The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1887. MAJOR ATKINSON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2580, 23 April 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1887. MAJOR ATKINSON.

Pke-sessional speeches have been wound up bj an address at Hawera, by Major Atkinson.' The Major has been so long silent that it has been almosfc.forgotten that he is. the titular leader of the Opposition. Would he were not so; for though he is one of the' honestest and most trustworthy financiers in New Zealand, he-has one 'or-i two bees in his bonnet which make his Mends afraid v of him; On the .■laud is about as mad' -as :Sir Robert Stout, and one reason 'probably why the House has not as yet sent tho Ministry packing has been ..their mistrust of Major Atkinson, ' When parties are shaken, up again Major Atkinson ought to carry his undoubted integrity. and ability into the Radical camp. In this colony every politician caUs-kimself a Liberal, but if Liberals are 'sorted into men with Conservative tendencies, and men with Radical proclivities, the Major would be placed among the latter, We do not desire to see the Major in • office again as Premier though it would be a relief to see him in power as Colonial Treasurer, In his Hawera speech he said, Nostrums were out of place at the present crisis, "Look at the condition of our credit in the London Maiicot, It cost the colony at least £49,000. when the last loan was floated, when bonds honestly worth 100 to 104 only brought a shade over 90. What was tho cause? Not Proude's slanders, not Standard articles, not even deficiency in revenue, but the statement of the Treasurer, who in his official place in Parliament told the people the colony could not afford to carry outits engagements, and that the colony must, instead of paying the sinking fund out of the revenue, pay it out of tho loan, in order'that it it. might borrow seven, millions more without feeling the burden..- Froude's book and the Standard articles set English, capitalists inquiring, but it was the Treasurer's action in breaking engagements that had done themischief, Tho money taken out of tho loan to meet the sinking' fund was not saved, but employed for paying interest on further loans." It will almost, we tlrinbj be-Major Atkinson's mission to restore tho prestige of tho colony in the London money' market." •We venture to affirm that were Major Atkinson's name' cabled • home as Treasurer in place, of Sir Julius Vogel, our securities would immediately rise in value in the money Market.