The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1888. THE REASON WHY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1689, 21 January 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1888. THE REASON WHY.

A warns in the Now Zealand Times •ays ia : it not disaraceful that a fruitful ooutytry Rice Raw capable/ of immense'* development ! andf possessing natural resources sufficient to make it one of the wealthiest countries in the world, should be so fair behindhand in read pro. gress and -'development, 1 After nearly forty years of legislation, , assisted (I) by' hosts of self-conscious heaven-born 'pdliv tfcUns, the colony is still heavily in debt, and a cloud pi depression still hanging over the land. Its credit is sh'akeh in the older world, and our leaders are still obliged to borrow money to carry on the affairs of the colony. And yet, to its shame it must be said, the colony has within itself the possibilities to raise annually double the amount of money the colony requires for its management, if only the immense resources nature has given, jus werA prqperly looked-after and developed. ‘ • / / • / i j The answer is plain. When we require a house built we ,employ a carpenter; when we want shoes we go to a shoemaker; when we want a plough we order it from the blacksmith • but when wo .want a member of Parliament we never inquire whether the candidate has any fitness for the position. The greatest fool who offers himself ban sometimes a better chance of election than the clerer trained and thorough-going politician. Carlyle once said that the population of Great Britain consisted of thirty millions of people, “mostlyfools.” The popular tion of New Zealand fonsists bf about 650,000, “mostly fooW/* ana 'hence the cause of all bur woes. And what is more, it is those who profess to know most who know least. Take, for instance, the last election. The Conservative party, who arrogate to themselves a monopoly of the little bit of is in the country, put for 4 ' Vrard" (several proposals, foremost /amongst Which was that borrowing must cease. They won the day, and their representatives settled on borrowing £2,400,000 at once! When Sir Robert Stout said that he would borrow only £2,000,000 in ten years some of these people manifested great alarm, and appeared as if shivering in their skins for fear such a proposal wpuld capital away. Visions of frightened cajiital stalkihg aWay fftom the crushing burden / of taxation seemed to disturb their sleep, but the very moment their party got into power they increased our burden immensely by borrowing 2i millions of money ! . , . Next they were determined oh 1 cuttingtdown the Education vote, and especially as , regards the higher branches j'but have they done so ? Not .9 bit of it. They have slightly curtailed expenditure as regards the children of the poor, but have not touched the children . of the Schools-a.nd colleges have been allowed to go unscathed. They also insisted that no, increase should be made in taxation, but that we should bring expenditure within the revenue by means of retrenchment. Have they dope ip? By no means. They increased the Property Tax 1 to a penny in the £ all rounds Sir Juliuh Vogel intended only to increase it op those wite l ? 6 property was rained at over £2500. They promised to facilitata;land sefcfcle : raent, but'how have they dbhe it/ By abolishing the Village Settlement system, and- giving latid sharking facilities foracquiringthtf land for speculative purposes. No poor man will have any chance of making a home for himself, and! no man will be able to acquire land now except through Mr Speculator, who will buy from the Government at £l, and sell under mortgage to his dupes at- £4. That is the way the new Land Act will work. This is a nice record for three months, but it is not half complete, and now let the people ask themselves Have i they been misled ? Hare they • been ipade fools of in a most unscrupulous manner P. The re,a s °h this colony does not go ahead is because |be people do not exercise the fran?. chise intelligently. They do not consider whether the candidate understands politics or not, or whether he is a Liberal or . a Conservative. Acting on tills they elected a lot of boys to Parliament last election, and these do not really understand the A B 0 of politics. The depression must th©* 6, fore continue, and we should not regret it if only the stupid party felt it, but unfortunately we all must feel its tightening srip alike, and hence the reason why it becomesjo intolerable, i

It would be rery easy to render this colony the most prosperous on the face of the earth; it is one of the most fertile and fruitful, but so Iqng as its policy consists of “ borrow and spend for spending sake ” we shall not see the end of the depression.