initance, the broad statement of the Colonial Treasurer last session that the Gtrey Administration had. expended luring its two years' existence no less ;lian LI 1,239,537, The announcement was appalling. H#ra the key to the whole of .oui enforced retrenchment. The impulse of one and all who heard it was to give it credence; but their knowledge oj

the author induced them to postpone their till they heard the other side. Mi*. Ballanee, in good time, came to the rescue of his Administration and his party, and clearly demonstrated the speeiousness vet inaccuracy of the Colonial Treasurer's figures. It transpired that, as was expected, the Grey Government during their term of office had expended considerably less in public worts than their predecessors had done during the last two years of their reign. But Major Atkinson, as usual, thought to hoodwink Parliament and the country and gain a strong point by jumbling together both revenue and loan. The fact is that whilst the Atkinson Government had expended during the last two years of office L 4,464,821, the Gray Government, during a similar period, had expended only L 3,072,039. Is it likely that, when financial doctors give such various diagnoses, outsiders t'-an form any correct judgment of the facts of the case 1 Could Thfe Times have realised our true position^—the progress we have made in the past despite ex-ceE-siye' and corrupt government —the extent,, variety, and value of our natural resom'ces —it would have given a different verdict from that which appeared in a cablegram yesterday. It is a hopeful sign surely that we have awakened to a true estimate of our position, and tha necessity i n the future for holding borrowed money as sacred to the purposes of carrying out purely reproductive works. The uncomplimentary opinions expressed by The Times—based as they wex - e upon the flimsiest of hypotheses—mean absolutely nothing. We do not anticipate that they will affect our credit. What would really affect our credit "VVflnld be the resumption of the system of indiscriminate boFf'.Qwjng find indiscriminate expenditure. Notwithstanding the activity of denunciators, the Colony stands high amongst the. dependencies ot the Empire. If we have anything to complain of, it is that, ;n championing the Colony by way of counterblast detractors, so much has been said that people are inclined to expect too much of us. But we can still offer them land and climate unequalled in .iii,/ other part of the world, and if we have been crjisjiod temporarily by commercial depression, we have suffered no more in this respect than older and better governed countries, How could we, with Government costing L 7 or LB per head of our population, and a corrupt expenditure of a large portion of our borrowed millions on political Y/p.vks, have suffered less 1