The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1890. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2066, 1 July 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1890. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Fob length, breadth and wearisomeness the Financial Statement beats all its predecessors by a long way. We have held all along that the promised retrenchment of the Government was all a sham, a delusion, and a snare, and if the figures in the Statement as telegraphed have been transmitted correctly it appears to us that our contention can be easily proved, In round numbers Sir Harry claims that h© has retrenched to the extent of £291,000, and that he has put on additional taxation to the amount of £315,000, making in all £606,000. Now Sir Julius Vogel’s deficit in 1887 was only £92,000. If Sir Harry has increased taxation and reduced expenditure to the extent of £606,000 in order to meet Sir Julius Vogel’s deficit of £92,000 where is the money gone? ' As soon as the Financial Statement and exact figures reach us we shall go into this matter more fully, but meantime we shall content ourselves with a general review of it. If the proposals of the Statement are to be carried out there will be no end of borrowing. It is borrowing the sinking fund of local bodies; the sinking fund intended to pay off the £400,000 of short-dated debentures; it is borrowing £129,000 from the North Island trunk line, borrowing to make roads and bridges, to clear bush, to buy native lands, and to buy lands for village settlements. A great deal of this borrowing is cloaked over beautifully, and is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is simply a clever attempt to conceal from the public the amount that is really being borrowed, and we have no doubt the Statement was made specially long, so that very few would read it. Our opinion with regard to this borrowing is this: We have already borrowed and spent immense sums in improving land which is now held unprofitably in the hands of large companies. This land first of all ought to be utilised to the fullest extent, and no more money should be spent on the back woods until it is done. This can be done easily by compelling the large land owners to lease their properties in .small areas. When this is done, and the colony is rich and prosperous and we want elbow-room, it is time to talk of going into the back country. r i here is any amount of land already opened by roads, bridges and railways for our small population, and for any increase we may expect for some years, and it is not wise in the present state of affairs to borrow money and increase our indebtedness when better results can be produced without it. It is also proposed to buy up land for village settlements. This can be done in the way we have pointed out, and borrowing can be obviated. most extraordinary feature of the Statement is that the Government propose to go back to the very policy of the Stout-Vogel Ministry, For the last three years they have been condemning village settlements and special settlements, and doing everything in their power to bring them into disrepute. They have also tried to destroy the leasehold tenure, but have failed, and now they want, in their own language put into the Statement, “to extend the provisions of the Act of 1885,’’ which is the Act passed by the Stout-Vogel Ministry, Could anything be said in favor of the Stout-Vogel Government in more eloquent terms than this, and could anything show the utter worthlessness of their own conduct ? For the last three years they have been decrying that policy. Now they want to go back to it to establish special and village settlements,, extend perpetual leasing, and help the people on to the laud by finding them work at road making and in clearing bush, which is exactly the dreadful crime for which Mr Ballanee was nearly pilloried. Now does not this look like a deathbed repentence ? Does not tbie look as if they realised that this is only .card to play at the coming |electi!pns ? Doe* not this seem as if thtey realised that the people aye awakening to the fact that the Stout-Vogel [policy was most suitable to the coloijiy. There can be no doubt about it, apid that all this is purely a hustings <yy to| gull electors with. Let tb e electors beware of such two-facednes®. tbeca not trust to death-bed repentenees. When the devil was sick the devil a suet would he, , When the devil was well the devil a saint Was bg. So with Ihe present Ministers, They are very liberal now when they j want to gull the electors, but let them get back again to power, and their liberality would evaporate with the rapidity of the devil’ B saintliness. ——^»n,—TTl7frg¥lW^ l — Brass Ban®. —The aboy,e band, under the leadership or Mr D, Bryant, paraded the principal streets of Temuka last night, playing sacred airs. The band now numbers sonao 12 performers, who have made ysry croditab.e progress since its formation. The novelty of a band in Tetnuka caused quite a number of people to congregate, and the playing was very favorab*y commented upon.