Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATES. WEDNESDAY, FEDRUARY 6, 1895. COGITATIONS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1712, 6 February 1895, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATES.

WEDNESDAY, FEDRUARY 6, 1895. COGITATIONS.

* ThU abort all—ls thine owa self fee Ires, Ind it mnsb follow m the Diehl the day Thou canal not than ha fatso to any man.' Shakkspkabb.

“ He that calleth a into his mind whether by impression or.recorda- : tion, cogitatetb and considereth ; "and he that; employeth.the faculty of his fancy also cogitateth.” —Loei) Bacon.

Fob some time past various members of the Ministry have gone about the

colony addressing meetings, and claiming that the public

HAVE MATTERS IMPROVED

indebtedness had been reduced. It will be remembered that the Hon Mr Cadman made the same claiiq on Saturday last, which is reported in another column. According to the official" figures as' quoted by Capt. Russell, in reply to the Premier at Napier, this is not the case. Capt. Russell says : “Mr Seddon had claimed that there had been a falling off in the indebtedness per head of the population since they took office. He had said that in 1890 the net debt per caput was £59 15s, and in 1894; £57 12s, or (as he claimed) £5 per head. A comparison of the figures showed a gain of under £2, but considering that 59,000 people practically moneyless had come to increase the population in this period, the utter fallacy of the whole statement became apparent. The net debt when the present Government took office was £37,284,518, now it was £38,875,491. or an increase of £1,587,873 These were the official figures. It had been said that the present Government was anon-borrowing one. He (the speaker) was opposed to further borrowing, for he recognised that the limit had long ago been reached. It was very hard to say how far the Government had become involved. The Public Re venues Act, 1891, gave them power to borrow £900,000, the Public Revenues Act, .1892, £IOO,OOO, and under the Public Works Act, 1893, power was given to raise a consolidated fund of £45,000 to redeem the guaranteed debentures, all redeemable in three months. Under the Public Works Act, 1893, they obtained power to borrow £1,476,000, being £26,000 additional to that authorised before, but repayable five years after date. In fact when the next Government came into power they would find tremenlous sums liquid to be funded, which they would then be charged with having borrowed.