WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 294, 28 May 1898, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

|fbom our own correspondent I. Wellington, May 22. PUBLIC WORKS FINANCE. There is a mystery about the public works finance which requires unravelling. It will bs remembered that when the last Million Loan Bill found its way to the Upper House, that chamber could not throw it out, being a money Bill, but a member pressed the Hon. H. C. Walker so hard for reasons for the loan that that Minister unwillingly let the information escape him that over half of che proposed loan was then spent or pledged. Having got this confession of anticipating borrowed money as well as revenue, the Council did the only thing it could and passed the Bill. Just now, on the eve of Parliament meeting again, we seem to be in much the same financial fix. The Public Works Department is the great spending branch of the State, and it must be kept at high pressure to enable Ministers to flourish—or rather to appear to do so. List year the amount distributed among favoured constituencies was £413,064, and for the period ending March 31st lust, £864,808. The funds for this were furnished from the following sources : (u) Balance on March .'list, IS9" .. .. £157,302 (b) Transfer from Lands Improvement.. 95,222 (c) Transfer from Native Lands Purchase ■ Account 130,573 (d) Loan Act of 13!Hi 125,000 (e) Short-dated debentures .. .. 100,001) (f) Consolidated fund 300,000 (jr) Temporary advance since repaid .. 50,009 (h) Akaroa Trust .. .. , .. .. 1639 (i) Recoveries—Roads and bridges .. 3G5 (j) Sinking funds seized 572 Balance in hand, £51,492. The transfers (b) and (c) were obtained under the authority of the Appropriation Act of last session, which had a clause smuggled into it giving power to remove the earmarks from monies borrowed for specific purposes, and so leave the £231,795 free for Ministers to spend how they chose. The Bill was rattled through during the last hours of the session with such indecent haste that the Opposition had no opportunity of perusing it, but Mr Rolleston took the precaution of asking the Premier if the Bill differed in any particular from ordinary appropriations, and received "No " for an answer. It was one of those tricky subterfuges which pass among sham Liberals for statesmanship, and enabled Ministers to keep promises to favoured districts to the extent of nearly a quarter of a million they could hardly have redeemed otherwise. This removal of the earmarks had a further beneficial effect on the crooked finance of the Treasurer. He did not have to borrow so much under the nnme of public works, so that we find under this special head (d) £125,000, and next comes (e) short - dated debentures £IOO,OOO, which is really a continuation of the other, but in place of being raised where it could be borrowed at the lowest rate, it has been temporarily obtaiued in the colony at 'i\ or 4 per cent., to be afterwards converted in London. It is a costly and cumbersome way of borrowing. Last year we paid £3746 for premiums, and £4662 for brokerage, stamps, etc., as the cose of exchanging one set of debentures tor another ; all this being a dead loss to the colony, and the only object served being that we attain that much-to-be-desired object—keep off the London market as a borrower. It is a high price to pay for a mere phrase, for the loans all gravitate to London and the interest is paid there. The next item (f) £300,000 conies directly from the people's pockets by taxation, and all that need be said about it is that if they arc willing to find the money, and say so through representatives, nobody has any right to complain. We are a democracy and the majority must rule. As to the wisdom of spending £300,000 by means of the cooperative machine in such a ludicrously extravagant way as money is being squandered on the Parliamentary buildings just now it is only necessary that the taxpayers should ask themselves two Suestion3. Dr.es the work done by the 'ublic Works Department represent the value paid for it, and would the taxpayers be better served by being relieved of the burden of £300,000 a year now paid by them through the customs on the necessaries of life—a sum equal to about 45s a year in every family of five individuals. If a plebiscite of the electors were taken it is no exaggeration to say that 90 per cent, of them would vote for the remission. The next item (g) £50,000, temporary advance, requires more explanation than the writer is in a position to give. It was borrowed during the March quarter and repaid in the same period. There was no statutory authority for such a transaction, but some sort of reason for it is to be found in the empty condition of the public works cash box. The plain truth Li that the department has overrun the constable. Of the £52,492 which is Bhown as the balance in hand, only £17,408 was in cash at the end of the fiuancial year, and the rest of it was in the hands of officers for payment of current liabilities. How much more was due it is hard to evec surmise, but when we find that the men employed on the Kumara water race by the Government had not received their February wages last week we may easily guess that there are other electorates not having the Colonial Treasurer for their representative, which are as badly off. Tne average expenditure for the past year was at the rate of over £70,000 per month on public works, and as we may safely assume that there were two months' payments in arrear on March 31st, it will probably be found that although the temporary accommodation of £50,000 was repaid on March 31st, it, and probably more, was borrowed again on April Ist. This is very high finance indeed. Ah for the other items of receipts, they are merely n continuation of the grab-what-we-can policy. It is very clear that nob only is the public works fund worth a good deal less than nothing, but that works now in hand and future works mean more borrowing and more taxation as an inevitable complement, either that, or a political cessation of works. There still remains £225,000 of the million loan to be borrowed. Probably Mr Seddon will take £400,000 out of the consolidated revenue this year for public works. At the present rate of spending this would carry him on for about nine months. The other three months might be tided over by " temporary advances" and carryiog forward to the following year and then—the deluge. ryjjfre were further borrowing powers for - 200,000 for railway purposes. Of this we have no account. No doubt it has been raised and spent, but the public accounts tell us nothing about it. The railways are made to show a surplus, but by methods that are looked upon as heterodox by railway managers elsewhere. Accidents on our lines, especially between Wellington and Napier, are becoming alarmingly frequent, but they are minor considerations to the paramount necessity of contriving bal-ance-sheets that may be quoted with melodramatic effects to admiring Liberals.

Owner wanted for a lady's umbrella, found in Hamilton.