THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1892. EFFECTS OF BORROWING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2392, 30 August 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1892. EFFECTS OF BORROWING.

Just about a month ago, there was laid on the table of the House of Parliament a return showing the rate per annum at which the public debt of the colony has increased. The return, which is as follows, is very instructive: —

Year. Treasurer. Increase. Decrease. 1879 Ballance £571,500 l,s 80 Grey-Atkinson 1,815,400 .1081 Atkinson 1,01 <>,1500 1882 Atkinson 410,400 IS,S3 Atkinson (108,300 ISS4 Atkinson 1,054,100 JBSS Atkinson-Vogcl .1,353,411. ISSf, Vogel 2,015,500 ISS7 Vogel 97,531 1888 Atkinson 1,01(1,784 1889 Atkinson 1,(11 (!,(!! 3 1890 Atkinson 292,900 1891 Atkiuson-Ballancc 1(12,400 1892 Ballance £117,282

It does not appear to us that this is altogether correct. fSir George Grey retired on the Bth of October, 1879, and yet he is charged with having been a partner with Sir Harry Atkinson in increasing the public debt by nearly £5,000,000 in the following year. However, we suppose it means that it includes liabilities left by Sir George Grey, which Sir Harry had to make good; and we presume the same tiling with regard to Sir Harry Attkinson and Sir Julius Yogel will apply. At anyrate, looking at the list, it will be seen at a glance that Sir Julius Vogel was not responsible for much of our debt, and that the cry raised against him when in office was unfair and unjust. Looking now at the figures without party bias it will be seen at a glance who was extravagant and who was not. It will be seen that during Mr Ballance’s terra of office in 1879 he only increased it by about half a million, while next year and the following years the increases were enormous, till Sir Julius Vogel reduced it to the modest sum of £97,000. Immediately Sir Julius Vogel retired from office the extravagant expenditure rushed up again, and continued to go on till Mr Ballance resumed the purse strings, and here we find him, not only doing without borrowing, but actually paying £117,000 off the debt. There are now the plain figures, and the public can see for themselves who were extravagant and who were not. Sir Julius Vogel was turned out of office because it was alleged he was extravagant, but this proves that he was very economical compared with others. The same cry is raised re-o-arding the present Ministry, but who will believe it in the face of these facts. These tables are useful inasmuch as they show that no reliance can be - placed on political cries got up for parties’ purposes, and we hope our readers will remember this, and not be led away with them in future.

But there is another aspect from which to view these figures. Let any one recall to mind the condition of the colony,at any of the various periods referred to, and ask himself “ Does borrowing contribute to prosperity ” ? We think that he will answer in the negative. In 1889 we .increased our debt by nearly ' £5, 000,000, yet m that year the depression was at its height. In the same way let anyone look down the table, and compare the increase of debt with the condition of the colony, at any period during the last 12 years and he will find that in the years we increased our debt most, the depression became most intense. It was generally understood in years gone by that borrowing brought prosperity. We have heard it said, “ thp times are bad, but as soon as the Government gets this loan we shall have good times again,” During these twelve years we have increased our indebtedness by millions, yet the depression continued to <--”OW more Intense till about a year or two ago, U began to lift, just as we began deereaW 1 # travagant expenditure. To us this proves most conclusively that borrowing is a blighting curse, and that we ought, on no account, indulge in it again. Our Treasurer hopes that next year he will have £200,000 out of the ordinary revenue to spend on public works. No objection can be raised to such expenditure, but a continuance of the extravagant borrowing of the past must be resisted by all possible means. And now what is to be thought of jjallance, who has inaugurated the i;oil-borrowing policy ? Does he not deserve credit for it? Poes he not deserve not b.’Ty the supply to>t the gratitude of the people, for the inauguration of this policy of sel - reliance. We certainly think he does, and if the people of this colony do not adhere to him now they will nie *t-

THE SOCIAL PESTS

The following is a specimen of the literature which the Christchurch Paess serves up for the delectation of its readers. The Press claims to he the organ of the "men of culture, the " better classes.” Docs it sa} r much lor the better classes that this is the sort of literature they revel in ?

