EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7371, 19 November 1898, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The result of the division in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly on the want-of-confidence motion, . would seem.- to indicate a strong feeling in'favor of a. return, tive . duties. That conclusion might be drawn from the'fact that the Government, whose party, majority ;.in the Assembly is only some five or six,; secured, a majority of 23. in the division. tut it has to be remembered that, the issue raised was ; not one of the future fiscal piolicy .colony.. The existence of the Ministry ,was the chief, thing involved, and it may be presumed that the votes of. a large proportion of. the c members • Was. cast without- rpgard to thefocal quesTwo things helped to swell the Government's majority—most of the: representatives of the sugar districts, whose chief industry, the Colonial Treasurer's proposal will save from extinction, voted with the Government, and some twenty members, probably largely composed of .the .extreme protectionist section of the Opposition, unable to vote , with their, own party or to" accept tie Ministerial proposals as a con-" cesaion to protection, refrained from voting. Mr Barton seems to have been particularly, unfortunate in his selection of a ground of; attack upon the Ministry., In moving a' vote of censure on the Budget on the ground that the raising of the fiscal issue interfered with the federation question, and was a dis- ) tiriot breach of faith, he raised an issue upon which his own party are not in agreement, and suffered the inevitable crushing defeat. Moreover, in introducing his proposals, Mr Peid was careful to explain fully that additional taxation was necessary, and that he had selected suoh dutieß as were certain to be adopted by the Commonwealth when the federation of Australia becomes accomplished. By so doing he cut the ground lrom under the feet of the Opposition, and the wonder is that so astute a politician as Mr Barton should have committed such a tactical blunder as he did in moving his vote of censure. -But, though the adverse motion has been disposed of Mr Beid has not yet got his duties through, and the result "appears to be contingent upon whether or not terms are made with the Labor Party, who hold the-key to the situation. It may be interesting to note what is proposed and the reasons for fresh taxation. Although the Treasurer commenced the financial year with an actual surplus of L 102.500, increases of expenditure, largely for-interest, left him with a prospective deficit for the current year, the anticipated shortage on the year's transactions being L248.0C0. In accordance with the rule he laid down at the outset of his financial control never to go on with the prospect of a deficit, he proposed to levy such additional taxation as would secure financial equilibrium. First, he proposed to raise L 50.000 by increased probate duties, the only addition to direct taxation he could find the heart to make, and then to raise the remainder of the required sum through the Customs. The means proposed in the latter respect are the imposition, of new duties on tea, coffee, chicory, chocolate, cocoa, and rice; the restoration of the diminishing duties on biscuits, confectionery, dried fruits, jams, jellies, and preserves to the level of the rates in force on the 30th June last; and the retention of the expiring duty on sugar, which had already been foreshadowed in deference to the demand of the northern districts to have their primary industry saved from extinction by the competition of Queensland sugar produced by cheap labor. Such, in brief, are the proposals now being discussed by the Legislative Council of New South Wales.

It would have been less unsatisfactory if the person who wrote to the New .Zealand Herald anent Sir George Grey's remarks concerning the importunities of those who helped the Liberal cause had given his name. Writers who are not known, if they be unscrupulous, feel no responsibility in regard to their utterances ; and what they tell the public is too often utterly worthless ; though, unfortunately, there ate some who, wishing to do no injustice to anyone, while not believing slanders do not know whether to believe them or not; some who weakly credit anything they are told; and others who greedily swallow anything in their morbid infatuation for gossip which affects the characters of their fellows. Not being of the last mentioned class we do not believe the statement made by the writer in the Herald, on the authority of an Auckland shopkeeper, that Sir George Grey made the following remark to the said shopkeeper : ■«lt is a curious thing that almost everybody who has aided the Liberal cause thinks he or she has a claim upon my purse." and that he' added with a grim smile, '.'They have got it nearly all." We do not know why Sir George Grey's worldly -possessions were not larger at the time of his death, nor is it any business of ours to indulge in suspicions or conjectures as to the cause ; but we do know that it was un-, ■like Sir- George Grey to talk in such a strain about those who belonged to the party which' he had created. In all his relations with political friends with whom he came in con-, tact be was ever kind v and considerate, and his inanlineßS would shrink from indulging In such a remark-as that which is attributed to him in reference to any on whom he may have bestowed financial help. -The. letter which attributes to Sir George Grey siich contemptuous behavior has every appearance of being a Tory concoction designed to bring contumely upon the Liberal party.; We have before seen such things; and they, are the emanations of that baser sort of poli. tical person whose respect for the good name of others is gauged by the worth of hia own character.