Sir Julius Vogel

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 110, 25 February 1886, Page 2

Sir Julius Yogel

• The address made "by the Colonial Treasurer at Auckland will go far to re-establish the confidence of the country in the Ministry. He gave a bold and masterly sketch of this colony as compared with others, and proved by the most incontestable figures the truth of his statement. With regard to the much quoted speech of the Premier, he said that new loans not spent on railways meant heavier charges on revenue, though not necessarily increased taxation. It had been attributed to his colleague, Mr Stoht, that he had said that every additional million borrowed meant forty thousand pounds additional taxation. There were two newspapers in the South that about three times a week quoted this remark with approval. They must be very stupid not only to agree with it, but to suppose Mr Stout ever said it. What Mr Stout did say was that every million expended on purposes which were not reproductive meant an additional charge on the revenue. He ridiculed the idea of retrenchment in the civil service. Numbers who joined in the cry of retrenchment were amongst the most prominent of those who pleaded for additional expenditure within their districts, and for additional payments to officers whose pitious cases had come within their knowledge. The cry was a sham. All the year the Government were exposed to the bitter complaints of officers, who after years of service received no increase of salaries. Good officers were constantly leaving the service in consequence of inadequate payment. He did not, of course, allude to the real cause of the difficulty, which, is, that some of the departments are overmanned by cadets from our prolific Tite Barnacle Family, a stumbling block to even the best intentioned Minister. For purposes of revenue he showed that the Customs tariff required to be raised. The average per head was in 1885 only £2 5s 7d and what the Government had asked was only equal to 3/4 per head. The Customs revenue, to which all contributed was the fairest source from which to take expenditure. It was the only tax to which the Maories contributed. He did not think it desirable to go to the country ou Protection v Freetrade. iHe dreaded anything which would divert attention from the one great question — the Public Works policy.

That policy should be — Ist, vigorous prosecution of railway works ; 2nd, a reduced proportion of expenditure for ■ other purposes ; 3rd, works begun to ! be rapidly completed to a paying condition ; 4th, loans to be so tied up that they could not be diverted from the purposes for which they were borrowed. He referred to a possible dissolution before the session, and said Ministers had not determined about it. Nor had it been discussed in a full Cabinet. He was not in favor of it. A substitute for the Eoads and Bridges Construction Act must be provided. He was favorable to trying, en a small scale, loans to farmers. He anticipated a small surplus to the revenue this year. He believed the lines of parties would be much altered next session. For ourselves we are opinion that Sir Julius has won the people of Auckland, who have for years been very unfavorably inclined towards him