The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1887. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1658, 10 November 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1887. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

It will be remembered that in a recent issue we said that the colony would lone about £94,000 by the change of Government this year.. It is most remarkable that Sir Julius Vogel in criticising the financial Statement last Tuesday night, came to almost the same conclusion. He said that the late Grovernment would j have came out £97,000 better at the ! end of the year than Major Atkinson can, notwithstanding all his boast about retrenchment. We placed the Bum at £94,000, while Sir Julius Vogel, who had command of the exact figures, places it at £07,000, so we were not so far wrong. And now this is what we have got from the general election, and the ousting of the late Government from office: we have gone £97,000 to the bad. People who saw this, and who did their best to prevent it, have been cried down and denounced by the very people who are most interested in the matter. They have assisted in replacing Major Atkinson in power, at an expense of £97,000, and the first step he has taken is to ask for another foreign loan of £1,000,000, and to negotiate a local loan of nearly £1,500,000. Thus Major Atkinson proposes to add nearly two and a-half millions immediately to our indebtedness. It appears to us that the colony is year after year drifting faster and faster into a position in which it is impossible to do without borrowing. It seems the only remedy to which each succeeding Ministry can resort, and it will continue bo until honester men take the helm. It has all been brought about,because the wealthy classes want tovavoid taxation; they will not submit' to be taxed, and each Treasurer has to raise a fresh loan so as to stave off the day on which the taxes must be raised. If some honest man had sprung up long ago, and told the people that instead of borrowing money they must make up deficits out of taxation and thus put our finances on a sound footing, we should be able to avoid the position to which we are rapidly drifting. Such a man has not, however, yet mad* bis appearance. Colonial Treasurers have vied with each other in their efforts to carry on without increasing taxation, and the result is that we get year after year more deeply involved. Sir Julius Togel was guilty o£ this to a certain extent, but had he been allowed to carry out his fiscal proposals of 1885, when he proposed to increase the Customs duties, we should not be now in the miserable mess we find ourselves. His brainless followers who, in order to carry out th« principle of freetrade, voted against him, are chiefly to blame. They will doubtless vote against Major Atkinson next year again, when, as he promises, he comes forward with a proposal to revise the tariff. If so, another charlatan is bound to step in and sink us lower. At any rate the outlook is not hopeful.