The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2344, 19 July 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1887.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state oi persuasion, rcltgte.:3 or political.

Sir Roiikut Stout is reputed to have said, in writing to a friend in Wellington, that there, is not a “ mere cry for retrenchment in the South, but a perfect roar.” We quite believe this, and are also inclined to believe that this roar is very pleasant music to Ministerial ears. Ministers themselves are nothing loth to follow the fashion. Like Satan reproving sin, they, too, are to be found posing as the virtuous apostles of financial reform. From the first formation of the Stout-Vogel Government what have they not hesitated to do to keep possession of the Treasury benches ! They have been content to hold their seats on the mere sufferance of the House. No rebuff has been too humiliating for endurance, so that those precious seats could be retained, and now it appears not too much for them to hope that if they will only take up the cry of retrenchment with the rest, the people will forget that it was their wasteful extravagance, their mismanagement and corruption, their policy of profligate borrowing ami reckless and unauthorised expenditure which have at last brought the people of the colony face to face with a grave financial crisis. There never was a Government since representative institutions were granted to the colony that could vie with the

Stout- Vogel .Ministry in its utter want of self-rcspt'ut and principle, in its cringing subserviency to Parliament. And all this they hope, will be forgotten in the roar for retrenchment The electors, however, must not forget that at the present time the Ministry is on its trial. As the result ot the very dissolution they have demanded, they now stand at the bar of public opinion. Like the beaten gladiator in the arena they await the verdict of the auditorium, and the “ turned down thumbs ” of the people is the only verdict they deserve. The Stout- Vogel Ministry must go. That is the one great question to be alfirmed by the people in the present elections, and we must not lose sight of this important issue, llotrenehment will be a mere farce in the new Parliament if these men are to he maintained in the Government of the colony. We cannot gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. We cannot again trust a Ministry which came into ollicc to replace an extravagant Government with the promise on their lips that they would reverse the policy of their predecessors, but who practically have adopted that policy, having none of their own, and in the matter of expenditure have proceeded with “leaps and bounds.” Are these the men that are to be trusted witli the carrying out of that policy of retrencl meat which the electors of New Zealand from one end of the colony to the other are busily formulating at the present moment 1

Tlio first thing thou to ho required of every candidate for our suffrages is the pledge that under no circumstances whatever, will ho support the Stout - Yogol - cum - Ballanco Ministry, or any reconstruction of them. That is the main issue after all, before the country, because on the question of retrenchment, there is no difference of opinion, save, perhaps, in matter of detail. Electors amongst themselves, and candidates and electors are at one upon this point. But we can have litttlo faith in the sincerity of those candidates who cry loudly for retrenchment and propose to cary it out with such tools as the personnel of the present Government affords them. The question, in every case, must be plainly put, and as plainly and distinctly answered, without any reservation whatever, whether if returned, the candidate will, in the event of a want of confidence motion being tabled, no matter by whom or by what party, vote for or against the Ministry now in office ? There must be no reservation in the answer given, no qualifying contingency expressed, but a plain “Yes” or “ No,” and without this pledge no man should bo accepted, whatever his qualifications in other respects may be. To do loss than, this would bo to miss the object for which the appeal to the country has boon made, and would render nugatory, whatever good may bo achieved by the present movement of reform which is agitating the colony. And every day shows that there is the more need to exercise this caution. The Government and the friends of the Government are busily engaged in drawing away the attention of the people from the real issue before them. Sir George Grey in his address to the electors of the Auckland Central district, on Wednesday evening last pointed this out very clearly, and instanced a number of false issues which are being advanced, like herrings drawn across the scent, hy Mi' Enhance himself in his capacity as Journalist. Amongst those are the questions of assistance to local industries, the danger to the education system in cutting down expenditure in that department, the incidence of the property tax, the land question and protection. The parading of these matters, at the present lime is but the device of the matador to divert the attack of the hull from the chief object of its pursuit. Well enough in season, the general exaltation of these subjects into prominence now, is a positive mischief. It is the device of the enemy to lead onr minds from the one chief aim and object which should animate them, the ousting of the present Government from oifice. Unless this is first done all measure of reform, financial or administrative will as utterly fail in the future as it has done in the past.