The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1885. THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2080, 28 August 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1885. THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Major Atkinson moved the first of the series of resolutions of which lie hud. given notice, in the House last night, and he appears to have made out a very fair case. In moving them seriatim, he is adopting well known party tactics, because, where one is rejected, ano'iher might be carried, though in contests of this kind where the fate of a Ministry is involved, individual views are not as a rule allowed to stand in the way. Major Atkinson's charge that the Government had made numerous promises of retrench-' merit, and that in place of retrenching they had gone into all sorts of extravagance, is absolutely incontrovertible, There was a distinct promise that taxation was to be reduced, but in place of that an attempt was made to make a.large increase in the Customs Duties, while the property tax has been raised by an eighth of a penny, Then there was the attempt to involve the colony in a guarantee of ,£95,000 per annum on account of the Meiggs and East and West Coast railway scheme, every penny of which would have had to be paid. In place of that, the Government now proposes to spend ,£150,000 in beginning the same railway, by which means the colony would be committed to on expenditure of about three millions, which would be simply thrown away. In addition to that, there is the further proposal to borrow another million. All this gave Major Atkinson a splendid opportunity for attack. We do not think he made the best use of it, but the simple review of the facts must be most damaging to the Government, • The reply of the Premier was weak in the extreme, and the assertion that if the Government were to go out of ofiice they would have a record of which they might well be proud, was simply the very height of the ridiculous. Ministers are not, as a rule, proud of having their proposals torn to tattors, and if thoy happen to be only just a trifle thinskinned, they generally resign aud admit that t)ie House will not allow them to make a record. Mr Montgomery wassurely mostiiiconsist.entwhen hesaid that he should vote against the ijjotion, and at the. same time expressed himBelf to the effect that an Atkinson Ministry or any other Ministry would be better than the present one, lljij opinion that Major Atkinson should be relegated to non-official life was an excellent, piece of sarcasm on himself, only in his case wo should have been inclined to say " non-polithal life." There is at present no saying how the struggle will end. So far, the divisions have gone in favor of the Government,