The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1889. CONSERVATISM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1906, 20 June 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1889. CONSERVATISM.

In this colony no one will admit he is a Conservative. Every politician is a Liberal in this colony, and at election times the voters are frequently led away by the delusion that one : man is as good as another, and that it does not matter who wins. There is no more mischievous idea in politics. If people could be persuaded that there are here two parties, just as clearly and as distinctly defined as in any country in the world, they would choose one side or the other at elections ; but this vicious idea that they are all the same leads them into the delusion that it does not matter which party wins, because the result will be the same. It, is, however, easy to see that the Conservatives of this colony are not even so liberal or so just as the Conservatives at Home. The Right Hou. Mr Geschen in his recent Budget speech in the House of ! Commons said“ lam not prepared to propose additional taxation which will weigh to any extent upon the struggling professional classes, or the men whose situation requires them to spend all, or nearly all, that they earn—the men who have ho margin, or only a very small margin, which they can lay by.”- Now,-what-was the‘language of the Conservatives, and for the matter of that of many so-called Liberals, last session. It was to this “effect—“ We must not on any account; increase the property tax; that is as high as it must be,, but we shall levee a tax that/will fall on rich and poor alike, and in order to provide subsidies for local bodies we shall place a tax on . tea.” The Conservatives of England take a sensible view of things, and decline to increase taxation bn the struggling poor, preferring to exact it from those best able to pay it; the Conservatives of New Zealand heap it on to the poor, and say the propertied classes cannot bear any more taxation. In this we think the contrast is not at all in favor of the New Zealanders, and hence we arrive at the conclusion that the New Zealand Conservative is far more objectionable than his English prototype. In England Conservatives are born to wealth, and power, and greatness; they have old institutions, old ties, old associations, and if they struggle to preserve them it must be admitted that there is a great deal to excuse them for it. The theory of English Conservatism is, according to the late Lord Beaconsfleld (Disraeli), to protect the

people against the tyranny of capital. The landed aristocracy of England acknowledge that they owe duties and obligations to the people, which the speculative capaliet does not, and that one of these duties is to protect the people from the capitalist. We must say that the theory is a'very lame one, but the Gobs'ervative of New Zealand has not evfeh so much on which to build his status. He says, “ Look at me, look at the wealth I have accumulated ; I have made it all myself by my own superior energy, intelligence, and business capacity. I am not under any obligation to anybody for it. I have to thaiik only myself. Other people have had the same opportunities I have had; why had they not brains like me and made money.” He never will admit that the largest proportion of his wealth has accrued to him from thQi expenditure of borrowed money, which doubled ’ the value of land, or gave him other opportunities of making money, and there is no one who groans under the pressure of taxation so plaintively, A few years ago no one cried put for the expenditure of public money more v loudly. He . wanted a railway to-his own hall door to double the price of his land, and he got, it, and now, having got it, he dobs not want to pay for it, and he is“ Very angry because the necessity for paying has arisen.

Another fact which will illustrate the great difference between English and colonial Conservatives is contained in the passage of the “ Allotments Act 1887 ” through the English Parliament. This is the measure which was known as the “ three-acr«s*and-a-cow ” proposal. Tt was started by Mr Jesse Oollings in 1885, and in 1887 it was passed into law. This measure provides for purchasing allotments of land on which to settle agricultural laborers, just exactly as we have suggested in this colony. It took the Conservative Government of England only two years to consider it before it bepame law, but it has been six years before the people of New Zealand, and it has not 1 yet passed. It was introduced by Sir Julius Vogel in 1885, and thrown out, and last session Sir Harry Atkinson proposed to try an experiment by expending £IO,OOO on testing it, but ouy ypry Liberal Conservatives and some of our socalled Liberals voted against it, Does not this, and the recent determination of Mr Goschen not to increase taxation on tha poor, show that even the English Conservative is far more Liberal than the great “ I am ” of Netv Zealand. ' We'think it does, and that if shows too that there is a I o| t|e worst : type in this 1

colony. To be Conservative in a new country is madness, and the man o£ wealth suffers through it as much, if not more so, than the poor man. " Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.” The Conservatives of New Zealand will learn the full meaning of this when the rising generation, educated as they will be, become men and women. We shall then have a different class of electors, and a different class of representatives, and what is considered very Liberal now will be regarded as Conservative then.