The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1890.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3552, 3 July 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1890.

THE DEBATE liaS finished, and it was not difficult to foreshadow its end. The debating power lies with the Opposition, the voting powsr with the Government. The Opposition pray for a speedy dissolution, but many of them would be extremely disgusted if their prayer were heard, and they were returned to their constituents without transacting such business as may have been committed to their caro. The net result of the debato will be to barrass the Government and impair its chance of doing useful work before the elections. The Hon Mr Ballance opened the ball with a really good Bpeech in which ho rattled raps on the eyes, mouth, nose, and body of the Ministry, every hit falling fair and square, but not a single knook down blow in the lot. As a political pugilist the member for Wangantii is dexterous and agile, but he is not a

very hard hitter. His case against the Ministry was formulated upon four issues, but his speech covered forty. In the first place he condemned the continuance of the primage duty, which produces L 56.000 per year. No one is in love with this or any other form of taxation, and it is a pity that Ministers do not see their way to abandon this particular impost, On this point publio opinion will go with Mr Ballance, but the point is not a vital oue, There is some appearance of humbug in tho proposal of the Government to popularize this tax by appropriating it to school buildings, and the idea of converting " primary schools" into "primage schools," though ingenious, is slightly far fetched. The next card Mr Ballance plays is retrenchment, but when in office the hon gentleman was remarkable for a profuse distribution of publio wealth, and a lavish generosity in dealing with unauthorised expenditure. Can we expect suoh a man to give the Colony a policy of drastic retrenchment ? The leader of the Opposition wisely forbore to show in what directions substantial retrench ment could be effected, and a general promise to bring it about was, we feel sure, quite as much as even his best friends expected at his_ hands. The third indiotment" against the powers that be is the property tax. In this levy Mr Ballance.would exempt improvements aud: agricultural machinery, but_|m ;has on former occasions maintained 111*' in the presont condition of the Colony the tax must bo upheld for revenue purposes, and we presume that the exemptions he is willing to concede must be made up by augmenting the levy in some other direction, and if so where is the gain? The last and heaviest charge in. that the land policy of the Government is bad. No doubt this is true, but unMunaUlyhiiiQPJairi f9^..w»».w

wasrapowtirfffts.worse'.• A liberalj land policy has been ridden to death] for many years, one outbidding another, in giving facilities to men without a" Bixpenoe to settle on land. ;'JL'ho : buaiiaess of farming cannot be suooesßfull;' followed in any couutry by men'without means, yet our Government,! one and nil, enopurage men without capital.to take upland, and.the direot result is weak and unsuccessful settlement, A hundred acres of bush land cleared, fenced and stocked with an,appropriate dwelling is worth a thousand pounds, and a man who has this amount of capital can do well off such a holding, but we 6ee men with little or no capital encouraged to take up farms of such dimensions.. How. are such men to find say a hundred pounds a year for interest or even for interest and improvements? They..attempt impossibilities simply because an easy start is given to them under bur regulations, and sooner or later they breakdown and lose the fruits of their labors. Even in Wairarapa North there aro. hundreds, of sections which have either been abandoned or transferred, and the number of holdings where the oocupier has the meaiißto do. justice to the laud whioh he has taken up is extremely, limited. Our policy iu New Zealand has been to makejand easy to get, difficult to improve, and hard to hold. If'' a Minister said to a hard working man, as in old times, "I will give you a section of good land at ten shillings an acre cash," the intending sutler would under- j stand his position and would derive a profit on the transaction, but insteadof this, he will sell the unfortunate man, now-a-days, a section for thirty shillings an acre, and by only demanding a cash payment of eighteenpence delude him into the idea that he has got a bargain. The result of this policy is that the small settler without ■ capital ultimately seils out his interest at a sacrifice to the large settler with capital, the rich hecoming'richer and the poor poorer, while the Hon. Mr TJallance cries to the unfortunates "bless you my children, and vote for. ni9, the poor man's friend."