The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 326, 11 August 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1898.

The Financial Statement, so far as the past is concerned, affords very little information which was not previously at the disposal of the public. They already knew that the Treasurer estimated a surplus of £521,144. This of course is fictitious, as included in the total is the sum of £3j4,256 claimed as surplus at the beginuingof the year. The true surplus is £1G6,855, that being the sum by which revenue exceeded expenditure, but from this has to be deducted £69,600, the. amount of sinking funds appropriated. The actual surplus therefore by Mr Seddon's own figures is only £97,258. The interest payable on debt amounts to £05,000 more thau last

year, and the public debt on 31st March last was £44,963,424, being an increase on previous year of £596,806. In face of these figures surplus is a wrong term to apply to any result arrived at by the manipulation of figures. It is proposed to borrow £500,000 for public works ; this, with the sum to be transferred to that account from consolidated revenue, gives nearly a million for Ministers to distribute practically as they please. This is a system which should not be allowed to continue; it is the right of Parliament and • the country should insist upon its being exercised, to know how money is to bo expended before voting it. This could be brought about by the House insisting upon the Public Works Statement aud the Estimates being brought down before considering the financial position or voting supplies. To vote monoy first, and to considor how it is to be spent afterwards, is certainly putting the cart before the horse. It is well that the public should make no mistake as to what constitutes consolidated revenue. It is the amount extracted from the pockets of the people. The Premier claims for himself that, if he is not a great financier, he knows how to keep the right side of the ledger, but he does not tell us that he has done this by over-taxing the people, and it is questionable whether the better financier is not he who errs the other way and asks Parliament when it meets to set matters straight. There is little probability that our Main Trunk Line will make much progress during the year, as the proposed finance will prohibit. This line, in its unfinished state, cannot be expected to yield an adequate return on the capital invested, and the progress of the country is retarded by its non-completion. It appears to us, therefore, thnt it would be in the end more economical to borrow a sum sufficient to lay the rails to a junction with the lines running to Wellington, Taranaki and Napier. The reute it should follow is of minor importance. The Premier pointed out that the £500,000 loan was to prosecute work for the benefit of 'future generations, the same argument surely applies to the making of the Main Trunk Line. Money was voted for this purpose years back and diverted.