Manamatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1894. The Financial Statement.

Manawatu Herald, 28 July 1894, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1894. The Financial Statement.

j From the manner the Statement was received in the House it would appear that the rank and file of the gieat Liberal Party have received somewhat of a shock. The " poor man " is still to be deluded by the promise of a brilliant future though he may be suffering a dismal present. Promises are made, so the old saying has it, to be broken > and the cry of a reduction of taxation on the necessaries of life dwelt on so strongly by Government candidates is now ignored by the Government, for they doubt if the Committee will have time to deal in an exhaustive manner wilh the question this session 1 If taxpayers have to wait till the question has been so treated it will be many a lo.ig year before common articles of consumption become cheaper. The Statement puts the matter beyond doubt that there will be no present reduction in taxation, but most assuredly a heavy increase in the near future. One little million is to be raised only for the harmless purpose of providing the thrifty with a safe security, but to be safe it must bo profitably invested, or where will the interest be for the depositors ? If, by some chance, this money is spent in public works then it becomes clear to the taxpayer that he must find the interest. There will probably ho a deficiency in the railway revenue if fruit, butter, &0,,. is to be carried cheaper than it has hitherto been, but then the Government apparently rely on the sattler becoming so much richer and thus he can stand paying further taxes, and thus both ends will meet. The Colonial Treasurer believes in a system of finance by which he will have a large surplus at the end of the year, which in other words means, the settler must just be the loser of that amount of ready money.' Further experiments are to be made in purchasing private lands which will have to be surveyed, roaded, etc., all meaning an immediate , expenditure of. money, for which the " inevitable majority " will vote, yet for which their constituents must find the interest upon until unfortunate selectors are caught. The cheap money proposal is a scheme which if carried out means a colonial repetition of the Bank of New Zealand experience. It is all very well for the Colonial Treasurer to assert that colonial land values have reached their minimum, and there is no doubt but that his Government have done their best to place them in this position, but a year or two more of this " progressive " legislation ia likely to enlighten him that there is no bottom price, as the bottom will have completely dropped out. Money advanced on a valuation at the present time" to the amount of twothirds of its -value isanything but a safe thing and bodes trouble ahead. The Treasurer, whilst his Government are willing to bow to the cry of the landless and workless that land should bear all taxation, has shown by his proposals that he is thoroughly aware that land has as much as it can bear, or he would not suggest the narrow margin on advances that he does. The- Government Insurance Department will make advances on a security of one half of the valuation, but the Treasurer knows that ' his million and a -half pounds would lie idle, land being so heavily encumbered, unless he took a greater risk in ioatis. If this is safe why cannot the Department CQipe,,dQjyii,£rom the.. position thjey msist" upoV to the margin now proposed; ? It would stop , any compelitibn 'in ~tb?e Government departments.

The Statement is a long one and not particularly interesting and it shadows a policy of indirect borrowing to th'tf amount of many millidns assuring increased future taxation with not a penny taken off our present burdens. That it will be criticised very strongly we do not doubt, but the Party, whose loyalty has been so greatly strained, as Major Steward expressed it the other night, will be again strained, or " whipped," to vote for the Statement just as it has been read, with all the responsibilities and all the taxation attaching to it, in spite of that same Pa.rty having achieved a victory at the elections as advocates of a non-borrowing and reduotion in taxation policy.