The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1888. OUR POPULATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2887, 1 May 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1888. OUR POPULATION.

A big public meeting Ims recently been held at Dunediu to consider the best means of retaining and employing , our population in New Zealand. A 1 number of representative men holding i different views were present at the ' gathering. Sir Eoberfc Stout wrote to I the chairman, expressing sympathy, but offering no suggestion; Mr H. S. Fish, junr,, M.H.R., advocated a sound system oi protection; Dr. i Fitchett followed suit, arguing that whereas freetracle meant sheep, protection indicated men, women/ and children. " If Satan," said the doctor, " was in the House, and brought down a strong protection tariff, Satan should haye my vote." No doubt the doctor is sincere, but it is doubtful whether Satan would be contented with the little member's vote only. The unpopular speaker of the meeting was Scobie McKenzie, M.H.R., who moved: (1) " That in the opinion of this meeting it is essential that, at a time of depression like the present, no burden should be laid upon the people of New Zealand other than such as is absolutely necessary to supply the means of administering the Colony's affairs, and the meeting of its obligations." (2)" That in order to restore confidence in the Colony, public borrowing should cease for the time, the Colony should be made to live strictly within its own resources, and every effort directed to the reduction of taxation. Mr James Allen, M.H.E., follows in the same strain. The cure for us, he believed, lay in recognising for ourselves that there were here and in every country in tbe world, periods of depression, and providing against it during times of prosperity, without being led away by the speculative spirit that had been the ruin of this Colony. He believed, too, that inducing faster settlement would be one way of employing the population. A Mr R. L. Stanford proposed an income tax and graduated land tax as a cureall, and this proposal met with a considerable amount of acceptance from the meeting. The sentiments expressed by Messrs McKenzie and' Allen, are however, the only true solution of the difficulty which is recognised by thoughtful, earnest men. , A period of inflation must be followed by a period of contraction.. The pendulum which has swung widely in one direction must vibrate proportion? ately far on the opposite side, before it again beats a steady stroke, The truth is, that there is no quick, im-' mediate cure for the ills that occasion our population to drift away from us. A slow and steady return to a condition of solvency is the best hope for New Zealand! The Colony is now on the right track, but the trail is a long one, and we cannot get to the end of it all at once.