THE REAL ISSUE BEFORE THE COUNTRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1665, 17 September 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE REAL ISSUE BEFORE THE COUNTRY.

It is earnestly to be hoped that, on polling day, the electors of ABhburton will cast aside from them all looal and personal considerations, will refuse to permic themselves to be led away by side issues, and will vote simply and solely upon the very important question submitted to them. For that question is an extremely serious one, and upon the answer whioh tha coustituencies give to it will depend the weal or woe of the colony for a long period. The finances of the colony are m a most deplorable condition ; the charges for the colonial debt amount to £1,764,793 a year, our credit m the money market is nearly exhausted, we are told by Mr Leonard Harper, a staunch Ministerialist, who has just returned from England, that if we attempt any further borrowing m the London money market for the next year or two, we Ehall get " a slap m the faao," our debentures are quoted at a lower figure than those of any other British Colony ; and the people of New Zealand from one end of it to the other, are struggling with every kind of commercial and industrial depression so that we hear persons anxiously asking whether New Zealand will- ever recover itself. According to the Colonial Treasurer, there is a huge hiatus between the annual revenue and the annual expenditure of £278,000. Our own firm oonviotion is, after a careful study of the public accounts, that the Treasurer considerably under estimates the deficiency. Now, what would common prudence suggest that we should do m this state of affairs? New Zealand has one of the most costly and luxurious systems of government to be found m the wide world ; every visitor to the oolony remarks upon its extravagance; and surely the proper course for us to adopt is to prune that luxuriousness and by dint of strict economy henoeforth to live within our means. The Stout-Vogel Minietry does not view the matter m that light. It proposed lass session to retrench to the extent of some £20,000 a year but declared that it oould go no further, and that the deficiency m the Treasury chest must be supplied by additional'taxation to the extent of £325,000 a year, of whioh £175,000 would be derived from increased customs duties; £75,000 from an increase m the Property Tax, m which increase the progressive principle would be introduced; while the Ministry fun her proposed to reduce the subsidies now paid to local bodies by £75,000 a yeer, whioh simply means, of course, that the looal bodies would have to raise further rates to that extent. The Opposition joined issue with the Ministry on this point and succeeded m carrying a resolution to the effect that "the tariff and other financial proposals of the Government are unsatisfactory, " whereupon the Ministry induced the Governor to dissolve thb House and appeal to the oountry m order to get tho country to say yes or no to these proposals. This is the sole question submitted to the constituencies. The Government maintain the financial defioienoy must be met by inoreased taxation. Mr Purnell and other candidates opposing the Government contend that before further taxation is resorted to, a drastio system of retrenchment Bhould be put m force through all branches of the publio service and the entire machinery of government simplified. Any constituency whioh returns a Ministerialist will be deemed lo endorse the Government proposals, for local or personal considerations will not be taken into aooount outside the constituency, and if the Ministry gains a majority at the elections, it simply means that its financial proposals, whioh were rejeoted by the last House, will be re-intro-duced and carried next session. Of oourao, if any eleotor really thinks these proposals benefioial to the country, and that the ory for retrenchment is, as Sir Julius Vof el put it to a publio meeting m Auokland some time ago, " a humbug and a sham," he ought logically to vote for Mr Walker ; but if he is of opinion that ruinous and crushing taxation should not be resorted to until the publio expenditure has been out down to tine lowest possible point, it will, we apprehend, be hia duty both to himself, to his family, and fo bis country, to vote for Mr Purnell.