The Financial Statement.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 23, 25 June 1885, Page 2

The Financial Statement.

(Wellington Evening Press.) ■ No Financial Statemet Major Atkinson over deliverer! was half such a triumph for him as this one deliverer! by his humbla and penitent rival. The financial policy of 1885 is m fact a complete' reversal of the financial policy of 1884, and a conspicuous admission of the fallacy of the Colonial Treasurer's flashy nostrums, for financing the country out of its difficulties. Last year the property tax was to be abolished, and..actually was reduced by one-half ; this year the property tax is not osly to be retained, expressly as a permanent impost, but is to be doubled m amount. Last year taxation was to be largely reduced ; this year taxation is to be heavily increased, and new taxes of a most oppressive and vexatious kind are to be imposed, notwithstanding the cessation of cash payments to the sinking fund. Last year a grand scheme of local government was to separate local from general finance, and relieve Parliament of all business of a local character ; this year the Treasurer is driven to the wretched expedient of reviving the obsolete system of giving subsidies of borrowed money to the local bodies, while the whole scheme for localising the public administration is abandoned absolutely. Last year the depression was to be conjured away by the personal influence and prestige of the Colonial Treasurer, and under his benign rule the colony was to progress by leaps and bounds ; this year we hear not a word about leaps and bounds, or the magical removal of the depression. On the contrary, the crestfallen conjuror shuts up his bag of tricks, and makes a dismal appeal to his audienct to send round the \at and gather enough coppers to keep the show going till butter luck turns up. What has become of the glittering gewgaws with which he dazzled the eyes ot the House and the country only ten months ago ? The gilding has all worn off, and the sawdust has all dropped out.. The beetroot sugar absurdity has been thrown aside m favour of the jam makers Never was imposture more completely exposed." . (Auckland Evening Star.) This journal, m the course of a long article, makes the following remarks :— . Prudent men will ask where, is this all to end ? It can have but one ending, and that represented by a very ugly work, unless Parliament comes to its senses and puts a stop to this reckless gambling with the colony's credit, curbs the extravagance of the national expenditure, and reduces ms f ead of increasing, as the Treasurer proposes, the burden imposed by the Civil Service, ...,...„,