“ New Zealand has in recent years been invaded by and is troubled with many pests t —scab and tick in sheep, codlin moth in apples, sparrows, influenza, dengue fever, tnc botfly, and whatnot —but the greatest, most pernicious, most enduring of all arc the political pests—pettifogging, political parasites, who, because thej r have the gift of the gab and dub themselves Liberals, imagine they are statesmen, instead of what they really arc, pernicious nuisances to the real luma fulc. settlers of the colony at large. Scab and lousy sheep you can dip, codlin moth you can destroy possibly by spraying with a poisonous mixture, and so on ; but what to do to exterminate the political pest trouble,”

Tnerc is a quarter of a column of worse than this, and then the writer winds up as follows : “The great political pest party appears to mo to be divided into two main sections —well-meaning’ and visionary fanatics and those imbued with thievish and covetous instincts, who look to the Legislature as a means of acquiring for themselves and their families. There are thieves and thieves. The bushranger and the burglar in their way are plucky sort of chaps, and run some risk of their lives or of imprisonment if bowled out on their thieving raids. But of all the contemptible skunks that crawl on tue face of the earth commend me to those who register their votes in the hope that by its aid they may get a slice of someone else’s property, or inflict some injury on someone better off than themselves. But there is an even lower grade of mankind—the political pests, who pander to such an one for their votes, and this is about as low down as you can come in the scale of humanity; and that we have such an one in New Zealand I know, and have known for years. Pandering- to the thievish instincts of others for the sake of gaining votes in order to get salaries or other pickings is a very degraded occupation, if political pests only knew it. So far, in general terms, concerning political pests."’ This is the sort of rubbish the Press publishes, yet it claims to be respectable. It shows, however, that the big landowners are very angry, but they cannot hurt anyone except themselves. This sort of thing is calculated to create class feeling and

great bitterness, by which the big landowners will lose in the end. Of course the whole thing is a lie; nobody expects to get anything belonging to anybody else ; yet a man in a foreign country reading this letter would think we were all a colony of thieves. It is really a shame for the Press to publish such villainous rubbish.

SIR GEORGE GREY.

Sir George Grey is the greatest enigma New Zealand has ever known. There is no understanding him. He is on all occasions apparently an advanced Radical, and has succeeded in promoting and carrying Radical measures through Parliament. No one can deny that we owe him the one-man-one-vote suffrage, and other democratic measures, yet he never can be trusted to support Liberal measures when introduced by anyone other than himself. No one worked harder to turn the Stout-Vogel Government out of office than he did, and there can be no doubt that his influence helped the Conservatives greatly on that occasion. He had no sooner succeeded in turning the Stout-Vogel Government out than he turned his attention to their successors, but to tell the vruth he was not so violent against them as he had been against previous administrations. Now there is a Government in power which is doing everything he has ever desired. They have to a certain extent secured the unearned increment by imposing graduated taxation ; they have introduced the Land for Settlement Bill, which is almost similar to the measure on which he stumped the colony some years ago; they have introduced a Land Bill which is almost the very thing he has been advocating ; in fact it would seem as if they had adopted their policy to suit him, and yet he appears ready at a moment’s notice to eject them from office, and if it depended on his vote they would be ousted at once. This is certainly most extraordinary. It is not that he does not know what he is doing, nor can it be that he has either a desire or even a hope of forming a Government of his own. No one can understand him, and no one will. The only conjecture one can come to is that he is doing it out of pure mischief or perhaps spite, because ho was shifted from the leadership of the Liberal party. The colony owes him a great deal certainly, and can afford just now to overlook his vagaries and remember only his many good services and virtues.

LAND AND INCOME TAX.

We have received a copy of the Land and Income Tax Bill now before Parliament, and find that the former measure has been greatly amended by it. As we stated recently, buyers of land such as the lliverslea Estate will not be taxed for it except to the extent of the interest they hold in it. The amount any purchaser may owe on land bought on time or deferred pay. merit, he can deduct from the value of his estate, and the vendors must pay as if the sum had been lent on a registered mort <r a <T d. With regard to the debenture tax, about which Mr Rhodes made so much noise, that is also dealt with. The companies shall not be charged an income tax on such portions of theif money as have been lent on mortgage. There vvil), therefore, bo no such thing as double taction. Of course it was never intended there should have been. _ The former Act provided most explicitly for that, and; the noise made ab.opt It Y/‘IS merely a , party cry.

ELECTORAL REFORM.

The Conservatives when in power amalgamated the city constituencies, in the hope that this would enable them to manipulate tli« elections better. They find now that that move has not succeeded, and they are trying to practically dis-franchise twothirds of the cities by not allowing city el (tutors to vote for more than one member, In addition to this, Mr Saunders moved a mo,R extraordinary motion last Friday night, when he tried to introduce the Uare system of elections as regards city electorates, lie was, however, defeated, and justly too, for it would be a very inviduous thing to apply to cities a ditlerent system to that which obtains throughout the colony. The country has already an advantage of 28 per cent, over the cities, and that ought to be enough.