The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1889. The Premier's Speech.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3116, 30 January 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1889. The Premier's Speech.

hit Harry Atkinson, in addressing be colony through a meeting of his onstituents at Hawera, reviewed the 'olicy of his' Ministry during the late essiou, and claimed that in spite of he increase in customs duties, the tiajority of mombers in the Ministry vere sound Freetraders. He declared hat the new Land Act was giving latisfaction, that village settlements is a whole were successful, and tha bo system' might be oxtended to i nodified extent in parts of the colon; vhera labor was in demand. • H lommended his " fair roui bill" fo ,he relief of overburdened lease lolders, and argued that the ne\ Native Land Act was boaring goo: rait and would lead to valuabl iettlement when the Native Lam 3ourt was got into good workim jrder, He defended at great lengtl ;he action of the Government witl respect to the formation of the »ei Railway Board, and pointed out tha the vaunted Victorian raanagemen 3id not contrast well with the superio New Zealand control. Of course h leclared, as Premiers always' do,.tha the present Parliament was th wisest and most high-minded assem blage ever known in the colony, bu he said little or nothing about tha sore point, bis departure from his ol friends and colleagues and taking u] his lot with a new set of men, Th grand parliamentary feature ol th past year has bwn the fact that i number of high-minded members o the House permitted tlieir claims fo political preferment to be waived and for the sake of the colony allowci men to step before them who wer in some instances less worthy of placi and power, Tlieao. mombers per mitted Kir Harry Atkinson to form i democratic Ministry, because it wai thought that the colony would accep retrenchment with a better grace from men who were comparativel; poor. Sir Harry also promises usir his budget for the coming session s new Hospital,and. Charitable Aic Bill, in which in some waypermanen oases of destitution are to be placet on the shoulders of the colony ant billeted 011 industrial farms, wlnli temporary cases of poverty will hi relegated to local bodies, We havi got a poor law and it ma/be possibli to make it work more smoothly nm economically, but the mischief liei in having in a young country lil« this any pauper legislation at all Another patent remedy for the Civil service, in the shape of a suppmiua' tion fund, is promised, fjuob a fund, no doubt, willbe a comfortable thing, but the application of it will not be unattended with difficulties. Finallj Sjr Harry, whose faiilt has never lain iu being over sanguine, declared thai properly in the colony is becoming saleable and that prospects are : improving all round. ; In our polonial finance, the revenue,. he < says, it

, balancing the expenditure, and after , fourteen montl)3 of hard and dis- ' toing' labor,. the. Ministry are beginning to feel tliat they Ijave done good work for the colony. Sir Harry has . certainly not disappointed the which have been formed t of hi'rn, M scientiously discharged the tas..' °( 'retrenchment' and reorganisation wlricli the House intrusted to his cave. If he is contented to devote himself mainly to, the. work of administration, and reduces,iiew legislation to a minimum,' ho may yet have a long termof office';,before liim, wliicb will be a credit to himself' and a b enefi t - to the colony.vWe

his Hawera speech to be bald aud barren. The absence of /' leaps ahd bounds", in it may giro an impression of this land, but the colony does not | want anything more -exciting -.thanthe Premier lias given, and his spoeoh will on the whole commend-itself'to the good so'nso ofthe-settlßi's ofNew -Zealand. .-••■*'