OUR MINISTERS.

Patea Mail, 31 December 1880, Page 4

OUR MINISTERS.

In a clever but caustic article, written from an Opposition point of view, the Lyttelton Times sums up the Ministers thus : We believe that the Colonial Treasurer has an earnest conviction that Taranaki contains a peculiar people, and that the Promised Land between Stoney river and Waingongoro must be conquered at the cost of the colony for their perpetual possession. Another article of his faith is that, inasmuch as this chosen body is, in the meantime, in need of cash, the further duty of the Colony is to provide fully for that need by means of public expenditure. Moreover, as Nature forgot to furnish the district with an harbour, an exceptional contribution of twenty per cent, from land revenue must be made by the Colony towards making good that deficiency. The creed is simple and practical. Taranaki wants money, land, roads, and harbours: therefore the whole Colony is bound to provide accordingly. Paris at one time was France ; New Plymouth at present is New Zealand. The At-torney-General also lias his own convictions. He believes in land rings and in big land jobs. He looks upon the Natives and their lands in the North Island as means admirably adapted, under a wise dispensation of Providence, and under skilful European manipulation, to the achievement of those objects. Like his colleagues, his formula is plain and to the point. Native land is food for capital. Confiscation and direct purchase are the appointed means for giving effect to this great natural law. The heroic work of colonisation is best seen at Piako, at Patatere, ami at Murmotu. A model State consists in a few capitalists with enormous freeholds, and in many labourers without any land of their own at all. Thus it will be seen that two Ministers at least have strong convictions, and that the colony is getting the full benefit of those convictions. Bctween the Colonial Treasurer and the Attorney-General, we are governed in the interest of a Taranaki clique and an Auckland land ring. The greatest good of the fewest number is the motto of two loading minds in the Hall Cabinet. The other Ministers arc willing, for the sake of place, to sacrifice their better judgement, And the colony, although the net is spread in its sight, hastens to the snare. Wc are squandering money to please constituents of Major Atkinson, and we arc stopping settlement to please clients of Mr Whitaker.