The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3976, 30 November 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1891.

The local organ grinder of the Ministerial Party takes a cheerful view of the present condition of New Zealand, and expresses it in eloquent terms. Leaving the sad realms of fact lie soars into an Empyrean of fancy, and declares that—

i The eyes of Australia and the world are at this moment directed to New Zealand, standing, as she does, with her labour members and one-man one-vote franchise, in every vanguard of industrial emancipation and reform, and above the dismal howls of absentee land sharking capitalists threatening to drain the financial blood they cannot otherwise employ, comas the sound of a rushing army whose skill and sinews applied to hill and valley will make the soil of New Zealand overflow with the products of its hidden natural treasury. The eyes of Australia and of the world are, indeed, upon us in much tho same way that people look when they fear that they are about to be robbed, and when they button up their pockets against as. The howling capitalists say they want their money back, because they cannot trust Mr Ballance's Government. Why capitalists should howl we know not, though most people at different stages of tlieir existence have probably been glnd to have a howling capitalist at their backs excepting, of course, our local contemporary, who has always kept the howling demon at arms' length. Perhaps it is thac people who cannot get their money back do howl, and if the party in power have some pol.cy of repudiation or confiscation under way whioh will lead up to this, money lenders may be termed howlers. The real position, however, is this, money is hardening and getting scarce- -the farmer who has, per haps, been. paying 7 per cent, for his loan will shortly have to pay 8 or even 9 per cent., and if he wants to sell his property he will, from the condition of the money market, have to si-ll it at a loss. If a farmer has a thousand pounds of mortgage on his farm he will have to pay from £lO to £2O extra interest per annum to the money lender as his contribution to the cost of our industrial emancipation and reform. Many of the politicians, who have been hatching out this new policy are persons who have in their own private affairs proved themselves to be incapaUa managers, who have absolutely shown dense ignorance of the simplest laws of accumulation and distribution. It would be easy to pick out half a dozen names of members of the House, and if their joint and several names were written on the back of a promissory note, say for a hundred pounds, no bank manager would discount it. Yet these are the men who are trusted to recast the finances of the Colony and settle the most intricate financial complications and combinations. We heard of one M.H.R. who was said to have paid his election expenses by promisory notes, and when the latter became due did not honour them, and we have heard members of his party refer to this particular politician as a shining light, who must by his special ability come to be Colonial Treasurer some day. That the colony possesses great wealth and substantial resources is undoubtedly true, and it will be hard for even men like Messrs Balance and Seddon or Mr Alexander Hogg to permanently cripple it, but the hand ing over of important functions to persons possessing incapacity must be followed by disaster, must be crowned by punishment. If the small former escapes with the loss of £lO to #3O a year bfl will fortupaie, the whole community will alsg los?. AHi who possess property will h&jre to my a; penalty, and those who don't willTjavej to accept lower wages .or go without work. Every business man in this colony condemns tho poiipy pf .the GoTeipjuent, bat still from tbe liberal

standpoint every business man in the colony is wrong and every unbusinesslike man is right. Still money is hardening, and as long as the present Ministry remain in power it will continue to harden. Big words won't fill empty pockets or make the soil of New Zealand overflow with products.