A REPLY TO MR ROCHE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1540, 18 May 1882, Page 3

A REPLY TO MR ROCHE.

TO TJIK EDITOR. Sir, — Will you allow me space for a leply to Mr Roche, as he has made statements which I think ought not to go unchallenged. In answer to his taunt that I was once letnrned as a supporter of Sir George Grey, I admit it, anil only say if that gentleman had been sincere in endeavouring to give effect to the principles he proposed, he would have been Premier to-day, and I would have been supporting him as member for Waipa. But Hi the same way as the failure of a large commercial house often brings down smaller firms with it, so Sir George Grey's failure to act in accordance v ith his profession, ruined him politically, and brought me down with him. Mr Roche says " the Hall Government effected retrenchment at a cost to the colony of some millions worth of public lands which their friends with their aid monopolised." I regret that Mr Roche after expressing the opinon that I was rather hard on Sir George, should have made a statement which he must well know would be libellous if applied to a private individual, and Avhich is none the less so because applied to a Government ; a statement, moreover, which I venture to say he has not the slightest possible grounds for making or believing, though I have no doubt he does believe it most religiously. A further statement is that it was " the Patetere Company that ousted the Grey Ministry." This is a gratuitous assertion of a like character with its predecessor, and resting on the same vague and imaginary grounds. I venture the opinion that it was the general incapacity in administration, not to use a stronger term, especially _in finance and native affairs, the following after chimeras while neglecting the business of the country, or at times sacrificing its true interests for the purpose of gratifying private pique ; these were the rocks upon which the Grey administration was wrecked, and the Patetere Company had as much to do with it as Mr Roche himself. He asks "thankful for what?" I reply that a Government which carried out all the Liberal measures which their predecessors only talked and . quarrelled about will be enabled to effect still further reform in the same direction, such as the change in the constitution of the Legislative Council, the Waste Land Board, and County Councils, the system of local finance, and the maintenance of charitable institutions, &c, &c. ; that a Government which in the face of great financial depression, made enormous reductions in the cost of administering the affairs of the country (that most difficult and thankless of all retrenchment to effect), and at the same time* devoted still larger sums than their predecessors for the work of opening up the country jwith main roads, an expenditure which, while entailing great aiffi-

culty on tho Ministry, is of perhaps more actual benefit to the settlers generally than any other ; which without making a hue and cry of the injustice of the system of taxation, quietly brought in a bill to change the land tax, which really made very little appreciable difference in the revenue, for a property tax, much fairer in its pressure on the population, and realizing a very large sum annually solely off those who were best able to pay it, while it entirely exempted those who were not, should have the opportunity of effecting still further reductions in the administrative machinery, and pushing forward the main lines of communication throughout the colony ; that a Government whose good name enabled the colony to borrow on favourable terms at a time when their failure to obtain a loan would have involved the most disastrous consequences, should have the opportunity of negotiating another loan, which which there are fair grounds for supposing will be obtained on better terms than it would with an Opposition Ministry in power, and the expenditure of which, will at least, if we are to judge by the past be as fairly divided as it would by the other side ; that a Ministry which was the first since the establishment of the colony to teach the natives respect for the law of the land, and to show them that they must abide by that law or take the consequences, will still be enabled to to carry out that firm administration of native affairs which has made the Government respected throughout the colony and not a term of reproach. I will not occupy more of your space, but will reiterate my statement that the colony is to be congratulated on these results, and express the hope that Mr Roche, who I know honestly believes his statements, may in time come to guide his expression of opinion by the light of reason and solid facts, and not by that of feeling and party prejudice 1 am, &c, Edwake G. McMinjt. Harapepe, 13th May, 1882.