The Road to Prosperity.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 498, 26 August 1890, Page 3

The Road to Prosperity.

[POST.J It must certainly be through sheer cussed r. ess that New Zealand remains poor, depressed, and misgoverned. The way leading to prosperity lies open before her, and the number cf patriotic guides willing to show the way is legion. On every side we meet with men provided with a panacea for all the ills the State is heir to, and every small settlement contains some association of village Hampdena who have constructed a pla’form on which prosperity can be established beyond the possibility of doubt. Yet with all the glorious chances open to it, the colony remains in the doldrums. It most perversely refuses to follow any of the admirable suggestions to reform so freely offered to it. it remains deaf to the advice of all its would-be physicians, and will not accept healthy happiness at the hands of any of them. Sir Harry Atkinson would fain establish a species of mi.lenium by means of compulsory insurance against pauperism. Sir George Grey is perfectly satisfied that if every man was his own lawyer and we enjoyed the privilege of electing our own Governor, a kind of Golden Age would be initiated. Mr Moss sees political salvation in retrieving our steps, undoing the evil we have done, and restoring Provincial Institutions. Mr W. J. Stward is convinced that the Swiss Referendum is the true cure, and thinks if this were coupled with reformation in the mode of electing school committees, the country would go ahead. Mr Downie Stewart prescribes Courts of Compulsory Arbitration. Mr Taylor is of opinion that good government can but proceed from the Canterbury Plains. Mr Vaile offers us untold wea’th by the adoption of zone railway fares. Mr Ballance would restore Arcadian happiness and simplicity by bursting up large estates, and making us all innocent village settlers. Mr J. A. Millar and the Maritime Council are willing to govern the colony on strictly Union principles, and to run the railways and the Union Steam Ship Company’s business as fide shows, to the great advantage of all concerned. Sir Robert Stout believes nothing but land nationalisation can save the country. Mr George Fisher’s prescription is simple and comprehensive. He would give the colony a chance by heading up the Premier in a hogshead of M’Csrthy’s beer, duly stamped, blowing Mr Fergus away from one of the big guns, having Mr Hislop flogged to death by a posse of experienced schoolmasters, bursting up the Bank of New Zealand, and hanging a few editors. Mr Verall would make every one rich beyond the dreams of avarice by starting a State Bank. Mr Goldie would put things in a healthy position by making, the Civil servants mortify the flesh on a consistent diet of bread and water, through financial inability to procure more generous nourishment. Mr Walter Hill preaches the single tax as the sole means of political regeneration, and there is quite a chorus of reformers who assert that ths substitution of a land and income tax, for tbp property tax, is essential to ihe restoration of prosperity, and could not fail to effect it. Some other gentlemen entertain vagui ideas '.hat the license fees on dogi or auctioneers have an intimate connection with the national welfare. \lr Fulton would put everything right bv having the Bible read in schools, and Mr Pyke j a certain that they

never will be right until private schools are subsidised by the State. Lieut-Oolonel Hume is absolutely certain that "if he were made irremovable head of all departments (with the salaries'), and the mischievous interference of Ministers put an end to, he could adminis ter the government in a perfectly satisfactory manner, and save the colony the cost of maintaining a Governor, Mr Bugfianan believes it be for tEe public good if emigration continues, provided the men, women, and children, who go away are replaced by stoats and weasels ; while, finally, Mr Kerr holds that by improving the breed of the bounding chamois (domestic species), a boiling-down industry might be established, under the careful supervision of the Auckland economists, which would do a good deal more than yield grease for the wheels cf the coach of State, From thia brief summary of some cf the leading opinions as to what it is necessary to do, and ths specifics presodbed, it will be seen what a plain and easy task it is to set the colony on its legs ag*in, able to take up steps in the march of progress. Yet, with all tbe§e opportunities of advancement, the colony remains stagnant, if it is not retrograding, We cannnot attempt to account for the fact, and entertain no elaborte theory on the subiect. Oher people, however, are not" so modest; and the other day we met one presump* tucus fellow who actually dared tp ridicule all the suggestions as tq a specific for the establishment of national prosperity, and to assert that the country would be right enough if its affairs were honestly administered by men of ordinary dusjnegs ability and common sense. Of course there can be no tru’h in such an absurd sugges’hn ss this, when we find almost every public man of experience, and a good many men who do not deserve the description, each nursing a special fad, and bent on riding his own

hobby, in season and out of season, while tho | village Hampdeus already spoken of are all either making or adding fresh planks to platforms already of grotesque design One very sanguinary plank has recently been added to the Labor platform by a Southland set of Solons. This is no less than tho total extinction of the Legislative Council. Let us hope that if the prosperity of the colony depends on such a sacrifice, the unfortunate Councillors will at least be put to a merciful death. We should not like to buy our happiness at the cost of prolonged suffering to those estimable elderly gentlemen. If in tho multitude of counsellors (not members of |he. Upper House, for Solomon was not acquainted with that body) wisdom is to be found, no one need doubt that some day or other New Zealand will indeed be a happy and prosperous country, for it lacks not counsellors each of whom knows exactly what requires to be done to make it so. When they all agree, the new era will possibly dawn.