The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1884. The Financial Deficit

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1043, 7 January 1884, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1884. The Financial Deficit

Some time back ominous rumors began to be heard concerning the probable deficit which the Colonial Treasurer would have to meet at the close of the financial year. The returns of the Customs duties during the first six months were extremely discouraging, but those who believed in Major Atkinson solaced themselves with the reflection that the two final quarters were always the best, and what deficiency there happened to be might alter all be made up. How ill-founded was this anticipation is only too well proved by the receipts for the penultimate quarter of the year, which amount to over Lioo,ooo less than the Treasurer’s estimate, and there remains no doubt that the deficit to be met when Parliament assembles will not be less than Li 50,000,and we may consider ourselves lucky if it doe? not exceed that sum. It will be remembered that Major Atkinson in presenting his last Budget expressed himself very sanguinely as to our financial position. The extra farthing put on to the Property Tax was to raise more than sufficient to carry out all the works placed on the Estimates, but now we are brought face to face with the uncomfortable fact that this calculation was altogether fallacious. As to the Property Tax itself, the return from that has been entirely satisfactory, but the mistake made by the Treasurer —and it certainly seems a strange one for a gentleman with so high a reputation as a financier to fall into—was that he did not make allowances for the fluctuation in the revenue accruing from the Customs duties. In one of his speeches the present Premier ascribed the existing depression of trade to overimportation on the part of merchants, and this in itself should have been proof to his mind that there would be a considerable decrease of the receipts from indirect taxation during the year. But the most pernicious result of Major Atkinson’s rose-colored picture of the financial position of the colony was to impress a too easily convinced majority in the House that there was plenty of money to expend on public works. The consequence of this was that every district wanted to get a share of what was going, and the Estimates of last year were so lavishly extravagant that if all the votes that were passed had been given effect to, the deficit would have been considerably more than it is. Nor is it too much to say that by far the greater part of the works authorised were quite unnecessary, especially having regard to the present depressed state of trade in the colony. Major Atkinson, in committing the blunders he has, will have lost not a little of the reputation he formerly enjoyed as a shrewd financial Minister. Now that the mischief is done, however, the problem of how to meet the situation will have to be solved. The Treasurer has two courses open to him; he must either considerably increase the already heavy burden of taxation which the people of this colony have to bear, or he must reduce the expenditure. Of these alternatives, it need scarcely be said the former will be the more unpopular, and Major Atkinson has never shown an inclination towards retrenchment. On the contrary, the chief article in his financial creed is to fall back on the taxpayers to make up whatever deficiency there may be. Experience has shown that no impost was ever levied which made a Treasurer’s task more easy than does the Property Tax. It is elastic, can be easily collected, and the money accruing from it can be gauged with the nicest accuracy. The true statesman, however, is not he who will choose the easier way out of a difficulty, and Major Atkinson will find that there is a point when even the New Zealand taxpaying worm will turn. That the deficit will have to be met in part by means of increased taxation is, unfortunately, only too palpable, but the people of the colony have a right to insist that the money that is wrung from them should be carefully spent. Take, for example, the present state of the Civil Service, about which there was so much talk last session. The Government promised that some scheme should be formulated having for its object the reform of the service, but nothing has been heard of this since. That some

reform is needed cannot be denied, and we hope that the mailer will be taken up in earnest by Parliament next session. Then, again, we have the large amount of money which is expended upon the so-called High Schools throughout the country, where in many instances the sums expended are out of all proportion to the benefit derived from the institutions. We confess we are firm believers in the advantages of secondary education, but at the same time it is possible to pay too much for them. It. is not necessary to go far afield to find an instance of this. We know of a High School where it costs the country more thanLdoo per annum in salaries alone, besides the maintenance of the buildings, etc., to educate a mere handful of boys. This is not an isolated case, but simply a type of the extravagance which has characterised the educational policy of this colony since its inception. If we could afford to give very worthy gentlemen comfortable billets and provide higher instruction to the children of the minority, there would probably be ho reason to complain, but the truth is we cannot in the present order of things afford it, and the sooner this is realised the belter it will be for the people. This is unquestionably a direction in which a more rigid economy should be observed that has prevailed hitherto, and now that the need of retrenchment is so urgently forced upon him, it is to be hoped that the Colonial Treasurer will no longer dally with the question, but will face the position boldly.