The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, June l, 1889. COMPARISONS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 306, 1 June 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, June l, 1889. COMPARISONS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth's.

It is cheerful to turn from the perusal of a doleful address recently given In Wellington by Mr Menteath, to that given by Dr. Newman, M.ILR. Neither politician, do we think, is justified In rushing to the extreme he does, but possibly Dr, Newman has endeavored to administer an antidote for the gloomy predilections of his fellow politician ; at any rate men who wish to know only the truth, unembcllished with fanciful apprehensions of good or ill, could not have a better means of arriving at a fair conclusion than by studying the extremes. In a previous article we alluded to the croaking of the member for Te Aro, and now we give a condensation of Dr Newman’s utterances on the political outlook;—In politics in this country there had arisen a heresy which might be called the worship of the dolefulsomething like Bunthorne in "Patience,” who found everything “ hollow, hollow, hollow," and his followers, who chorused " miserie, miserie" to everything. Amongst the articles of this faith were the belief in large taxation, the putting down of wages, the dismissal of as many pegpie as possible, that the property tax was the best thing ever invented, that public works should be abolished, and that everybody should fold his hands and go to sleep. Of all these political pessimists the Ministry were the very worst. In Auckland the Premier refused to talk of anything but the manifold blessing of the property tax in Napier he took the same tune, anc. would not speak of local affairs, but proposed his wonderful system of pauper farms as the panacea for all the people's troubles. The Premier and Air Menteath were both tinged with the same brush—they were a pair of political Rip Van Winkles, who went to sleep some months ago, and having just woke up, thought the country was now just as wretched as when they lay down. Our paternal Government had certainly got together a very fine collection of gruesome material for next session. This was not the way to do things. On returning from his recent trip to Australia he (Dr Newman) came back filled with a fervent belief in the future of New Zealand, the fertility of its soil, and the extent of its general resources as compared with those of its neighbors. Surely there was some medium course between the Vogelian boom and rush and the Atkinsonian doldrums 1 Though we had had a bad time we should recognise that the times were going to be better in the future. His deliberately formed opinion was that the country never had such a prosperous outlook as at the present—waves of prosperity were coming from various directions. Jn the past we bad had artificial booms of gold or borrowed money, which were merely transitory, but those in the future would arise from the amount and quality of what came out of the ground. New Zealand was producing more than ever before, and the golden yield of its products was steadily coming back to our shores. This, too, was certain to last. In Europe, America, and Australia, cattle and sheep were diminishing, while population increased, which must mean that we, with our sheep producing country, must for several years have a ven; good time, Turning then to the criticisms of those who judge ys from abroad, the Sydney Telegraph has a very cheerfnl word to say for us. In an article cm May ?pth that journal states The prosperity of New Zealand is returning by leaps and bounds. The colony of late has had many things happening to restore the confidence in itself and its resources, the loss of which is the worst effect of long continued depression. The import and export re, turns of 1888 have lately been published, and the progress they indicate is most satisfactory. ... The colony had hardly realised all the satisfaction and encouragement which these figures were well calculated to yield, when they were thrown into the shade by the more surprising figures of 1889. ( , . Moreover, while the exports have increased in this remarkable way, there has been a decrease almost equally gratifying in the imports. The effect of ibis was that gyring the year ending 3 ist March the exports exceeded the imports by nearly two and a-half millions, and during this first quarter of this year they were pearly double the imports. When we com? pare these figures with those of Victoria —--those, for example, for 1887, when the imports were valued at /'ip,022,151 and the exports at £1 1,351,145, and the excess of imports over exports at we see the difference between the position of a colony enjoying a high state of fictitious ' prosperity' on

the expenditure of borrowed money and that of a colony which, after being plunged for years into difficulty and depression by indulgence in a similar policy, is now resolutely extricating itself by economy and industry, and is putting itself at length on a thoroughly sound foundation.