THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1895. A SPIRITED

Temuka Leader, Issue 2772, 5 February 1895, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1895. A SPIRITED

The Hon. J. G. Ward made the u. speech he has ever delivered at the social given to him in Dunedin on the eve of his departure from the colony. Mr Ward apparently was angry, and consequently unusually vigorous—and it must be admitted he had good and sufficient cause for it. lie has been vilified, slandered, and misrepresented to the greatest extent that the perverted ingenuity of his unscrupulous opponents could go ; but we believe that Dunedin people, after having listened to him at the recent social, will take with a grain of salt, at any rate, the contributions of the Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times in future. This gentleman was exposed by Mr Ward. He is a recent arrival in the colony, having come to it from Queensland a little over 12 months ago, and has since been employed as a special correspondent in SVfliiugtou by the Otago Daily Times, the Christchurch Press, and the Auckland Herald, and well paid for misrepresenting every action of the Government. Wo have on frequent occasions referred to the scandalous manner in which this gentleman has been abusing the Government, and we are glad that the Colonial Treasurer has at last effectively replied to him. Whas made Mr Ward angry, however, was tht discovery that certain people in thie

colony had cabled to England to the effect that the revenue would this year be short by a quarter of a million. This was so treacherous an action that Mr Ward cannot be accused of having gone too far when he compared them to Judas Iscariot. It is inconceivable how any man, or number of men, could be so lost to all sense of honor, even if they cared nothing for the colony, as to go to such an extent to damage political opponents. It only shows the extent to which the opponents of the Government will go. They find now their lies falling on deaf ears in this colony; they have lied so often, and have been found out, that no one will believe them, and now they have tried to damage the Government by attempting to make the financiers of Loudon believe that the colony is going to ruin. In all countries from times immemorial traitors have been regarded as unfit to live; indeed, at the present time they are put to death on the Continent of Europe, and it is not long since one of them paid the penalty with his life in France. How much better than the traitors who sell the plans of the fortifications of their country are the miscreants who go to the London market and try to damage the colony in this way ? Mr Ward proved how erroneous their statement was Instead of a deficit there will be a larger surplus than he anticipated. “ During the last few days,” he said, “ he had made a careful analysis of the financial condition of the colony. He had gone carefully and elaborately into the position, and the figures be was about to give them were oo the safe side by a considerable sum* These figures disclosed the very important fact, which it was well all who were interested iu New Zealand should know, that the estimate of revenue which he had forecasted in the Financial Statement delivered during the last session would uot only be realised, but would be exceeded. (Applause.) What did they find ? They found people who professed to be greatly interested in the country calling their attention to the fact, day after day, that there was a deficit iu the railway revenue and a deficit iu the customs revenue. That there were such deficits he admitted at once. He had anticipated them and had prepared to meet them. Anyone who referred to bis Financial Statement would find he had forecasted that there would be a deficit in both these departments compared with the previous year, but. in all honesty their critics when talking about the departments in which there was a deficit should also mention the departments where then were surpluses, and there were surpluses in every other de - part men t but one, and that a small one—the beer duty department. The surpluses in the other departments, after providing for the deficits in customs and railwas, and not only so, but after discounting the next quarter to the very utmost not only made up the deficits, but would give an excess of £20,700 over and above the deficit. (Loud applause.) The meaning of this was that, after allowing for every possible contingency, instead of having a gross surplus as he had estimated of £341,940, he told them now, and they could watch the figures when they came out, that after March 31 next the surplus would be over £350,000. (Loud applause). What was it the Government had been doing, for what had they been working, but to rai;e the financial condition of the country? and what had those people who profess to be the custodians and guardians of property been doing during the last few mouths but discouraging every man in the country, and decrying the country by every possible means—trying to sink it to the lowest possible depth, the effect of which would be to ruin many in the country, in order to-obtain for themselves and their political friends a temporary advantage and transitory power ? He could only hope that should the present Opposition get into power, and any member of the pjjisent Government party attempted to attack the Government of the day iu the way the present Government had been attacked, that he would not be allowed to remain a member of their party. (Applause.) He said this because if a man, in order to attack a Government, attempted to destroy the credit of a country, he was doing that which was calculated to injure every man, woman, and child in the country, whether they were supporters or opponents of the Government. (Applause). He would not weary them by, as he had at first intended, giving them seriatim the surpluses of the various departments If any ordinary reader would take up the Financial Statement of last year he would see th/Lt, looking 12 mouths ahead, and under the firm belief that we should have a shrinkage in our revenue, he, as Colonial Treasurer, took the precaution of reducing the Estimates by £133,538 below the Estimates of the former year, and had intimated at the finish of the Statement the reasons for believing that this was a safe and prudent thing to do.’ 7