The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, AUG. 16, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2512, 16 August 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Time AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, AUG. 16, 1888.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Ot whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

— — Theke are signs that the present session is drawing to a termination. To the country in general that eventuality will give occasion for no regret, for as a Parliament of the people it has been untrue to its trust, and an unprofitable servant to the country, therefore the sooner it is dismissed the better it will be for the colony. It is remarkable how the old Atkiusonian tactics are being pursued of permitting, even encouraging, the House to waste the greater part of the session in partly struggles and useless warfare, utterly oblivious to the demands of the country for serious, wise and economic legislation at this trying period of the colony. The patience, and we may say the temper of the House, is now almost entirely worn out, and members will seize the earliest opportunity to return to their homes. The Public Works Statement, which should have been delivered at an early period, in fact should have followed close on the presentation of the Budget owing to the important part it plays in the expenditure of large sums of public money, has been deliberately and purposely held back till the closing hours of the session when the representatives of the people will be so exhausted with protracted feats of loquacity which have already gone before that they will not have any inclination remaining in them to give serious consideration to it. It will, therefore, be dealt with in a very perfunctory manner, merely listened to, indifferently understood and not studied in its bearings on the interests of the country at large. Then will follow the cry for " home," and measures full of import and urgent necessity for the welfare of the colony will be thrust aside and either abandoned or imperfectly decided upon. There will be the usual scene, a spectacle, perhaps, more intensified on this occasion, but which, under the very grave circumstances which surround the country, will more thoroughly disgust the people, and bring with greater force to their minds the complete failure and untrustworthiness of the existing Parlia■xientary system of Government. The session will conclude within a week or two, but

the work for which the present Parliament was elected to perform will still remain undone. Actually the policy of the late Government on which the country was asked to give a verdict and pronounced against it, that is to say, enlarged indebtedness and increased taxation, will have been inflicted notwithstanding that verdict, and the substantial measures of retrenchment, administrative reforms, tfec., which have been loudly demanded, will be left untouched. The position of the country as a result of the .session now closing will be politically much worse than at its opening, for we not only have not secured economy and reform, but there has been an addition to the permanent debt of two and a-half millions with its concurrent charges, taxation laid 011 with a cruel and heavy hand, and the imminent danger of a large deficit in the near future in consequence of an unrecuperated revenue. It is much to be deplored that the Legislature has not fallen in with the popular will, and by prudent and judicious legislation lifted the colony to some extent from, the depths into which it has fallen. Elsewhere there are strong | premonitions that the long period of

commercial and agricultural depression -which has long hung over the busy nations of the world is lifting and gradually dispersing. Symptoms of the kind are perceptible in New Zealand in the improved prices of produce and stock. Our contemporaries in the South speak of a better tone pervading their districts owing to the increase of prices for some of our chief staples in the British markets. But the unsettled state of politics, the unseemly vagaries of Parliament, and the heaviness of the burden of taxation are so irritating to men's minds that the latter are unhinged and i; u upacitated from talcing advantage of what, under happier auspices, would be hailed at once as a turn in the tide. Progress, such as should follow the footsteps of a

spirited and richly endowed colony, has been arrested; it is retrogressing, for population is going from New Zealnnd in place of flowing to it, and settlement is falling back instead of advancing. All these things have had their changes rung over and over again, yet Parliament heeds not the cry. The temper of the country is becoming acute under the perpetuation of a false system of representative Government, that lias really developed into a tyranny, and is a danger to popular liberties. This state of things must be altered if the colony is to lie preserved so as to grow into a great and righteous nation. It will he the sacred duty of those, few though (hey be, who possess the spirit of patriotism, and are prepared to devote themselves to the interest of their beautiful land, to band together for a definite line of action under careful organisation throughout the colony, in order that a complete measure of constitutional reform and a sweeping away of the gross abuses that afflict the country can be secured without danger of betrayal.