The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1896.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 26, 8 September 1896, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1896.

It was a foregone conclusion that the Loan Hill would pass the House of llopresentatives. It was of course manifest to every member that public works and the ordinary administration of the country could not be carried on without extraneous assistance. The (Government had for some time given colour to their policy being self-reliant, and independent of the English capitalist, by appropriating and applying to current revenue all the savings which the strict letter of the law allowed. These funds are now all exhausted, and a loan is inevitable. This fact belies the claim which lias been so often put forth as to have become hackneyed that theirs was a “ strong finance.” Whether strong or weak, it has landed the colony in the position of having an empty Treasury, and its representatives of being forced nolens colon* to grant a million loan, much as they were, on the representation of Ministers that it was all right, to consent to the late banking legislation. Admitting that the million is urgently needed, the House had no business to have passed the Hill in its present shape. By so doing it lias placed a power in the hands of Government to bribe candidates and constituencies at the coming elections. Some will have direct promises held out to them, others will receive broad hints that if the election goes in favour of the Government money will be forthcoming for some pet local work. On the other hand to use the words of the Premier when making an electioneering speech in the Waitemata electorate : “If you return an Opposition candidate you cannot expect much consideration from the Government’” This sentence will stand for all time as being perhaps the. most candid, and at the smie time the most disreputable that over passed the lips of a Minister. Be this as it may, taken in conjunction with the above quotation, no sane man will believe otherwise than that the statement of Captain Russell, that the Bill was a most flagrant attempt to bribe the conslituencms, was neither an exaggeration of fact nor language. It is by their acts and the words that proceed out of their mouths men must he judged. Sir H. Atkinson long before the ending of his political career recognised that every Loan Bill should be carefully scheduled. When this is done, so soon as the Bill is passed, the occupation of the log-rollers is gone, and what is more to the point the bribing power of Ministers is gone also. We fully recognise that a loan is necessary, but hold at the same time that it would be loss disastrous to the country in the end that the works to which it is to be applied should cease for the time than that a million should be placed at the almost uncontrolled disposal of Minister.-, with which to debauch the constituencies from the Isorlli Capo to Stewart Island. .In considering whether this assertion is justified, remember what the Premier told the Waitemata Electors. If ever there was a time when the Legislative Council has been called upon to come to the rescue of the colony it is now. They cannot, however, amend 1 lie Bill, because it deals with finance, but they can throw it out and insist upon its not becoming la”/ until the manner in which the money is to bo spent is detailed in the schedule. To urge them on to courageous action in this matter they have the fact before them that more than ten members voted very reluctantly for the Bill, and that was the majority by which it passed the Assembly. As wo have previously pointed out if the promise of the Premier that all details will be given in the Public Works Statement can be carried out, there can be no reason why these details .should not bo included in tiie Bill, other than that -Ministers want a free band, or as one member put it.a blank cheque. Will the Council rise to the position 1 They need have no fear that the charge will lay that they have stopped public works. They can make it clearly understood that when the appropiations in the Bill are properly oar-marked they will pass the measure at a sitting.