CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2924, 14 June 1888, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Outlook.

[To the Editoii.]

j So:.—Things are as dull with us as they can be, and tlio outlook is mvthing but assuring, We, too*e j. suffering from the reduction mania, as on the last pay-day the railway contractor shortened bands, These men, of course, have sought a fresh field of t labor, and the loss caused by the gap ' in the ranks of the consumers is sensibly felt by boarding bouse, store, j and hotel keepers. Our floating popuj lation are anxiously turning their eyes toward Australia. The railway boom j about to start in New South Wales will certainly attract thousands of our laborers, Victoria, with her projected j irrigation scheme, will also dratojj. hundreds from the Britain of the t and thus many of the thousands spent on immigration by successive minis- { tries for the benefit of the land shark I and English absentee capitalist will go J eventually to provido bone and muscle ( to push tlirough the public works of the sister colonies. The yoke of ( indebtedness weighs already with , crushing force on the necks of tho [ people, and unless new gold discoveries , or some other providential | pulling through is afforded us, a IB* and dreary uphill pull presents itself to those who may justly be termed , settlers. To look for anything in tho way of legislation as a means of relief is about the last thought of any man who has watched the history of New Zealand for the last 20 years, Are we short of money to meet tho demands of our English creditors, as wo must bo while ihe railways for whose construction the money was borrowed fail through mismanagement to pay the interest on their cost, with working expenses, the Customs must help us out of the fix, To this safo source of revenue Vogel, Hall, Grey, Atkinson, or any other leader has invariably bad recourse. BL has iver been so, and by this hackneyed device the load falls heavier and heavier on those least able to bear it. To recommend the bold step taken by the Argentine Republic —an export duty on wool, skins, axtd tallow—a tax that would fall oa«e shoulders of those whose properties have been increased tenfold in valuo by the public expenditure—would bo perfectly useless, whilst our people return as representatives, the mortgage ridden set of shufflers who composo our Legislature, Nor did this horrible piece of radicalism frighten capitalists from seeking the Republic as the land in which to invest thoir money, inasmuch as the whole country is rapidly being taken up, and the English tongue is heard as frequently in the streets of the capital ns the Spanish. Rank treason, this, in the sight of the powers that be, but something out of ' the common must be done, and the man who initiates some new line of policy, having for its aim the good of the masses, will be hailed as a benefactor. To impose an import duty of 2a Gd on every ounce of gold, torn by bard labor from jnother earth wasfet many years counted no sin; if tlSr the digger was mulcted, how muCu more should those who risk nothing, and give but scant employment considering the enormous areas held by them, be compelled to contribute their fair share to the revenue, I am, etc., JUmmm