POLITICAL SITUATION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 201, 23 February 1914, Page 8

POLITICAL SITUATION

-\LIN|STI'.I!IAL lil'IlMA" TO SIU •lOSKl'll WAUD. HON. J AS. AM.IiN ON i'I.UXCINC. By Telegraph-- -l'ress Association. Wellington, hast Niirht. Tho Hon. J. Allen, Minister for Finance, intends to reply to Sir .losepli Ward's speech from the public platform., hut to-day he took the opportunity of at once dealing with some of the statements made by the Leader of the siOB. AIiNOUMAI, LENDING, "f am very sorry," remarked the lion. Mr. Allen to a pressman, "that Sir .Joseph A\anl should continue to draw attention to the fact that in the vcar MIIJ he advanced to settlers £2,330.000, when he knows that that was an abnormal amount to advance, and that Unlaw only authorised the borrowing of one million aiul a-lialf a year for advances to settlers; that had it not been for the opportunity the law gave him to go hack 011 the uuraised portions of the previous years, he never could have got tiiat mon-y in one year; and that it could not possibly continue at that rate, as (lie law would not allow it. A ( AI'TKH'S MINISTKIt.

"The policy of the present (iovernnient. said Mr Allen, "is not to plunge with public money, but to no steadily on. and as we strengthen our finance, open our hands both to settlers and to local authorities; and I hone T slmll never lie brought to the day when I shall have to cut down the amounts that may be loaned o ut either to settlers, to workers, or to local authorities. • T)1S( l!i:i)lTIN"(; TIIK TtEVKXI'E." "< am sorry, too, that Sir Joseph Ward should attempt to discredit the revenue of the country by alluding to the drop in the Customs of £102,001! He knew perfectly well that during the months of November and December the strike was on and trade was paralysed, and that the Customs revenue was not coming in; ami he ought to know that since the strike ended the Customs revenue has been recovering, and F have already told the public fh.H it is beyond the estimate.

I think also that Sir Joseph Ward lias been trying; to discredit the postal revenue. Obviously there is a misprint, or else his calculation is wrong;, as the postal revenue for the quarter shows an im-reiis,. „f fty„s<)2, and not £73.000, as stated ~, a n . !)ort o£ jg true that there has been an increase in the quarter's expenditure over the nrevious year of £245,373, uot £24:i,07.i. as He is reported to lmve said; but 1 advise people not to calculate the e\iienditiire upon a quarter, l,ut upon the lull year, because a quarter's accounts au' M>ry misleading.

A CMIALLKNOrc. -Ayhow, £107,000 of the increases ( : f." uwrcaseg under permanent •ippi opriations, and increases in interim o<>( si t"f f ". n(l, to xlls,(K(). Widows' pensions have i»bv £(lt7s ' V wi!°?' V?, mi,it#r - v P en,,l 'ons o';,, | i ' of ""w increases does ■-n .loscpli Ward object to! 'A very large proportion of the increase., m annual appropriations for the quaitcr was duo to the. work 1,,? r „n. avs_ department, namely, £!>4,000 u f inerei'' V ' """'l °. f tllis " •'-«■ to the tinn, f S . U '' CS i,m ' l, " U "" Co,lllir,'ulw:lv servants, f ask the ate .Minister for Railways whether he mt< to continue to criticise this better provision for railway servants of tlio country?