The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1891.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2911, 12 March 1891, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1891.

Knu.ll.intl.-s.irtlU'sMr.-to.-illnu'.n, . lit wll.T.i'iiivi-r st;it.: or persuasion, religious or political.

The lion. JohuMeKenzioisroported to have said atChristehiirch " That ho would havo considerable difficulty in koepin.fr, tip tho revonuo us it had beon fictitiously bolstered up durinfr tho past few years through tho proceeds of tho sale of lands for cash having been treated as current revenue, and not placed, as it should havo been. to capital account." It is only necessary to put forward a few facta to confute the statement of tho Minister. Piirinjr the year ending March, 1S!>0, the Rales of land for cash realized £36,656; on deferred payment, £51,03-3 ; total proceeds, £87,091. On the other side we find that £121,91b" is charged against the Land Fund, made up as follows : — Surveys, £39,920; proportion paid to local bodies, £18,159 ; rates payable on Crown Lands, £11,08-1; other statutory charges, £'2,153. Tho abovo figures show cloarly that in placo of the revenue having been bolstered up by tho Land Fund the consolidated revenue has been drawn upon to the tune of £34 225 in order to make both enda meet. Mr McKenzie appears to have been entirely ignoraut of the fact that the system ho condemns had boon abandoned since 1880, when Sir H. Atkinson introduced that of which Mr McKenzie apparently approves. The Premier in a speech delivered at Wanganui some little time back wont out of his way somewhat to dilate upon tho capacity of the Minister for Lands, and congratulated the colony on his holdinn- tho portfolio. He was, according to Mr Ballance, the man of till others best calculated to be a terror to the " dummies " and from his thorough grasp of the land business, there was no doubt that settlement on the best terms for the colony would progress with leaps and'bounds. The abovo are not the words used, but a fair translations of their meaning. The Premier must have been a little astonished and very disgusted when he read the report of Mr McKenzie's utterances ot Christchurch, evidencing as they do tho absence of the knowledge of the primary question with which his department will have to deal. One naturally asks_ whether ignorance pure and simple was the reason of his mistake, or whether for the moment he forgot that he had risen out of the darkness of opposition into the bright light of office, and that it was no longer his business to misrepresent facts for the purposn of injuring the Government. He his injured tho wrong Government, this time, as he lias clearly demonstrated that one of its members is o i one of two grounds unlit for the portfolio he holds—he is either cipahle of deliberately perverting facts or is lamentably ignorant of the business he has been" appointed to manage. The members of the present Minis-

try, with tlio exeep'.iou of tin' Premier :ire all untried men, and if

the Premier is wise he will put a check upon their travelling through the country, and making speeches, unless accompanied by a dry nurse, in the shape of a permanent official, to prevent their talking nonsense, or what is worse, deliberately making false statements, capable of confutation by any man possessed of the most elementary knowledge of the affairs of the colony, Mr McKenzio has been introduced to the country by the Premier as a strong and able man and it is unfortunate that on the very first occasion of his being tested he has proved himself to be neither one nor the other.