The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1884. THE STATE OF THE COLONY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1165, 15 April 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1884. THE STATE OF THE COLONY.

It is refreshing to bear a man now-a-days taking a cheerful view of the position of affairs in New Zealand, The Premier, in his Hawera speech, has done so, but we can scarcely fall in with his ideas on the subject. He tells us that the Customs have fallen off by £120,000, owing to the people not being so wasteful as formerly. He believes that the people have saved in proportion to what the Customs are short. Yet in the next breath he tells us that the deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank have fallen off by £75,000. Wonderful logic this ! The necessaries of life consumed in the colony, according to the Customs returns, have fallen off 10 per cent, and the deposits in the Savings Banks decreased by £75,000, yet the gallant Major tells us there is nothing to be alarmed at. He tells us that while the Post Office Savings Bank deposits hare fallen off’, the deposits in other Banks have increased by £300,000, although the Government’s deposit is loss by £140,000, which means, if it means anything, that there is belonging to the public £440,000 in the Banks more than there was last year. What does this mean ? The Post Office Savings Bank is the Bank of the wages class, the other Banks are those in which the moneyed people deposit their spare cash. The poor man’s Bank is falling off, the rich man’s .Bank is increasing, which in reality proves the theory laid down in George’s ‘ ‘ Progress and Poverty,” that the tendency of the present age is to make the rich man richer and tiie poor man poorer. And this is what we are coming to under the benign rule of Major Atkinson. Now, putting the fact that deposits in the (Savings Bank have fallen off side by. side with the deficit in the Customs revenue, does it not appear quite clear that the country is in such a state of poverty that the people cannot afford the necessaries of life, and have to do without many things which they want ? For the last few years, the Customs have been lessening every year, and proportionately commercial depression is making itself felt. We feel confident that the £4-40,000 on deposit in the Banks does not belong to the commercial class, hut to money lenders and speculators, who are fattening on the impecuniosicy of the rest of the population, In proportion to the extent of the depression and to the scarcity of money have always been the profits of the money lenders. In these past years money has been very scarce, and the money lenders have been accumulating wealth at a rapid rate. Who can tell but that the £440,000 referred to by the Premier is in part, or in whole, the result of the extortionate rate they have been exacting. However, to find .that there is so much money on deposit in the Banks is rather consoling. Its existence may lead to a cheaper rale of interest; But it is no proof

that the colcny is not in a fearful state of depression, for which the Premier suggests we p 1 ould pay more taxation, The Premier is frequently accused of being the cat's paw of the moneyed rings. Whether rightly or wrongly, that accusation is thrown out at him on all occasions, and nothing in his Hawera speech will remove that impression. However, it is to be hoped that the colony will in a short time give him a holiday, and let him ruralize for a while beneath the shadow of Mount Egmont.

OUR RAILWAYS. Another piece of very extraordinary logic was that in which the Premier disposed of the railways. He Baid that the Canterbury people made the mistake of regarding railways as local property. The meaning of this sentence is that no district should claim that because its railways were paying interest on the cost of their construction the freight on them should be lower than on lines which were losing money, or in other words that there should be a uniform tariff. We entirely differ from the gallant Major. Wo hold that every line ought to pay interest on the cost of its construction besides providing for a sinking fund, and for keeping itself in repair. Before tbe reduction in the freight the line from here to Ohristohurch was paying very nearly 10 per cent, on the cost of its construction, and under the late low tariff it paid considerably over 5 per cent., while other lines were losing. We hold that it is a scandalous thing to raise the freight on this line in order to make up deficiencies on political railways. It is simply taxing the people ot this district for the benefit of thinly populated districts, where land is held in large areas, which prevents the profitable working ot the railways. We have to pay interest on the capital borrowed to construct these political railways, but that is not enough, we are called upon now to make up the loss in the cost, of their working. A writer, signing himself " One of the Squeezed," thus discusses the railway question in the Christchurch Press :

