MR FOX'S DEFENCE POLICY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 776, 7 April 1870, Page 4

MR FOX'S DEFENCE POLICY.

fOtago Dally Times.J Jh moving his first series of " Defence Resolutions" last session, Mi Fox not only declared that it was ihe intention of his Cabinet to keep, if possible, the war expenditure during the financial year within the sum of £150,000; but also made a distinct promise that, in the event of circumstances rendering a larger expenditure necessary, the House should at once be called together. Mr Fox was exceedingly lucid on the point. He did not fail to point out how grievously Mr Stafford had sinned in taking upon himself the responsibility of dealing with a dangerous Native outbreak, without consulting the Assembly; or to enlarge upon the slight thus cast upon the Parliament of the country. Henceforth there would be no more of this. Economy and the Constitution were to be the order of the day. Among other things to the same effect, Mr Fox said:—" I wish to call the attention of the House to this point .—the cardinal point with us—that if it should turn out that we should become involved suddenly in hostilities of a lai"ger magnitude than any we have hitherto engaged in—if, in consequence of any circumstances whatever, it shall become clear to us that the 150,000 will not meet the requirements of the year, then \\e are not going, recklessly and without the authority of the law and of this House, to run into an enormous expenditure, but we will the moment it becomes apparent to us that such is our position, call this House together and throw upon it the responsibility of making the provision which may be necessary. It may be that, under the pressure of great emergencies, the £150.000 may be gone in three months, and if so, this House will meet in three months. We wish the House dis tinctly to understand that we are not going to take upon ourselves what the late Government did, the responsibility of spending large «ums of money without the authority of the law, and having at the end of the year an enormous arrear which must be met either by the renewal of temporary securities or by funding the debt by means of new loans." Nothing could be more fiank; and although Mr Fox is well known to be somewhat light of tongue, the Middle Island members thought that so distinct a promise, at least, could not be evaded. The promise wa* reiterated in even more explicit terms by Mr Vogel, who characterised it as " a cardinal point of difference between die piesent and the late Government." He spoke of the extreme pleas ire which the Government would feel in calling the House together, and not "governing on their own account." It was under such promises as these these that several members were induced to support the resolutions limiling the war expenditure to £150,000, without any specific explanations from the Government as to how they intended to keep it within that amount.

In order fully io comprehend the position, it must be borne in mind that Mr Fox's policy was to be es sentially a defensive one; otherwise it will not be easy to understand how the Hoiise, with the experience of the past yeat before it, nhould have believed so great and sudden a reduction possible. Mr Fox, in the same debate, remarked —"I say it is utterly impossible that the policy of the [Stafford] Government, as indicated in the speech of his Excellency the Governor, can be materially and practically carried out, and therefore it is an impossible policy, and one which cannot be continued any longer either by the present or by any other Ministry. We must pull up. We must cease to carry on an agressive war." The Premier had dealt with the financial aspect of the question by saymg —"Our idea is to see how much money we are to have to fight with, and to reduce our military operations to that amount. We must cut our coat according to our cloth." Mr Fox had previously explained that it was part of the policy of the Ministry to make the Qo.it of actual war and the actual defence of the country a charge upon

[currents revenue, leaving special) operations, such as the formation of military roads, to be provided for in other ways. The bases of policy laid down by the Government were thus —first, that the war must be a defensive one; secondly, that its cost muse be kept so low as to bring it within reach of the current revenue; and thirdly, that the expenditure for the ensuing year must not exceed £150,000. At the same time, they admitted that the limitation of the expenditure was a pure experiment and might fail; if so, the General Assembly was to be at once convened. Upon this understanding, the policy was accepted It is perfectly true that some ten days before the prorogation, when a number of members had returned to their homes, and the remainder were so busy packing up that they paid occasional visits only to the House, Mr M'Lean contrived to get a vote of £50,000 for Contingent Defence, thus increasing the £150,000 to £200,000. _ But this vote can in no way be said to have nullified the agreement deliberately made between the Government and the House, since many of the parties to that agreement were not present when the vote was taken, and did not otherwise assent to it. Moreover, we very much doubt whether any of the members, except those on the Go.-eminent benches, who voted for ihe £50,000, looked upon it in any other light than as a provision in case of emergency.

With regard to the first ba.*is, we showed a few days ago that the military policy of the present Ministry, so far from being a defensive one, was as much entitled to be called aggressive as that of Mr Stafford. The question as to whether the state of Native affairs has justified Mr Fox in abandoning the defensive is irrelevant to the present enquiry. We have simply to ascertain whether he has abided by that policy or not. As to the second and third bases, even the Government organ* do not venture to assert that the expenditure has been kepi within £150,000 a year. The circumstances under which the General Assembly w T as to be convened have occurred, yet Mr Fox has not redeemed his promise. It is quite possible that he does not want money. In addition to the £200,000 already spoken of, some £12,000 was voted for the general expenses of the Defence department, and £30,000 for the construction of roads to Taupo. Both of these sums might by a little judicious management, be made available for war purposes. Then the Colonial Treasurer, by the 27th section of the Public .Revenues Act, is authorised to expend £40,000 without appropriation. Of course there are always a few odd thousands to be made out of Treasury Bills. If fund> should still be lacking, the Colonial Treasurer has power under the same Act to borrow £60,000 from the Bank to make up the deficiency. Nine months only of the financial year have elapsed; land unless the war expenditure has been even larger than is generally supposed, the botcom of the chest may not yet be reached. But this makes no difference. A deliberate compact was made by the Premier with the Assembly; and it remains to be seen what excuse he can offer for not performing his share in it. Probably Mr Fox recognises that his Defence policy has been a failure ; and for very natural reasons is unwilling to meet the representatives of the people and confess his error.

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