The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1885. REDUCTION OF THE ESTIMATES

Temuka Leader, Issue 1394, 19 September 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1885. REDUCTION OF THE ESTIMATES

The Estimates have been reduced by over £512,000 : that is, by more than half a million of money. Our readers may as well reflect on the effect this reduc tion will have on the colony as do anything else. "Will it remove depression, promote settlement, and increase our population ? or will it make things worse than they are at present ? If this sum were spent, the amount of interest the colony would have to pay annually on it would be about £25,000. The colony will be relieved of taxation to that extent for this year at any rate. If it were spent it would pay 5000 men

±.2 per week for twelve months wet ami dry. Allowing a fair margin for incidental expenses, the actual meaning of the reduction made in the Estimates is that the Government will have to employ at least 3GOO men less this year than they would have done if this sum had been sanctioned. There can be no doubt but that th's reduction makes the prospects of the laboring class look gloomy for the ensuing year. There is not near so much gain put in this year, as in former years, and consequently there will not be so many employed during harvest time. The depression has curtailed the spending power of all classes, and people generally show an indisposition to give employment if they can possibly avoid it, Jhe labor field has thus been narrowed while the supply of laborers has increased, and (lie only conclusion deducible from the e facts is, that Tiere will be much want of employment and consequent! v distress, amongst the laboring class. Evidently some working men have already seen through this, for we find that a good many have sailed away from the Colony, We fear, that before twelve months a great many more will follow their example, and if so the consequence will be serious. We paid for bringing them as immigrants to the Colony ; now, in order to effect a saving, we will allow them to go away again, The same thing happened in, we believe, 1879. The Government, of which Major Atkinson was Treasurer, then obtained a vote of £79,000 to spend in giving employment to the unemployed. Major Atkinson never spent a penny of this ; he stuck to it, and at the end of the year came gushing before Parliament with the surplus he had, but he omitted to mention that ship loads of the best men of the colony had left her shores. We are afraid that the result of the reduction will be to drive some of our best workmen away, and when we considei that over £20,000 has been voted by Parliament to carry on immigration, we cannot help thinking that the business has been fearfully muddled, What do we want more population for ? Is not the cry of the unemployed loud enough already ? Yet several members gushed over increasing the population so as to lessen the taxation. This is pure nonsense. How can increased population decrease taxation if means of profitable employment do not exist, and facts show that they do not at present. To spend money on immigration must result in pauperism, and as a consequence increased taxation. But to whom are we indebted for the reduction made in the Estimates. Undoubtedly the East and West Coast Railway clique. It was reduced because when they found they could not get their own line constructed, they resolved that others should share the same fate. They allied themselves with the economy party, and the redaction was the result. It is most extraordinary how economical Major Atkinson has become recently. When he was in power it was useless to try to reduce the Estimates. In 1882, Mr Turnbull and others spent a whole night stone-walling certain items, but did not succeed in reducing them. Major Atkinson knew no such thing as economy in those days, but he has become wonderfully cautious lately. Major Atkinson knows well what he is about. He knows that the result of this economy will be much distress amongst working men ; the Government will be blamed for this distress, and when the general election comes on shortly Ministers will have to suffer for it. Major Akinson will point out exultingly how the Ministry have ruined the country ; how the working ‘ classes have been reduced to starvation, and how everything has gone to the bad. He will not say anything about the part he has played in bringing about the distress. The reduction cannot affect us much in this district, because we would not get a penny of it spent here even if it were passed, The only way in which it would benefit working men here is, that if public works went on probably some of their number would go away, and leave the local field clear for the others. Looking at the reduction from a colonial point of view, however, we are afraid that its results will be that the working classes will suffer severely, and that many of them will leave the colony.