The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1887. SOLID ADMINISTRATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2567, 7 April 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1887. SOLID ADMINISTRATION.

Pke-sessional speeches have been delivered this week by Mr Orrnond at Napior, by Mr. Ballance at .Wanganui and by Mr Goorgo Fisher at Welling-' ton. Of the three we aro disposed to give a decided preference to tho thought;, ful outspoken utterances of the; member foii.he. Empire City. •; Tlie follow-' ing extract from his address puts, fully and fairly the financial position of New Zealand:— .... Mat the colony wanted was. some solid, administration, and the less of tho' schemes of tho visionary the better. When.'thc Aus-, tralian colonies found themselves' in financial straits what did they do? In January last the telegraph told'us that the South Australian Government had reduced the exposes of Government by £222,000 as com-, pared with tho previous year. In New South Wales the Government appointed a Board of outside gentlomcu to inquire intothe oondition of tho Public Works Department, with aviow to show how the expenditure could be reduced, and without inflicting any hardships upon officials they showed how a saving of £69,000 might easily bo made, And what followed ? The ■ Parkes • Government went thoroughly through the whole system'of public expenditure, and when Mr Bums brought down his budget in March just passed it Bhowed a reduction of £45,000 on the appropriation for 1886. Aud no fresh loans was' to be issued, The mere announcement of the fact, too, very naturally strengthened the price of Now South; Wales stock in. London, Now; how stands Now Zealand? Inthe London monoy market her stock stands-lower than the stock of any other Australian colony. What is her real position ? > When the Customs revenue is compared with the borrowing" and with tho interest wh'ioh must bo. annually met, a stato of affairs is made oloar which few at the present tinio- over take tho trouble to. consider—Let r tho figures stand out nakedly and fall sophism excepted) speak for themselves. • Table No 1, .attached to tho last Financial Statement shows !'tho annual intorest chargo on our loans to bo £1,689,346. To this has to be added the •interest on the last million, and a half' loan, say in all £1,750,000.. How is this mot ?' Tho 1 entire Customs rovonue and the'' Property Tax 'for. the year 1886-7 wore, as follows :-Customs (actual receipts)-£1,289,152: Property Tat £312,000; total, £1,601,152. ■ Sb-that.tho entire Customs revenue of the country and the Property-Tax wore at once swallowed up,and oven these two togother fall £149,000 short of meeting the annual intorest upon our indebtedness, The. position was not merely, abnormal, it was unprecedented, and; it need' riot bo wondered that there was no buoyancy, no spring in the country. There was now a deficiency of £200,000 upon the estimates of the year, Sir Julius Vogel would insist'upon taking that funny sixtoonth of a penny off tho Property Tax last year, because " ho knew wo would not wantit.'". ■ ~;;

Wo are indebted to Mr Fisher for the phraxe' "Solid administration" as opposed to 'the shadowy shairi Government'now in power. Wo,care little whether.the members of the Cabinet are conservatives'; like; Sir Julius or liboral like Sir Robert Stout so long as they possess good common sense and integrity, The present ministry is an unhappy combination of dreamers and schemers, and anything less solid than their administration, it is impossible to conceive./ Thoy have brought the finances of the colony into a tangle, and its credit in the London market to almost zero, and yet, we find one of those who have contributed to .this bad' work; telling the Wanganui people that it was some, man who wrote a book about New Zealand and not the Ministry who did the mischief.. Fancy making garrulous Mr Fronde the scape goat of the Gabinfce I We are now told by Mrßallanco what everybody knows that the Government are going in for more taxation. Their retrenchment has been one of their shams, but they cannot get out of the mess they are now in by make-believe reductions, and bo new taxes aro to be laid on. We trust the House and the Country will insist upon retrenchment, and sound administration as the best road out of our present difficulties, and put an end to the present incapable., ministerial shams at the earliest possible opportunity.