The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1889. THE PREMIER'S SPEECH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1847, 31 January 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1889. THE PREMIER'S SPEECH.

Sir Haeby Atkinson's speech at Hawera is very disappointing. There is very little in it, and that little is chiefly made up of boasting references to retrenchment which has had the effect of making revenue and expenditure balance each other. As I regards-retrenchment, we are not] satisfied that Sir Harry has been so successful in that respect as he would wish us to believe. He boasted that he had cut down expenditure by £230,000. We admit that he has certainly effected a saving, but not to a greater extent than his predecessors promised to do. Previous to his accession to office the late Grovernment had effected a saving of £90,000, and promised a further reduction of £IOO,OOO. The amount which Sir Harry saved more than that ia, therefore, only £40,000. And how is this made up? He stopped the subsidies to local bodies, and gave instead about £70,000 raised by an increased tax on tea. He dismissed the provincial auditors, giving them all a pension, and now he charges the local bodies £2 2s a day for a Grovernment auditor to audit their books. The provincial auditors, such as Mr John Ollivier, used to audit the accounts of local bodies for nothing ; now the local bodies have to pay the Grovernment auditor £2 2s a day for doing the same work, while Mr Ollivier and others draw a pension for doing nothing, Thus the people have to pay out of an increased tax on tea the subsidies to local bodies hitherto paid out of the consolidated revenue, and thus the local bodies have to pay for auditing their accounts now, while under the former Gfovernments they got them audited for uothing. It is by jugglery of this kind that Sir Harry has been able to make it appear that he has effected this large saving; but very few understand it, and consequently he can boast of his frugality with impunity. As regards balancing revenue and expenditure, it would be wonderful if he had not been able to do so, after the immense increase he made in taxation. He increased the property-tax considerably, and made an extraordinary increase in the Customs duties. Here is where the tun comes in: Sir Henry boasts of having effected a saving of £230,000, and one would naturally think that the result of this would be a decrease in taxation. This, however, has not been the ease. Notwithstanding the saving, taxation has been increased beyond the wildest dreams of even Sir Julius Vogel. Another thing in which retrenchment has been effected ia education, which has been greatly crippled by it; and, again, the Crown and Native Lands Act was abolished, and the revenue derivable by local bodies from ifc has been lost to them. These are only a few instances of the way Sir Harry Atkinson has effected retrenchment by shifting the responsibility from the consolidated revenue to the local bodies, but let it be remembered that that has not lessened the burden of taxation in the least. He has increased taxation immensely, and, in addition to this, h 6 has placed on imported articles a primage duty in order to pay off a floating debt for which he could not provide. In his speech he tells us that he is afraid that the revenue and expenditure will do no more than balance each other, and that it is doubtful whether he can pay off any of this debt. If so, we do not think he has much room for boasting. If, after all his boasted retrenchment and his increase of taxation, he cannot utilise the primage duty to pay off a part of the floating debt, then we cannot admit that he has done well. The honest truth is that Sir Harry Atkinson's retrenchment is more : imaginary than real, as proved by the fact that he has thrown a great deal ' of the burden of taxation on local ] rates, and that he finds it still difficult ( to make both ends meet. However, i there is no use in complaining now; i we must put up with things as they c are for the present, but at the same time we cannot help saying that „ Sir Harry Atkinson has not been able t to show that the colony has gained o anything by placing the public purse r in his keeping. £