The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4977, 22 December 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1884.

Extravagance in administration is one of the causes of the depression now complained of throughout the colony. The cost of government is too great, and far beyond the means of the people, who have so long borne the heavy weight placed upon their shoulders in connection with itAlthough the strength of the land, and the powerful health of fhe country, have enabled it to bear the strain so long put upon it, now that strain is beginning to tell upon its constitution, and warns it that it cannot long continue to bear it. It is not that the frame is delicate, or the covering of it frail, but too many liberties have been taken with the whole structure, and the result which should have suggested itself long ago is that the foundation of it has been undermined. In the first place, the cost of general government in New Zealand is alarmingly great. In almost every department of the Sta'e there

is a superfluity of expenditure, and a display of reckless extravagance which would disgrace any commercial venture, bring it to insolvency, and then incur strong and well deserved censure at the hands of any President of a bankruptcy tribunal. The amount of the colonial debt, although great, is one which the colony is in a position to bear, but it must be remembered that only by a careful husbanding of its resources can itwhile providing for this loadstone and its due extinction—successfully tide over the sea of troubles the existence of the accumulation referred to is causing. A very serious time awaits the colony, and careful statecraft will be required to see it safely through the difficulties which are now threatening to surround it. Of course, such a thing as total inability to meet liabilities is not to be thought of, but in order to render the future even smoothsaying nothing about progressing—very much more than ordinary care will have to be exercised in expenditure connected with all forms of the colony's government. It has not only been in matters dealt with at head quarters in New Zealand that extravagance has been indulged in, but local bodies have erred most lamentably in the same direction, and a woful lack of business tact and judgment has been displayed in connection with the dealings of many of them, or else a more unpleasant name should be applied to the reason of the condition of the exchequers of many of them. We by no means allude to our own bodies—who have, we regret to say, felt called upon to look into the state of their indebtedness—but to the whole colony from Her Majesty's Government down to the smallest body with expending powers allowed to exist. This system of ietting the future look after itself, which appears to be so generally adopted, has a most pernicious effect, and is certain to cud calamitously. Local governing bodies in particular should be taught to live within their means, and every possible precaution— even of the most stringent character conceivable—taken to preclude the possibility of their " outrunning the constable," and trusting to a "run of luck " or a benevolent Government to help them out of difficulties which may have been created through bad management. We repeat that we cannot accuse the Thames bodies of erring much in the direction we allude to, and would perhaps parenthetically remark that perhaps it has not been their fault altogether that they have not done so; lack of opportunity may have acted partially as a deterrent, but taking the colony throughout, enormous sums of money have been recklessly and resultlessly expended,and the time is now at hand when the folly of such conduct will be bitterly experienced. We have not been an opponent to legitimate borrowing for specific and well directed purposes —a young country requires outside capital for developmental purposes, but we have always been and will continue to be stringently opposed to unwise or careless expenditure, as it should be needless to point out that we require full value for every pound spenr, and twenty shillings for every pound borrowed with annual interest has to be repaid to those accomodating us with the use of their capital. The only panacea that suggests itself at the present time, in the circumstances of the Colony generally, is rigid economy in every department of the the country's management. Not an unnecessary servant should be employed, nor a shilling unwarrantably spent. By follow ing such a system there'is every hope that our general condition will reassume a strong and healthy state, and a threatened danger of financial trouble be thus averted.