Session Forecasts.

Patea Mail, 5 April 1882, Page 3

Session Forecasts.

Ministers will meet after the Easter holiday to confer on their programme for the session commencing in the middle of June' It will-have been observed that Ministers have been “prospecting” in both Islands, to ascertain what are the public works most needful to push on at present or to propose for the future. We have every reason to believe that a scheme of public works will be put before Parliament as the basis of a loan, which Government will propose to raise about the end of this year. It will be evident that the Ministry are under necessity to place before the new House an attractive programme indicating a progressive policy. They dare not stand still. It is for them to claim that the colony’s financial position has been made sound by care and moderation, following as a political medicine to cure the evils of wasteful administration and lax finance. But rest is fatal in politics. A political party that folds its hands must die. This Ministry will meet Parliament with the flush of a Native difficulty settled, and with the confidence of having to face only a disorganised * Opposition. As to a Liberal majority, it exists only on paper. There is no fighting cohesion in its ranks.

We learn from Wellington that fresh proposals will be made this session for assisting local bodies with grants in aid of local rates; and that these grants are intended to enable County Councils to make roads into new lands, and constrnct bridges. Until this plan is seen in detail, its merit can hardly be estimated. There is a way of giving with one hand and taking back with the other. But time will show whether this latest proposal is likely to meet the needs of local bodies, especially in new districts.