The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1884. CHANGE OF POLICY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1236, 6 September 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1884. CHANGE OF POLICY.

There is every appearance of a change in the political atmosphere. 'The storm seems to have spent itself, and is now giving place to fair weather. From materials of different kinds Mr Stout has succeeded in oroducing a fair Cabinet, which, in all probability, will last out this session, and has now gone to work in a hminesF-hke manner. The experience of the last few weeks appears to have taught him a lesson, and if he continues to profit by it he may hold the reins of Government for many a long day. He lias given up the wild ideas promulgated in the Governor’s speech which brought defeat on him recently, and has now settled down into a common-sense man. In the Governor’s speech referred to sufficient business for three years was promised to be gone on with immediately. All the railways in the colony were to be completed, the property tax abolished, the insurance and railway departments placed under non-political management, and a general change made in everything. All these notions have now been given up ; the property tax is not to be touched, and nothing but of the common is to be done this session. In fact, judging from the speech of Mr Stout, be means to carry on the Government on the same lines as his predecessors. There is some sense in this. For fresh men to jump into office and upset all previous arrangements without having given due consideration to the measures they intended to introduce, would have been the height of folly. “To err is human,” and the StoutYogel Ministry is as human as others, and as capable of making mistakes. It would hare been next to an impossibihly for them to jump into office, and develope such schemes as they propounded without committing errors that would have a detrimental effect on the well-being of the colony, and consequently we think that the time that has worked such a change of policy has not, after all, been time misspent. We feel convinced that owing to long absence from the colony Sir Julius Vogel missunderstood the condition of affairs altogether. He came to Dunedin ; he heard every one crying out against the property tax, and, without waiting to hear the other side, he jumped to the conclusion that it should be abolished. As ft substitute he suggested a land tax, which should be spent locally. This was the substance of his utterances at Ashburton, and the same proposal | was made in the Governor’s speech, but time has toned him down, and a light seems to have dawned upon him that there is another way of looking at the question, and that on that side there are very tough arguments to get over; hence the determination to let the property tax alone, First there is the unanswerable argument of 60 members being pledged to support a property tax, which fact shows the majority of the constituences are favorable to it. This is a matter for serious consideration for a man who desires to keep his seat on the Treasury Benches, and it is this fact that made

i Mr Ormond refuse the task ot terming a Ministry. It is this, no doubt, that has made the present Governin' nt give up its abolition, but there is a more serious consideration that induces us to prefer the property tax to any other tax. Under ordinary circumstances we quite admit that a land tax is the proper means of raising a revenue, but in this colony the conditions are such that it is undesirable. The majority of the farmers do not own the land ; they are as much tenants of the mortgagees as if they were paying rent to landlords, and are only freeholders in name. To place a land tax on them is to force them to pay taxation on property which they do not possess, and surely to do so is wrong. There is more wrong in making a man pay for property which he does notown, than in making a hundred pay for what they have got. On this ground we are glad the property tax is not to be abolished, and we trust that it will not whilst land owners are so deeply involved in the claws of the money-lenders. There is a way of improving the present system, and that is by exempting improvements. This will probably be done, and, if so, it will be a step in the right direction. THE NEW MINISTRY. The new Ministry are certainly more representative of both Inlands than the first Stout-Vogel combination. There are three North, and three South Island Ministers ; another North Islander is to be yet added, and with the view of . equalising matters, a new portfolio of I Minister of Mines is to be created, which is expected to fall to the lot of a West Coast member —Mr Seddon. This is a good “dodge.” To secure West Coast votes, a billet is made for one of the members. Really, after all, we are afraid there is not a bit more patriotism in our professed Liberals than there was in the so-called Conservatives. So as to secure support they do not scruple to add another £1250 a year to the cost of Administration by the creation of a Minister of Mines, and it is said also that a billet ; s in the course of being made for Mr Richardson. If reports are true, at the end of the session Mr Richardson will resign his seat in the Ministry to take up the mote permanent position of Conductor-in-Chief, or something of that sort, of the South Island railway?. The legal profession is well represented in the Ministry, the Prpnrer fMr Stout), the Colonial Secretary (Air Buckle)), and the Minister of Justice (Mr Tole) are all lawyers. With such an array of legal talent they ought to bo able to draft Bills anyhow. The wider distribution ot the loaves and fishes has satisfied the leaders, but the small fry are still wrangling over the lesser pickings. There is a dispute over the Chairmanship of Native affairs, to which a salary of £IOO a year is attached. The two gentlemen competing for it tied each other—they had an equal number of votes —and as the Chairman of the meeting had no casting vote, there was a difficulty. On last Thursday an effort was made to add Mr Wakefield’s name to the Committee, but as it was well known how he would vote, his opponents talked against time until he was cut out of the running The whirligig of politics has secured to Mr Turnbull a little of the pickings. He has been appointed Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee, to which a salary of £IOO is attached. Mr Turnbull will make a good thing out of politics this year. First, £2lO honorarium for 10 days work ; second, ±.IOO as Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee ; and third, £2lO for this session ; total £520. We are Straid the same amount of corruption will have to be resorted to by the present Government as the past Government is charged with. The misfortune in this colony is that we seem to be unable to get any Government strong enough to carry on business without resorting to log-rolling, and it will he bo while the borrowing policy continues.