WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 325, 9 August 1898, Page 2

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SPENDTHRIFTS. When the spendthrift goes to the moneylender frequently, it is usual for that member ct society to find out what has been done with his money and what is intended to be done with further advances, and in such case Hie borrower discovers that he is slave to tile lender. As with individuals, so with Governments, and when Imprest Supply Bill No. 2 came down hist irght the Opp sition made good use of the privileges members are accorded when Ministers ask for money. It is one of the few ojcasions on which almost any matter can be brought up without fear of standing orders ; while the game of baiting is on Ministers feel nervous, and refrain from blustering. Once thegraut is made they acain resume the attitude of dictators. They are very much like a party cf diggers in the good old days after a washing up. So long as the money lasts they take charge of the town and are heroes, and, in their case, as in larger circumstances, the command of ready cash is the lever which moves the world they rule for the time being. So it came about that Mr John Duthie, who is particularly strict in having his own business administered with the utmost regard to order, took exception to voting supplies until some information was afforded as to where and how money had been got rid of last year. He went further, and actually had the temerity to propose to refer the whole question of taxation to the Public Accounts Committee to investigate, with a view of discovering if there was not a possibility of relieving the poorer classes by remitting some of that grievous taxation which produces half-million surpluses. It is obtained from the people, and, not being required is, therefore, a needless impost. Any sensible person can understand this, and in his Government Budget, MrGoschen, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, finding he had a surplus, reduced tlie duties on tobacco, as being the working man's sole luxury. Of course Mr Duthie's motiou was rejected. No other fate was anticipated, although no reasons worth calling reasons were advanced against it. It was said that the proposal of submitting tariff proposals to the Public Accounts Committee amounted to an insult to the administration, as anything of that sort should emanate from Ministers. The obedient majority accepted this view, and again emphasized their abandonment of the time honoured power that Parliament has held over the purse for centuries. It is safe to predict that when a new Parliament is elected and the delirious belief in T)c. Seddon's genius is replaced by a determination to govern the country on true democratic Hues, that members will not forego their rights and duties in discovering where the taxes FRIENDS OF HUMANITY. We have grown so accustomed to orations of the alleged friends of the working classes that it is very rare now-a-days to hear or read of the other side of the question—that is the duties and responsibilities of the working classes. The real danger of any democracy is that the classes who have the power, will assume all the rights they consider they are entitled to and reject the duties they owe to society ; in other words the have-nots will plunder those who have. The enormous increase in State aid to charitable institutions through hospitals and benevolent institutions, and (what is still more immoral because the cost is not given) through the Labour Department, shows to what an extent the demagogues in power have to placate their compatriot outside. Then, to still further relieve the poor and transfer their duties on others, we are to have the Old Age Pensions Bill, which is not a pension Bill at all, but a pauper manufacturing measure, before Parliament again. It is the custom with Mr Seddon and other advocates of this legislation to assert that the pension is a right earned by services to the State in paying a share of taxation in the past, and not a pauper's dole. This is a most illogical position to take up, and may be excused on the ground that Mr Seddon and his followers ate seldom logical. It is hardly possible to define a " poor man." A man may fancy himself poor because he does not keep a stud of racehorses or a carriage. Another is, perhaps, content in a miner's hut in a solitary gully. I have known instances of both. But a "pauper" is easily described, fie is a person who caunot or will not earn his living ; whose producing powers are not equal to his necessities ; who cannot pay his way, and is beholden to the charity of others. A man who is among us as a consumer, yet who does hot contribute in any way to the work of society, is a burden to the State. But under our system he still has equal privileges with the best citizens in governing the State. He has his vote, maybe, and sometimes is made a J. P., and can be elected to Parliament. No sound theory of government should permit any pauper to share in political power, but the beneficiaries of such a system form the limited body of electors who are the balance of power on polling-day to influence the result. When the State undertakes to relieve the pauper of his cares, either by taking charge of his children and sending them to where they will cease to be neglected waifs, or by relieving him or his family through the benevolent institutions or hospitals without payment, that man is supported by society, and he should be cancelled from the rank of an elector as well. The teachings of the party in power have been distinctly in the direction of instructing their followers that poverty is the best policy. Their legislation wdicn stripped of its glamour, says : —" If you get wealth, you will have to support other people, if you do not. get wealth other people will have to support you." And so we find that Dr. McGregor's report teems with protests against the manner in which both in-and outpatients in the hospitals obtain free treatment, how the Charitable Aid Boards are called upon for help more and more every year, and the Labour Department gives relief to thousands, and at the same time room is being found for more officials of various kinds, not because the State has need of them ; but because they have placed Ministers under some political obligation to them. SETTLING THE LAND. The annual report of the Lands Department is not yet supplied to members. Tha records of past years have been of such u, convincing character as showing the wreck of the Hon. Minister for Bushy Park's policy that it is hardly likely be will be in any hurry to lay the latest confession of failure on the table. Possibly he has realised by this time that settling people in a New Zealand forest without cash, experience or roads is an invitation to certain failure, and when to this is added a rental based upon an utterly false value of the land ami a further exaction tor roads which arc not made, then the position becomes utterly ludicrous. The Liberals make a great mouthful ef the cry the "Land for the People." Raw land, especially when covered with the tangled vegetation of the North Island, is practically of no value, to a man trained to the life and with means it gives him a chance to prosecute the struggle for existence under unfavourable conditions, for land can only be brought into profitable use by great hardship and exertion. Most men would consider the gift of such land with compulsory residence as transportation fm - life. Compare the lot of a bush pioneer with that of the city Trades' Unionist protected by law and the Conciliation Board in receiving £'A per week for 41 hours work. Add to this the comforts ami enjoyment of a life in the city as against the early struggles in a tent in bad weather and the conveyance of provisions per swag. Then take the results at the

end of the year of the two parties, and the value of the raw laud will not only disappear, but the settler's work will not be veined at half that of the artizan, although infinitely more laborious and distressing.