Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1895. THE RECKONING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4977, 16 March 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1895. THE RECKONING.

♦ Wb have been wont to regard our commercial position as something superior to the sister colonies. Jfin" isters have drummed it into our ears in season and out of season, tiiat the policy of self-reliance as enunciated by them, and which in practice means borrowing on the sly to meet current expenses, has placed us in the superlative position as compared with the other colonies. Tho Ministerial mummers, journalistic and otherwise, have taken up the cry and have blown the balloon of self-reliance to its fullest capacity, and the people, ready to look on the bright side of things, have inflated themselves with the spurious stuff. The efforts of those opposed to the Government, to prick the balloon, have been discounted as the work of partisans, blinded by party zeal, In the midstof all the Ministerially manufactured self-reliance and their booming of so-called political, social, and commercial : ""o?rcss wo hear the cry of the un--1"-*. -1. which unfortunately for employe. - S grown londiand | louder with each the Seddonian reign. We dreu»."'- : ' contemplate tho volume of sound i that is sure to be heard this winter >' from the army of befooled laborers ] ' seeking work, and from the number f of women and children wanting bread, '. . \ If the opposition hasfailed toprick h , the optimistic balloon manufactured s'

byMr Seddonand hisaatellites, there can bo no question that outsiders who have seen the play and the tomfoolery, have punctured the aerial machine with' precision, and wo hope with effect. Eminent men from "across tho water," who lmvorecently visited our shores, with one accord affirm that our alleged prosperity has been much exaggerated, that our political progress and social advancement, are dreams and delusions, that we stand, as regards our neighbours, in a perilous position, and that our time of tribulation and repentance, is near at hand. We shall, of course, bo told in academic Billingsgate.that such visitors as we refer to, cannot, in the brief time they spend in this Colony, have peered into our position with any degree of accuracy. This is true to a certain extent, but experienced men need littlo time to see the cankerworm gnawing at the vitals of the body politic. The disease that possesses this Colony, may be detected in a hundred ways, but in none so readily us in the demeanour of the people, their language, and their style. Dejected New Zealand cannot |ie prosperous, a borrowing country cannot be self-reliant, a battalion of workless men, and hungry women and children, do not indicate social progress. The lime of reckoning, for the men who have preached this doctrine of deceit, is not far off, yet wo hopo that it is sufficiently distant to give the people a surfeit of their present unwholesome condition, as then the recoil will be all the greater, and more effective, An exhaustive trial of tho pills administered by the Seddon party is needed to steady the nerves of the community, and prevent the people from being swayed by excitement into acts of stupendous folly. 'Che last general election was the apex of popular stupidity, which we venture to say will not be repeated when next the constituencies arc called upon to elect a House of Representatives. Self-relianccpoliti-cal and social progress have had an abiding place only in the imaginations of Ministers and their tom°-tom beaters, for it has not been the experience of the people. Materialised, the policy of the Government has been sham, humbug, deccit,ancl cant, resulting in anaccretion of the public debt, a multiplication of the unemployed, commercial depression, and a sickly State socialism.