The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 429, 28 May 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1879.

“ Coming events cast their shadows before,” and the policy that the Government proposes to itself for the coming session is supposed to be shadowed out in certain apparently inspired articles in the Government organs. Through them the Ministry will of course endeavour to prepare the mind of the Colony for its policy, if it has any, and educate the public for the reception of enlightened measures. It is very natural then, when it is rumoured that certain measures are under the consideration of the Government, and the Government papers at the same time earnestly advocate those very measures, to conclude that rumour speaks truly, and that the papers are inspired. The conclusion is still more natural when the policy indicated bears a family likeness to the policy of a certain stumping tour, when, in fact, it consists of gorgeous—we had almost written Georgeous—promises. The family likeness is there beyond doubt, and though a sense of ignominious failure in the past has taken away some of the cool impudence, there is still left the confident braggadocio air and carriage. “There is the same bringing up of burning questions, the same insisting upon matters vitally essential to the wellbeing of the colony, the same belief in the efficacy of plausable appellations, which led to his christening his followers, for what reason heaven only knows, the Liberal Party, and there is the same underlying determination to be bound by nothing definite, which has been throughout so eminently characteristic of Ministerial promises. The three great questions of the session, it seems, arc to consist of representative reform, financial reform, and law reform. These are somewhat old friends, as our readers are aware, but they are to be presented with entirely new faces. The Electoral Bill, to begin at the beginning, is to be greatly simplified from last year’s measure. It is to give us a residential suffrage, and it is to give us a ratepaying suttrage, and there it Is to stop. The great Maori question which last year was deemed so important, that for want ot carrying it the whole Bill was abandoned, is now to be shelved. We are told, indeed, that it is to have a Bill all to itself, and we daresay it is thought there are some who will believe in this way of putting it. But we are not so new to political campaigning as not to be well aware that this is the time honored formula when an inconvenient piece of policyis sought to be got rid of.” We quote from the Press. The Land Tax Act, which during the past year has worried every one in the colony more or less, and extracted a few thousands from the pockets of land holders, for the exclusive benefit of the agents employed, is to be given up. It is to have a successor, however, a younger brother, a righteous Seth, that will profit by the frightful example of its elders. Indeed, the successor is to be one of twins. There is to be an Income Tax, on the principle of heavy luxuries, of which an income is said to be the chief. How it will a&ect those who derive their income from land on which they are to pay a tax, is not yet clear. Certainly, to tax first one’s land, and then the income derived from it, would be of questionable justice, and would be aA advance in fiscal matters which no Government bnt {he present one would hope to make in a single session.. In the matter of law reform, there will he a District Court Bill similar to that abandoned last year, if not identical with it. It is also supposed that there will be a bill regulating the practice of the Supreme Court. Here we have plasters for the principal sores of humanity. We have heard of them all before. There is a new bill of fare, but the fare itself is the same. The day before yesterday the mutton was roasted, yesterday it was boiled, to-day it is hashed; but in all disguises it is mutton still, no fatter and no fresher. Quacks in. every profession have something in common, their promises. Their advertisements, though endlessly varied, amount to the same thing in the end, “ We, and we only, have the elixir of life.” The true physician, like Jenner, knows that to vanquish one disease will earn the immortal gratitude of men. The qnack, who lives on the credulity of mankind, proposes, at one fell swoop, to cure everything, except hams. The true statesman tries, when opportunity offers, to do something, if it should only be one thing and a small thing. He knows that art is long, and life is short, and that he who lays one stone in the structure of human freedom and enlightenment, has marked himself as one in a million. He does not aspire to complete the slowly rising pill once and lorever; he mercifully leaves something for future generations to do. He does not try to lay his stone upon nothing, at an elevation that the wall will reach a century hence, but he lays it firmly down on what was firmly built before. Bnt the political quack undertakes everything at once. He stands on the hopes that his promises inspire. He can easily promise more than the statesman who means to perform, and-who understands

what he undertakes. He promises accordingly. The structure of human freedom and happiness shall be completed forthwith.. The foundation is hardly laid, but he will put on the crystal roof at once. The people are delighed. Next year he has to explain that there has been a strike among workmen and the roof is not on, but he will at any cost put an iron roof on this year, and will put up some windows too; The people hope again. The year passed, and again he explains that the weather has been unfavorable, but he will certainly get the concern thatched this year and a calico ceiling put up. “ No, you won’t!” yell the exasperated people, “ we’ll get a man who can build the wall.”