The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 20. 1891.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2217, 20 June 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 20. 1891.

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT. We caanot compliment the Colonial Treasurer on the literary character of his Financial Statement, neither can we say much for its lucidity. We expected better from him. We are heartily sick of scientific expositions of financial operations, and expected a simple, unvarnished statement of facts, pat in a business-like form from Mr Ballance, but in this respect we feel disappointed. However, this is a small affair. If in a literary sense the statement is weak, it must be admitted to bo really surprising in its

financial arrangements. One would think that Mr Ballance had the lamp of Aladdin when the ease with which he not only makes both ends meet, but provides for increased expenditure, pays off a large sum of the public debt, and|provideS;for extending public works, and for settling the Crown and Native lands. And yet his taxation proposals are neither wild, extravagant, nor oppressive. He has graduated a tax on land under which a man who has £IOO,OOO worth of it will pay one half-penny in the £ more than he does at present. This is milder than anyone expected, and if this is what is called “ a bursting-no tax ” we can only say that it will burst no one. His Income Tax appears to us to be pretty stiff, but there is this to be said for it: one only pays on his actual receipts. Under the property tax people bad very often to pay taxation on properties on which they were losing money. For instance, our local industries had to pay property tax when they were really making losses every year, but under the proposed order of things this would not be the case. If the Income Tax is stiff, therefore, those who will pay it can afford it, because they will have actually received the money. Compared with what we have been taught to expect, the results produced are next door to marvellous, bir Harry Atkinson never tired of telling us we could never do without the Property Tax, but Mr Ballauce shows us that we can; In his last Financial Statement Sir Harry Atkinson told us we could not carry retrenchment any further, but a reduction of £IOO,OO has since been effected, and Mr Ballance says that further economies will yet be practised. Sir Harry Atkinson told us that though he would not go to the English market to borrow money he could not get on without local borrowing, but Mr Ballance does not propose to borrow anywhere. Instead of borrowing he proposes to pay off £328,605 of our debt, besides providing for extraordinary demands on the public revenue. Of all the insolent, impudent things which has ever come under our notice, the Christchurch Press’ criticism on this point is the worst. Disgusted at finding no room to cavil at the Treasurer’s proposal, the Press says that it is the deficit which the Btout-Vogel Ministry left behind Mr Ballance is paying off, If this were true it would be a childish attempt to belittle an opponent, but it is as false as it is mean and contemptible. The deficit which Sir Julius Yogel left behind him amounted to £98,000, but Sir Harry Atkinson neglected to provide for a falling revenue, with the result that in one year this deficit swelled in his hands to the enormous sum of £550,000. This is the exact truth, and yet the Press has the unblushing effrontery to say all this was due to the maladministration of Sir Julius Yogel. When Sir Julius Yogel took office he found that Sir Harry Atkinson left a deficit of £150,000; yet we never hear anything of this. Of course, the Press gang are to be sympathised with. Mr Ballance has cut the ground from under their feet completely ; they have not a leg to stand on, nor anywhere 4o put it if they had, and there is nothing left to them except to indulge in lies. We congratulate Mr Ballance on the way he baa handled the finances, and we predict for him a long and useful ministerial career.