" We Me shortly to have the Oxford extension open for traffic; but I don't know what tley are going to carry over it. It is computed by one who should know, that about three commercial travellers, one truck of coals, 2cwt of butter, ami perhaps 50 dozui eg.jfs will b; the amount of traffic over it per week. As to timber or bush produce, they have carefully taken it as far away as possible from the bush, for fear there should be any chance in that direction. In fact, sir, it will be the biggest sink of public money I know of. The Eyreton line will be nothing to it. They do have some grain once a year to go over that. Then notice the convenience to the public. Instead of taking it to Waddington direct for the South, it must go to Sheffield, so a» to make us pay the extra distance between those two places. In fact, sir, it only requires one to see the thousands of acres of worked-out bush that might bo cleared if the rail was near enough to it to pay to get firewr.od away, and the scores of owners of the said land with nothing to do, to realise that the Oxford exteusion will be a curse instead of a blessing, because it will only add to the deficit. But we are a long-suffermg people, and another rise in freight will make it all right." Now what on earth right hr.d the Government to construct a railway like that, and then to call upon thicklypopulated districts to pay not only interest on the cost of construction, but also pay for working it by having high freights on their own line? But Major Atkinson is the large landowners' and money-rings' cat's-paw, and he says it is right. He took good care he did not raise the railway tariff until the wool season had passed by. His friends', the wool growers', interests had to bo taken care of, but the poor firmer, in the face of low prices and a bad harvest, must pay the penalty. How long will this political sham be allowed to rule the country?

THE GOVEKNMENT LAND POLICY. Major Atkinson proposes that there shall not be any more pastoral lands sold ; that is, that lands only fit to graze sheep and cattle on shall not be sold, but be let to Crown tenants on a perpetual lease. We are in favor of this, but we would like to know why the exception should be made in the case of pastoral lands ? Why should not agricultural lands be let on the same terms? There are hundreds of small capitalists who would be glad to get a perpetual lease of a small farm, but these nre not to have it, while the leases of lite squatters are to be renewed fcr ever. This is very good of the gallant Major aga : n. This is another dodge to secure extraordinary privileges to the money rings. We are heartily in favor of no more land being sold, but we object to a distinction being made between pastoral and agricultural lands. We object to another inch of land being sold, and above all to the class of land Major Atkinson proposes to sell. It is on the agricultural land the people can be settled. Very few will ever be settled on the grazing lands, no matter how they are disposed of. But if the agricultural land is cut up into medium-sized farms and let to the people at a reasonable yearly rental, a great step towards settling the land, increasing population, and increasing the producing power of the colony will be mad°.. Major Atkinson is not favorable to this, he only suggests that the squatters, whose leases wiilexpire in a few years, shall get them renewed lor ever. Such a suggestion tells too plainly what the aims of the Premier are. We were surprised at the liberal tendency of the Government with regard

to their leasing proposals, but we can I see through it all now. They have simply been paving the way to enable them to give their friends, the squatters, perpetual leases. We hope this constituency will not send a representative who will support them in carrying out this villainous programme when the next election comes on. »■ - ■ ■ THE OPPOSITION LEADER. Weak and " fishy " as Major Atkinson's speech at Hawera was, that which Mr Montgomery, the reputed leader of the Opposition, delivered at Akaroa, last Friday evening, was more so. Mr Montgomery is honest, no doubt, and would like to see the country properly governed. He in all probability would make a good Minister, but if be has sound ideas he has but a small capacity tor giving expression to them. His speech had nothing in it at all. It was simply a very weak effeminate criticism of the Premier's utterances, and seemed to us to point more in the direction that the Premier was not to be trusted than that he was wrong. The leader of the Opposition ought to take up a nobler stand than this. He ought to prove the Ministry wrong, and then point out the remedy. We are afraid that Mr Montgomery's weakness is Major Atkinson's strength, and that he will never prove a successful auccessor to the autocrat of Mount Egmont. The fact is that, we believe, the country will again have to accept, however reluctantly, Sir George Grey.