The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1887. THE OUTCOME OF THE VOGELIAN POLICY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2655, 23 July 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1887. THE OUTCOME OF THE VOGELIAN POLICY.

The great" Vogdiwi" policy with its promised progress of " leaps and bounds" has ended, as all thinking men knew it must, in a serious financial crisis.;' Let there be no' mistake about this,'no further trifling with the question, Our financial position as a colony is a most serious one, and on tko ovo of an election it ig most im-i

portant that every elector should fully realize this fact. The problem how to restore a financial equilibrium must be solved by the Parliament about .to be elected and for this reason representatives should be chosen because of their financial-ability and their honesty of purpose in insisting on the measures they believe to be right and necessary, however unpopular these, measures may :be, No doubt there are numbera pf|iei:sons who fail to realize the "position of matters, and are determined not' to 1 believe things are so bad ■ as::we liave stated, With many persons it is useless ■to:argue, r as their -'minds'are apparently incapable of drawing such conclusions from facts and figures, How often do we find this class of people figuring in the Bankruptcy Court and discover that they have gone on hi a hopeless state of insolvency, perhaps for years, but have been unable to see that this was so, till they have been suddenly brought up by their absolute inability to meet a bill. Men with minds so constituted would be quite content to see the Colonial finances managed in the same" happy go lucky" way; therefore anything we can say can have little or no effect on them, While saying this, Ave believe it is only true of a comparatively few, and that the.great majority of the electors are anxious to know how the matter really stands and are prepared to face the future, if they can only see what is required, and how it ought to be done. They read the Parliamentary debates, perhaps, then they listen to the speeches of the candidates and study the papers, and often end by being as much in the dark as ever, and no -wonder, when we consider how even members of the same Ministry are uuablo to take the same viows, on many of the most vital points. The only way out of all this confusion of thought is to take a few main points and figures and see the conclusion they point to, not being led away by a number of unimportant details. For the first we are content to impress upon our readers these two facts. First that our customs revenue is steadily decreasing at the rate of about £IOO,OOO a year, and this on those particular items which show beyond doubt a decreased purchasing power in the people; secondly that we aro losing population as steadily at from 800 to 400 per quarter. Nothing can more clearly indicate what is going oiv than these two facts if rightly •considered in all their bearings, A statesman would not require to be told their importance, but Sir Julius is not to be alarmed : by such trifles. Ho certainly tells us that, as people have paid a smaller sum in customs duties, they must have tho Tost in their pockets, and his remedy was to extract this by some new form of taxation, Tho House, by a large majority, defeated him on this point, and now the question is, "What is tojiedoue." To this there can bo but one answer, in the one word, retrench; No candi-. date should be returned who does not absolutely pledge himself to vote against increased taxation in' any form for the present. We shall always be told this is impossible, that more revenue is essential and so it will always be till the' House absolu tely. refuses to grant more. The Government will then have no.choice but to cut down expenditure and it can be done. The process is, no doubt an unpleasant one, and will therefore be postponed till all other schemes for keeping things on their present basis have been exhausted. In country districts there is no excuse for not understanding exactly how tho case stands. How many instances have we all seen of the same financial conduct of private affairs as has characterised that of the Government. Men come with moderate capital, buy property to a far greater value and so incur heavy liabilities. They fancy themselves wealthy men, and spend large incomes, employ large numbers of people at the highest rate of wages, and in every way act as though the property they hold is really their own, and in a few short years the bubble bursts and they are ruined. It is no wonder, then, to find them turning politicians and asking the electors to trust them to manage the affairs of the Colony, after having shown their utter incapacity to manage their own. The analogy between such a case as this and the Government finance of the past, is perfect—large loans, extravagant expenditure, and now the end! Let; us all pause and reflect. We, as a colony find our creditors putting in their representatives to manage our affiairs, jiist as the mortgagee often has to do in the class of private failures we have referred to.