The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, AUG. 7, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2508, 7 August 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, AUG. 7, 1888.

Kiiual and ex.ict justice ro all men, . Ol whatsoever state ur persuasion, religious o: political.

The country may now feel con vincetl that the extravagant and costly system of Government, against which it has lifted up its voice in unison, will b<; suffered tc continue by the legislators, who arc met together in Wellington, without any regard being given to tlw

Million's protests against tin: costly expenditure. Then; has seldom l>een ;i (['H'siion 0:1 which t.!i:! opinion of tin; people of tins colony lias linen so much in accord and, moreover, so earnest, as this of retrenchment, if we. may judge liy the only symptoms that can guide us, namely, resolutions of public meetings, corporate, bodies and the entire press. Seldom before has criticism and study so keen been bestowed on any subject of public importance, as were devoted to this, and the country anticipated as the result of its expressed wishes that Parliament would make every elFort to effect very large reductions in the whole of till! public service, ft was dearly shown that by amalgamations and reductions in the Civil Departments, and the Railway and Educational systems, ii substantial sum could be saved. Opinions varied only as to the extent of the saving, but all have been agreed on the one point that the revenue could be relieved by from .£1.10,000 to £250,000 by a judicious revision of the national expenditure and reducing it within the compass of our means. Much against its will the country has submitted to the imposition of a severe, measure of additional taxation, composing itself with the hope that it, is merely an tentative expediency to meet pressing obligations which the strict exercise of economy such as it demanded would render unnecessary to continue at the end of another year. But none of these expectations appear destined to be realised. Already four months of the year have passed and there are no indications of the increase to the revenue which the Treasurer's Budget prognosticated ; on the contrary, it is still decreasing, and another serious deficit stares us in tho face. As for retrenchment and economy, wo are not to see them. The Premier says the high officials are not over-paid; we may next be told they are not paid enough. Parliament, whose oars cannot have been deaf to the intensified " roar " from all parts of the colony, has deliberately snapped its fingors at tho people, and appears determined to use no exertion to reduces the extravagant expenditure which has been so universally

condemned. Up to last week there has been no real legislative work performed, although there avo several Bills of vital importance on the Order Paper. It is now morally certain that they will have to be abandoned, seriously to the detriment of the people's wel fareandinterest. Supply has been before the House for about a fortnight, but that embodiment of legislative wisdom lias been wasting blie time of the country in party strife and ambitious, personal intrigues, in place of devoting its energies to the business of the people. Observe what happened on Friday night, when after wrangling for several hours over some impotent attack on the Government, the Estimates were considered by a bare quorum of sleepy men, the majority being absent, or lounging round Bellamy ; and thus £400,000 of public money was voted away in a careless perfunctory manner, without the slightest reduction, or some attempt made, for shame's sake, to show that they have a little respect for the will of the people. Two of tho Auckland members writing from Wellington, declare there is little to be hoped for from the present Parliament. Mr It. Thompson says : — '■I can tell you that those who dare to advocate retrenchment hero really need rii)couragi:inciit. Every person here —man, woiiKin and child -is opposed to economy, and this member who attempts to interfere with th'i present order of things soon finds he has trodden upon sacred ground. If there wore only twenty determined men in this House, who would baud together for the sole purpose of reforming the present extravagant and ruinous system under which we are governed, the whole fabric could be burst up, but they are not to be found here."

And Mr Monk'says the same thing in the following words : —• "The task of reform in this Parliament is, I fear, ;v very hopeless one. Every eflbit in the direction of real retrenchment is obstructed. Nothing but a political earthquake will save us. Three fifths of the men in the present House think that the art of government is prodigality with public money, and that economy is meanness. If this state of things is to last much longer, all prudent men will S\to from the country." We ask here in the first place, why docs the necessity exist for the banding together of .1 body of determined men on such a question, where it is clearly the duty of every representative of the people to obey the demands of their constituents 1 For example, the whole of the. Waikato and VVaipa eh ctorates have unanimously declared themselves for thorough reform in the public expenditure, Their representatives had but one course before them, and should have been as determined as Mi- Monk or Mr Thomson to carry out their wishes in that direction. What is the value of the Constitution to the colony if the people are to continue to send representatives year by year to Wellington who there deliberately disobey them and set their wishes at nought iu this outrageous fashion 1 Representative institutions are no longer a safeguard to the people. The country has distinctly demanded the pursuit of a specific line of action, and elected men to carry that out in the Legislature. But its voice is ignored and the work is left undone. It is betrayed by its own representatives. Parliament does not reflect the will of tin: country, but is in opposition to it. What would be the consequence, in Great Britain if the Government and Parliament disobeyed the will of the people in such an open and glaring manner? There would be a revolution; no free, spirited people like the British would tolerate such flagrant disregard of their mandate. This assemblage in Wellington is not of tlie people, it is more like the creature of vested interests, and it is a constitutional question whether the people would not be

justified in repudiating the acts of a body that does not represent them, and refuse to lip. bound by them. It is not the accumulated masses in the cities that feel tin; weight of niisgovernment and parliamentary abuses ; they nan pack up their be- j longings and scuttle out of the country without any pangs of regret, [t is, however, a very different matter with the hard-working country-settlers, who are performing the heroic work of colonisation, and have risked all they possess in the soil. They have to remain and weather the storm. They have to study tho future of their children an.i leave them as noble a heritage as they can in the foundations of an honourable nation, and in the building up of which they may also continue the work of their fatlurs. It is the country that must assert its strength at such a juncture and defend itself against the impositions of a Government which shirks its most sacred duty, and a Parliament which sets itself in opposition to the people who elected it. If we are to add another such year to the term of the colony's political retrogression and financial difficulties, it will then, as Mr Monk predicts, be an unbearable place to dwell in.