Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1895. COOKED WITH CREAM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5011, 27 April 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1895. COOKED WITH CREAM.

UnqukstiokaMiY the most engaging subject for the people of this Colony, should be the National finance. The peiiod for the annual balance, closed on the 31st March, and the figures of the Nation's balance sheet have been sparingly given to the public by the Premier, in the speech he made at Marton, a few days ago, According to the official statement, we show a balance to credit, or a surplus of about £180,000; but in analysing the figures, the ugly fact! is disclosed, that the credit balance is cooked with cream. We have drawn upon outside sources for our surplus, and although this system is sanctioned by law, it is vicious in the extreme, wholly misleading, and its effects in the future must be disastrous. To appreciate the position, wo must look at tho balance-sheet from the standpoint of a merchant or business man, A trader claims a surplus only when his income exceeds his expenditure; if the receipts have been augmented with borrowed money, the amount is not treated as a similar item would be in the Nation's balance-sheet.

■ Accepting the Premier's figures as being accurate, the position of the Colony is shown as follows : RECEIPTS. Surplus from last year ... £290,238 Actual .Revenue 4,288.715 Dehentuies issued against Sinking Fund li^co £4,690,753, EXrENDITOBE. Paid to the Public Works n F«n<l £250,000 Expenditure on Public Sertwo 4,266,722 £4,616,722 If wo dedupfc tho total expenditure from the total receipts, there is a surplus of £180,031, which is claimed to be a credit balance, by Mr Seddon. But these figures are illusive, and do not show the results of the year's trading, if we may be permitted to use the word, What the people of the Colony want to know, and should know, is the actual results of tho year, without taking into account extraneous aids, which in the nature of things, must sooner or later cease. The real and true figures for the year, may bo summarised as follows :

Actual Pevenuc, £4,288,715 Actual Expenditure, £4,516,722 It will thus be seen that last year the Colony spent £228,007 more than it received in revenue, or to be more explicit, there was a deficit of £228,007. By the help of the Consolidated Stock Act 1884, we are ab]e tq convert this defjeit intg a surplus, far by the prqvisiqns of this Act, the sinking funds released by oonverfcing lops raised long ago, and now falling due, into Instribed Stock, passes into the Treasury and is made part of the Consolidated Eevenue; in this way during 1894-05 we raised £117,800, and in the preyious year

the sum eo obtained was £284,500. In- 1893-94, with the assistance of tho sinking funds, the Colony was able to show a handsome surplus and to carry forward £290,238. Thus by taking tho amount brought forward as a credit balance from 1893-94, and the skimmings from the sinking fund this year, which,as already stated,amounts to £117,800, which together amount to £408,038, and deducting tho deficit on the year's transactions, which wo bare shown above to be £228,007, we arrive at the Premier's surplus of £180,031.

It is a real live surplus, but of the wild cat breed, sanctioned, however, by the law of the country. The Government can claim, that under tho peculiar system of financing' which Parliament has permitted and enforces by its Acts, that there is a credit balance, and that it amounts to £180,031. In the face of such eloquent facts it is childish to prattle about" self-reliance," and "living within our means." We have liail to borrow year after year to keep up the appearance of solvency, and although the system is legal, the deception we are practising is none the less real. We cannot expect the sinking funds to be for ever at our disposal, this source of revenue must sooner or later cense, and when that period arrives we shall know all about it.

Our position and prospects are clear; we have not been able to cairy oil without loan money, and wo must continue to borrow or burst. Bankruptcy we hope is a long way oif, as wo are sure it is, but borrow we must. It is impossible to carry on without cooking with the cream of English money, and the sooner we realise this fact and admit its existence the better for the country. Borrowing and taxation go hand in band, and more borrowed money spoils increased taxation. It is an unpleasant prospect for an already over-burdened country, unrelieved by a gleam of hope.