NATIONAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4977, 16 March 1895, Page 3

NATIONAL EXTRAVAGANCE.

Not the least unwelcome legacy of the boom is the record of national extravagance which the present taxpayers are asked to take up and liquidate. The appalling expenditure, coupled with the revelations of extravagance in various State departments, go far to prove that the past Victorian Governments have been actuated by a desire to see how much money they could spend without counting the cost, What is true of Victoria hugely applies to all Australia—the great business of maintaining a State has produced a larger expenditure than revenue. The cardinal principle of private business is to securo as largo a return as possible on the outlay, but the majority of Australian Governments seem to have considered that prosperity was best assured by the reversal of the principle. Anyway, tho individual is largely a gambler —human nature as a whole likes to spend money without considering whether or not it is going beyond its revenue. This disregard of engagements—this putting aside of responsibility extends even to the consideration of health. We start in life with a certain amount of physical and mental strength—like the spendthrift who throws away his niouey, believing for a time that his prosperity will last for ever, the young man, glorying iu tho possession of a fine constitution, disregards the danger signals that failing health holds out to Jiim from time to time, To speak in financial metaphor, he overdraws his account at the Bank of Health—ho continues his expendituve without securing a revenue for his enfeebled system, and by and bye his body not only refutes to honor the extraordinary demands made upon it by civilization, but 1b also unable to fit him to perform the simplest functions. Most cases of this kind have their origin in that scourge of civilization, kidney disease, which is responsible for more mortality than any other cause. Next to it as a destroyer of happiness, and life comes disease of the liver in its various forms. If the kidneys are impaired in efficiency, uric acid becomes a virulent poison fa' the blood, and if the liver is deranged, bilo is absorbed into tlio system, in both cases producing various distressing affections of the

head, heart, stomach and nerves. Instead of treating these last mentioned, attention must be directed to the exciting causes. Warner's Safe Cure has a specific and positive action on both these great organs, a fact which lias been proved to demonstration in thousands of instances.