A LONDON OPINION ON NEW ZEALAND POLITICS AND POLICY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1265, 15 November 1884, Page 3

A LONDON OPINION ON NEW ZEALAND POLITICS AND POLICY.

The following is an abstract from a private letter received from London by the last mail What a political turmoil you have had ! Three Ministerial changes in a lew weeks 1 As I write the cablegram informs us that the irremessible Vo gel heads the list again— a pretty lookout for our future ! Taxation already unbearable ; more borrowing, and_ consequently further burdens looming in the future, and population but slowly filtering into the colony. Passage money aud freights fully 25 per cent, higher than is good for legitimate trade. My impression is that unless borrowing ceases these political gamblers will make a mess of it. There appears to be an utter absence of the serious sobriety strictly necessary for the occasion. I can perceive no stability in the present political position. How can there be, when it presents nought else but au undignified schoolboy scramble, such as occurs after a handful of nuts thrown in the air ; at the very time, too, when the eyes of the world are on the colony ; when numbers of people are hesitating whether they shall choose New Zealand or not, and notwithstanding the drawback of it beginning to be getting abroad that we are a welltaxed people. The consequence will de that Canada, backed up by the Queen s son-in-law, the Marquis of Lome, and also by our late New Zealand colonist, Sir L. W. Stafford, who is a director of the Manitoba (Canada) Investment Company, Limited, and America, already gorged with population, will get the benefit. We really roust turn over a new leaf, and after the North Island main line is completed, stop borrowing for ten years at the least, and try to get a living out of a honest trade, be it ever so small, and not on borrowed money. We must also put in, and keep in, a serious and stable Ministry and representatives. Another question is the appointment of AgentGeneral to be given to a smart young New Zealand-born politician. The appointments up to the present have been quite unsuiled to our requirements. We require a smart, bustling man, and not the usual worn-out political horse, only fit for after-dinner speeches. New South Wales showed discretion in her appointment, Sir Saul Samuel being a native of Sydney, and consequently the public know a great deal of New South Wales, whereas the English newspapers hardly see anything about New Zealand, except it be a notice that ‘we want to borrow another million.’ ” —Auckland Herald.