THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1902. POLITICAL ADDRESSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12482, 13 October 1902, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1902. POLITICAL ADDRESSES.

Finance is unquestionably the main issue upon which the parliamentary elections, to be held in the colony next month, must be fought. Beyond that, and the question of the administration of public affairs by the Government, there is, indeed, no real issue to decide. The circumstances under which Ministers face the electors are distinctly singular. The Government has not a shred of a policy to oifer. It practically declares that it has accomplished its mission. It points to what it lias done during the itnprecedentedly long period for which it has been honoured with the confidence of the bulk of the people of the colony, and it asks the electors to take it on trust for another term. They may consent to do so, and probably will. But it will nat be with very much enthusiasm, that, they will continue Ministers in office, and their zeal on behalf of the Government cannot fail to be affected by the rumours that the present head of the Ministry has no intention of remaining in the colony to meet the next Parliament. Besides, they must recognise that it is in the highest degree desirable that a stronger chock should be imposed in the next Parliament upon Ministerial extravagance. The thoughtful among them must realise that the financial methods which the Government has lately adopted are of a description that, if practised by an individual, would very speedily, unless he was exceedingly lucky, lead to financial disaster. Mr Herdman, though he modestly professed himself to be a • tyro in matters cf finance, showed,, in the speech lie

delivered the other night at Nasefoy, that, he has secured a good grip of the financial position, and his emphatic condemnation of the extravagant borrowing policy of the Government will be cordially endorsed by most sensible people. Mr Scott, who has had the boldness to stand in opposition to Mr James Allen for the Bruce seat, endeavours as well as lie can to justify a policy which, as he confesses lie could not personally advocate with enthusiasm even a moderate amount of borrowing, he must feel to be absolutely bad, and he does so by comparing the increase in the: public indebtedness for the period 1891-1901, covering the first ten years of the Government's tenure of office, with that, for the preceding ten years. Unfortunately,-however, for Mr Scott, his figures are inaccurate. And if the figures were accurate, the comparison would be unfair on two grounds. Tiie period. 1881-1891 includes three years of financial debauchery under Sir Julius Vogel to which' the section of the community that is now desirous of financial reform was as strongly opposed as it is opposed to the revival of Vogelian methods at the present time. Then the period 1891-1901 includes the years of Mr Ballance's "self-reliant, lion borrowing policy," which the Government has deliberated abandoned. It is the Government's recent finance and not the finance of ten years ago that is the cause of alarm in the colony. In the first place, however, let us correct Mr Scott in his figures. The increase in the net public indebtedness of the colony between 1881 and 1891 was £11,214,443; the increase between 1891 and 1901 was £11,235,038 —a difference in. favour of the latter period of about £10,000, instead of £1,3Q5,234 as he made out. Mr Scott quite conveniently, moreover, ignores the fact that in the past financial vear alone the Government increased the net indebtedness of the colony by £3,279,880. But, if he wants a fair comparison between the borrowing of)the Government and the borrowing of a preceding Government, ,let him compare the period 1888-1891, comprising- ■ the three years immediately prior to the' assumption of power by the Ballance- Seddon Ministry, with' the period 1899-1902. In Sir Harry Atkinson's three years of office the net public debt was increased by £1,807,027; in the' past three years it has been increased by £5,756,904. Or let Mr Scott compare the latter figures with the amount (£1,531,183) by which the net public indebtedness was in-creased''in''lß9l-1'89'4, while Mr Ballance's prudent policy was in force. Finally, in order that the result of the hazardous borrowing policy, as Mr Herdman.justly, styles it, of the past few years may be clearly appreciated, let him divide into two equal terms the period of 14 years since the Atkinson Government last took over the reins of "office and let him see how the-borrowing of the past seven years compares with that of the pi'eceding seven. This comparison should prove distinctly instructive to a candidate who dislikes even moderate borrowing. It shows that the net- increases- of' the public debt were: — 1888-1895 ... ... ...£ 3,828,751 1895-1902 12,472,599 Totai for 14- years ... £16,301,350 Out of- this - total ■ of £16,000,000, nearly '£6.,(300,00,0 'were, .as we have already shown, added to the public debt in the past three years; and the increase has been most rapid since, as Mr Herdman, reminds us, Mr Seddon declared that the order must be to " Go slow " ! The mind reels at the thought of what th.e increase would have been if Mr Seddon had decided to go " full speed ahead " instead of to ease the engines of the ship of State. No one, of course, suggests that there should bo an entire cessation of borrowing. Mr White, in his speeches in the Chalmers electorate, has indicated very clearly, as Mr Herdman also did at Naseby, how disastrous such a step would be. The electors, Mr Scott quite truly observed, have not to choose between a borrowing party and a non-borrowing party. The choice is not, however, as he declared, between a party that asks for a certain sum to carry out certain works and another party that admits that the works must be executed, but has not made up its mind how much money should be borrowed. That would be false issue even if it were the case—and it is not—that the borrowing of a certain .sum for a certain purpose implied that that sum would be devoted to that purpose. As things stand, in terms of a. clause in the iniquitous Public Revenues Act of 1900 (the repeal of which is demanded by Mr White), the Government can take a sum of money voted by Parliament for a specific purpose and devote it to an entirely different object. The electors have, the rather, to decide whether the colony shall go on borrowing immoderately and expending wastefully, or else borrow moderately and expend judiciously on well-defined lines. And coupled with the demand for greater moderation in the borrowing of money for expenditure upon public works there should be an irresistible demand for a- considerable reduction of the expenditure upon the ordinary services of the State—a reduction, that is, in the cost of government. Mr White and Mr Herdman, in the utterances in different parts of Otago which we reported in our issue of Saturday morning, both criticised the extravagance of the Government in its administration. To show how completely justified their criticism was it is only necessary to point out that, while in the three years terminating on the 31st March, 1900, the increase in the ordinary receipts of the colony exceeded the increase in the ordinary expenditure bj- £453,221, there has since been an extraordinary reversal of the position, for in the past two financial years the increase in the expenditure exceeded the increase in the revenue by the enormous sum of £755,786. A business man, who sa,w that his expenditure was mounting up at a rate that was out of all proportion to the increase in his revenue, • would promptly reduce his expenses. The only alternative open to him would be to take steps to augment his receipts. So it must be with the State. If its expendi-

ture is not reduced—and reduced by a considerable sum—its revenue must be increased, and that can only be effected through taxation. The country is, however, sufficiently taxed already. Economy, not fresh taxation, is what it wants. But if it is to secure economy it must return a strong Opposition to the next Parliament.