The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1887. THE FALLING REVENUE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1551, 10 February 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1887. THE FALLING REVENUE.

Thbbb are two ways of looking at most things. Sir Robert Stoat, in bis speech to bis constituents recently delivered at Dunedin, found in the falling revenue of this colony something that made him “smile through bis tears like a sunbeam in showers.” The fall in the revenue, he said, conld not be pleasurably regarded by the Colonial Treasurer, bat to him (Sir Robert) it was gratifying, because it was principally caused through less money being spent on intoxicants. He said If yon look back for some 20 years yon will find—and I will take for example the year 1865, when the population, as you who were here then like myself will remember, ws bad less than one-half of the population we now have—that in that year we could only muster in the colony 190,000 Europeans, and that we spent in intoxicating liquors at retail prices upwards of £2,000,000. In other words, the amount we spent in intoxicating liquors during 1865 came to nearly £2O per bead of the population. If you go down the various five-yearly periods from then till now you will see there has been a gradual decrease in the sum ol money so wasted. In 1870 the amount was 10w—£1,650,000, or an average of £6 12s lid per head. In 1876 upwards of £2,000,000 was spent, or an average of £5 14s 9d per bead. Id 1880 it was nearly £3,u00,000, averging £5 14a 9d per head—the same average as in the previous five years, though the population bad increased considerably in the meantime. In 1885 it was brought down to £4 lUs 3d, and in 1886 it was down to ±8 10s. Now, of coarse, this means, some people say, less spending power on the part of the people, I do not believe that this is the sole couse of the reduction of the money so wasted, It is to the credit of the

temperance people that this great advance has been made in the colony.” We are inclined to give ail credit to “ temperance people "for the great work they are doing. There can be no doubt that temperance agitation has effected some reforms in the drinking habits of the people, and that thus a vast amount of good has been done, but at the same time we have not tba slightest hesitation in saying that hard times have more to do with the contracted consumption of intoxicants than anything else. The most hardened criminal when chained up in a dungeon can no longer prey upon bis kind : the most confirmed drunkard after he has spent bis last sixpence must become a sober man. The morals of both are improved, not through a change in their dispositions, but, through the force of circumstances. They are deprived of the means ot following their own inclinations, and must perforce yield to the exigencies of their altered conditions. With all dne deference to Sir Robert Stout, wo feel convinced that there are more abstaining from drink through inability to pay for it than through any other reason. This, we think, can be.proved by the statistics from which Sir .Rptert Stout got his figures. In 1870:: we exported out of this colony nearly,,£l9 worth of goods per head of population ; in 1886 we exported between £lO and £ll worth per bead of population. This shows that in 1870 every man, woman, and child in the colony had about £8 more to spend than they had in 1886., In 1870 we dog. out of the ground £2,157,585 worth of gold ; in ldß6 it fell down to £890.050, or to nearly one-third. This made a large number of men very sober. From 1870 to 1880 we spent an immense sum of borrowed money in public works, but since then, as Sir Robert himself would say, we bare “edged off,” with the result that a great many men. have not been able to purchase the bare necessaries of life. We are willing to admit that the temperance movement has done good, hat it would be inappreciable only for the contracted spending power of the great majority of the people. In the majority of instances the people who join tern* perance societies are persons who seldom drink. Sometimes habitual and heavy drinkers are gathered into their midst, but the great majority is composed of persons of naturally sober habits. Sir Robert Stont’d way of looking at the difficulty was a pleasant one ; it showed the people were improving in morals, and went far to deny that want and poverty existed amongst the working classes, bat we hold that he was far from being right. His picture of a sober aud contented people would doubtless be very beautiful only that it is not correct. In some of the fairy tales we read in oar youth, we came across a description of a beautiful being before whom everyone. Jell down to worship until they heard her speak, and then the spell was broken. The unearthly sonnds that proceeded from her frightened all who. Approached her. It is so with Sir Robert Stoat's picture of New Zealand sobriety ; the cry of the unemployed dispels the beautiful vision, and calls alond for other remedies than “ soft sawder,” And now, what effect will the fall in the revenue have on the owners of property iu this colony : Ist, It will result in the property tax being increased ; 2nd, The irrpoveriehed condition of working men has contracted their spending power, and they cannot consume so much of the products of the soil as they used to ; Result, prices will not be as they would be in prosperous times ; 3rd, Property must pay the unemployed for working on unproductive works ; 4th, Property must provide a greatly increased sum for charitable aid ; and sth, Property must bleed freely for the sins its high priests have hitherto been .guilty of. 1 here can be no doubt of it, In the long ran property mast pay for all, and it is better for property owners to open their eyes immediately to the fact. There is/no way out of the difficulty except one, that is by adopting a policy of self-reliance, live within ourselves, and employ oar population in developing car own resources. T his is the policy we have always advocated, and it is the policy Sir Robert Stoat advocated in Dunedin although he tried to pat a bright face on things in the manner indicated above, Property owners may as well open their eyes, to the great fact that they cannot pay their debts and pay for imported goods; it is impossible, and the sooner they realise this the 1 better for themselves and the colony,