The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER C, 1880.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 6 October 1880, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER C, 1880.

Evektbqdy on the West Coast knows Mr W. L. Reea, lawyer, politician, and pamphleteer. -As a lawyer he shines if not most, mostly for his ability in drawing a bill of costs, of which fact the public records of the Colony afford some striking testimony. A3 a politic nn Mr Reea is perhaps best known as the champion talker of New Zealand. A vet liable Ventolius of debate, he has risen higher, penetrated deeper, ,and generally delved wider than any member of the House who ever worried time and platitudes. Even the Rorean —Hyper « Borean— Seddon 19 epigramuiitic in contrast. A verbal simoom, like no other eim<oom ever invented, that blows to every point of the compass T^itli a perversity that knows no bounds. Mr Rees is no longer iv political life, and the calls upon hia professional time being, as it would seem, insufficient to afford him adequate vent, he has startod to let loose bis spare trade wind upon '• Ne v Zealand Politics and Politicians." Uuder this heading he is now contributing a-series of articles to a Wanganui paper. We are only able to give a short extract from his first article. He says :— There can be no doubt that one of the strongest and most frequent causes of the evils which now afflict New Zealand has been our boundless public expendituie Few people have any adequate idea of the truth upon this subject. During the last eight years —that portion of our history during which *he 'Yellow, or Yogelian fever' has been rampant smongst va —we have receive i and expended from taxation from land fund, and from loan at least 48 millions of money. Our public debt, not including corporation, harbor board and other debts of that nature has sprang from less than tight millions to nearly thirty, and the interest as well as principle has quadrupled, The average European population of this Colony during the same period has been three hundred and seventy thousand. So that during the last eight years the Government of New Zealand Ins b.en' spending nearly seventeen pounds a year for every one of the peoplfc. Such a thing is unexampled in the history of nation*. There is nothing even sec ond to i'c. It stands alone. ' None but itself can be its parallel.' In the United Kingdom such a rate of expenditure would well nigh double the National Debt in a single year. The two greatest irstances of expenditure in modern days, ;ire those of the United Sates during tho four years civil war, and f.hat caused by the terrible exaction wrung from France \<y the German The inon y pp»nt in the deadly struggle of the Stateuev. r reached more ilri'i one li;=lt' <f our CXI) 1 lldil lire per head pi-r annum, and the va<t indemnity levcd upon France by her conqueror would have been liqivdul'.-d in four months ii France Itml paid it at the rate which we have speut our money during eig'it long years."