The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1885. THE TREASURER ON THE STUMP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2127, 23 October 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1885. THE TREASURER ON THE STUMP.

e Thk Colonial Treasurer and Mr Holmes, M.H.R., were banquett.ed at Ohristchurch on Wednesday night, and the former made a speech of considerable length, in which he referred to the events of the past session, Being in Canterbury, and at a banquet, he could, as a matter of course, rely upon having no one to answer him there and then, and be therefore indulged in an amount of self-glorification which bordered on the ridiculous. In reference to the past session, he said, " the Government had been taunted with showing great signs of weakness, and with not being able to carry on its business. Now, for ten years there had not been a single session in which so many important measures had been passed. The Government had attempted rather too much than too little, and had, perhaps, taxed themselves and their sup-

porters too severely. As to their failures, they bad not succeeded in altering the Customs tariff as they desired, or in passing the Native Lands Bill, or in a matter he had as much at heart as any gentleman present, the West Coast B&ihyay, Government were inclined to rpsigij after the defeat over the tariff, but it was considered that as taxation was a question of such raoraont that 110 party pressure should be brought to bear on it, some 50 members had represented to them that it would not be for the interest of the colony for them to resign. The Native Lands Bill had not been passed for want of time," It would bo difficult to imagine anything more shallow, He was, of .course, quite correct in saying that the majority, of the House did not want the Government to resign, but when he leaves the inference that it was because the majority of members had confidence in him and his colleagues, he insinuates what is not according to fact. The elements of the Opposition were of such an incongruous nature that to unseat the Government would have been a mere waste of time, as they themselves could not have agreed upon a policy. Seeing this;, they agreed on one thing, namely, to allow

the Gbvernment l;o retain office, but to throw out their measures, or amend them so as to render them harmless, The boast that the Government had introduced more important measures than had been introduced during any other session for ten years past is an idle one, and must appear the more absurd when it is remembered that very few of tliem were carried, and that those that were, came out in a shape that was little dreamt of by Ministers. Sir Julius Yogel appears to hove stopped short of enumerating the important and useful measures which they carried. He did not allude to the skeleton shape in which the Local Bodies Finance and Powers Bill reached the Statute Book, and only referred to the defeat of the Government on the Customs Tariff Bill as an illustration that the majority of the House did not ■ want them to resign. Had he seen the fine point of irony upon himself which is involved in the sentence he would probably have omitted it. The pity is that it is not recorded in Hansard. The speech would, in the very nature of things, have been very dull to the good people of Canterbury lmd it not contained a lengthy reference to the East and West Coast railway. After dishing up all ths old arguments in its favor, or rather, in favor of the Meiggs scheme, Sir Julius Yoqel informed his hearers that ho did not believe that the people of Wellington were opposed to it, and that the majority did not endorse theopposition of theirmembers. Well, all we can say about it is that we have not heard of a single resident in the provincial district, with the exception of Mr Travers, who, be it remembered, has as much interest in Canterbury as in Wellington, who has not condemned the proposal, It is an open secret that even the two Wellington members of the Ministry strongly objected to it, while every newspaper lifted it voice in protest, If feats of this sort are accepted as favorable to himself, then the Treasurer must indeed have got so thick-skinned by the defeats he has sustained that he is beginning to look upon further costigations as so many favors, When the people of Wellington wanted a railway to Manawatu, and the Government would not construct it, they put their hands in their pockets and formeda company tocarryout the work. Itis truethatthey gotcertain concessions from the Government, but they asked for no guarantoe, Why do not the people of Canterbury, Westland and Nelson follow the example? A large extent of land that would be benefited by the line has been set aside, and could, no doubt, be readily obtained by any company undertaking the construction of the line. But the proposal to give a guarantee that it will pay, should enter into no contract, Sir Julius Vogel, however, conveniently omitted to mention the thing, and found it preferable to dangle a large expenditure before the people, It goes without saying that he was entirely in accord with his audience, Referring to fclxo work of the session, he said that the Government had repealed the unjust Roads and Bridges Construction Act; but later on, in speaking of the future, ho said it might be desirable to form large territorial districts, with bodies authorised to dispense powers similar to those under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act- But this was a subject for future consideration. So that, after all that has been said against that measure, the Colonial Treasurer is inclined to take it as a pattern, Here again he shows the utter weakness of his boast, for while he says that the Government has passed measures for improved local government, he also intimates that it is intended to tinker the system of local government once more at the earliest

opportunity, Tho speech may have been a strong one from a Canterbury point of view, but taken as applying to the whole of the Colony, there is nothing whatever in it that is not shallow and equivocal,