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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 24

Conclusion

Conclusion.

Now, friend readers, farewell; may we never meet again on such a topic; never again to draw that grinning skeleton out of the cupboard of the New Zealand nation. Scotch it! bury it! put an end to it! The principles that have cost me so much toil and pain to win from the land of the unknown for you, take them, teach them to your children. Work them out! Save yourselves and this splendid country from the fangs of the merciless tools who dare to assume the name of politicians.

Oh! you, the rich! Cease your greed! Dare to be generous! Let the world, delighted, see you fix to your lust for land a bound, a limit; learn of the heathen—

Intactis opulentior
Thesauris Aral'm' et divitis Indiae,
Caementis licet occupcs
Tyrrhen' m' omne ink et mar' Apulicum
* * * non animum metu, Non mortis layueis expedies caput,

page 20

Let these large estates be broken up, and the historian of the future, grateful child of ours, shall inscribe your names upon his lasting page—"The Fathers of the Country."

In presenting those bold outlines of the truths I have worked out for my country, I appeal from the facts to all calm, reasonable men. I have not striven to vilify my opponents, but only to expose their ignorance. Indeed it is hardly reasonable to put a largo Life Insurance Company, a Bank, a Railway Company, a Telegraph Company into the hands of men like Major Atkinson, Messrs. Bowen, Ormond, and Whitaker, who, however excellent morally, have had no commercial training. When such companies are started privately, we select suitable persons from commerce; why then do we violate all common sense by attempting to make men do that which they do not understand, and for which they have acquired no previous fitness? With excellent motives, and great nobility of soul, their ignorance, added to that of Sir Julius Vogel, has nearly brought ruin on this splendid country.

To the Marquis of Normanby : Sir,—To you, as the impartial umpire of the destinies of Now Zealand, I submit my work.

To the members of both Houses, I have to say that in this discussion I have put aside all malice and envy, and I ask the same treatment for my work. In pointing out the errors into which you have all fallen, I have done so from a mathematical point of view, losing the persons in the question. I have not striven to kindle the flame of popular passion; it entangles these questions, and hazes them. But you must admit it is high time, when the Ministry have such a skeleton in the cupboard, to pull it out and take it to pieces. I boast no wishes, but leave my work to work.

To the London Stock Exchange: Gentlemen,—It is now 20 years since I sailed down old Father Thames, and the six years that I spent in your Honourable House are a pleasant treasure of my memory. The statement here put forth—you, I know, can judge better than the New Zealand nation,—it is the truth. Accustomed to laugh at politicians, and to deal in politics, to weigh loans and securities, I have followed the lessons taught to me by you. and the sum of my examination is—that New Zealand, with an entire fiscal reform, and with sound political economy, is one of the greatest and richest nations of the earth.

New Zealand, under her present rulers, is deficit, £825,000. Yearly loss—rails, £450,000; Loans, £21,000,000.

Wanted £2,000,000 More!

Wanted, also, places for place-hunters! land for sharks! and honours for the vain-glorious!

Printed. by the "Press" Company, Limited, Chrtstchurch.