The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1890. THE MINISTERIAL PRONOUNCE MENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2051, 27 May 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1890. THE MINISTERIAL PRONOUNCE MENT.

Ofe grandmotherly neighbor, the Timaru Herald, is in the middle of an awful quandary, which is destroying its appetite and disturbing its slumbers just now. It is settling down on its already rather dismal intellect with the weight of an overgrown nightmare, and threatening to extinguish any little ray of light still left to illumine its knowledge-box. The Herald has been in the habit of associating all kinds of viciousness with the Opposition. In the past, according to it, the present Opposition did all the mischief: it borrowed all the money, spent it foolishly, and destroyed the colony. And, in addition to this, it has been haunted for several months with the spectre of Sir Julius Yogel returned to power, and borrowing once more as recklessly as ever. It now finds all its calculations upset. Sir Julius Yogel obstinately refuses to return. Mr Ballance, as the leader of the Opposition, has pronounced against further borrowing, and, alas! and alack-a-day ! there is no one going in for increasing our indebtedness except his own darling pets, the Atkinson Ministry. Now, this is a sad state of things, indeed ; but it is exactly as we haye pointed out it would be. The leopard cannot change its spots, nor the Atkinson party their only policy. The Atkinsoniaus will borrow while they can, and then hand over the colony to someone else, who will find it necessary to file a declaration of insolvency. But the Herald is trying to wriggle out of the difficulty. It does not believe that Mr Fergus was speaking the mind of the Ministers when, in Queenstown the other evening, he proposed to issue debentures to raise money with which to buy Native Lands and make roads through them. “It evidently must have been a gross piece of impudence on the part of Mr Fergus to commit his Government on the important questions to which he referred,” says the Herald, and it continues to fume and rave about consolidating the revenue of local bodies and issuing debentures to buy Native lands. It refuses to believe that the Government will do anything ot the kind, and quotes several instances in which .Ministers had on previous occasions broken loose, and given their own private opinions instead of those of (the Cabinet.

We pity the Herald. We pity it for more reasons than one. We pity it first because the Opposition refuses to appear as dark as it has painted it, and secondly because it has not the common sense to distinguish between what is bad and good. The Herald lashes against the consolidation of local body loans, but in our opinion it is the , most statesmanlike proposal which has ever emanated from an Atkinsonian Cabinet. In these columns we have frequently directed attention to the madness of letting our local bodies borrow at as high a rate as per cent., while the Grovernment could get the money at 4 per cent, for them. Wo have also pointed out that we cannot afford to allow any one of our local bodies to become bankrupt. To do so would be worse than madness. It would be suicidal, and simply ruin the colony’s credit. It was a foolish policy—an Atkinsonian one by the way that ever allowed these bodies to borrow privately, and involve themselves in such financial difficulties, but now that we see them in deep water there is nothing for it but to keep them afloat. Mr Fergus said on the authority of Mr Westgarth that by consolidating these loans a saving of £73,450 might be effected. We have often said much the same thing. This £73,450 would be kept in the colony, and would so far lighten taxation, and yet the Herald is such a noodle that it cannot see it.

With regard to issuing debentures for buying up and settling , native lands, although we at once pronounced it as borrowing without a question of .doubt, we are not opposed to it. It is a very sensible proposal. Under, it the land would be settled, production and population would be increased, and surely the returns from the laud itself would do far more than pay interest on the debentures. The objection w© have to this is that we hare no faith in the Minister of Lands, and that the same end might be attained without borrowing a penny. Let the Government lease the land 5 from the natives for, say 21 years, and relet it to tenants on the same terms on which they get it themselves, plus expenses, We are sure the natives would gladly lease to the Government, and more certain still that it would be easy for the Government to get tenants, so long as it was provided to compensate them fop improvements. In this way the interests of the Maoris would be conserved—they would not be pauperised and thrown as a burden on charitable aid, and all the ends of land settlement would be served. If these advantages were pointed out to the natives it would be easy to deal with them, and the whole scheme could be easily worked, but as we do not suppose our suggestions will be adopted it is no use to say anything further on the subject. And now one word more. We cannot be accused of being an inordinate admirer of the present Government, but we are not like the Herald : we’

can distinguish what is good from what is bad, and we are always ready to give honor to whom honor is due. If the Herald acted on the same maxium it would not have so frequently disgraced itself by telling the awful terrible lie that the StoutTogel Government were guilty of all the financial mismanagement of the colony.

CREDITABLE RECORD,

Ardently devoted as we are to the industrial development of this colony 1 anything which marks advancement in that direction always gives us infinite pleasure. It has been said that we can never produce in this colony at a rate that will enable us to export manufactured goods to other countries but facts show how falacious this argument is. Our woollen goods have already gained a firm hold in Australia, but the greatest successes have been scored by our iron-founders and agricultural implement-makers. Amongst these Messrs Booth and Macdonald sta.nd foremost, Some of their implements have had a triumphant march through Australia last year, and now they are doing an immense. trade with all the colonies. From a list before us we gather that for the Carlyle Iron Windmill, the Carlyle Disc Harrows, and Lough’s Patent Woolpress they won all the principal prizes throughout the colonies last year. In Hew South Wales they won _I7 special prizes and 34 first prizes; in Victoria they won 14 first prizes ; in Queensland 1 special and 8 first prizes; in Tasmania 9 first prizes. This is a splendid record. They have got first - prizes wherever they have shown, and the result is greatly, increased demand on their articles. They have now established agencies in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Launceston, and their exports of implements are now very large. This is a grand thing for the colony, and we commend the enterprise and coarage of the firm which is doing it. ihe result is, of course, that they are bringing a great deal of money into the colony, and paying it away in wages. This does good to everybody, for the money circulates amongst all classes, even to the farmers, who get better prices for the products of the soil through it. There can be no doubt that the day will come when New Zealand will be the Britain of the South, supplying all her neighbors with what they stand in need of. Her soil is fertile beyond compare, and her climate is such that men can do more work here than m sub-tropical Australia, and thus produce articles more cheaply. There is nothing wanting bub a little common sense to manage our affairs a little better than we have been doing.