THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2647, 29 June 1889, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Opinions of the Press-

Tlll! New Zealand Times says :—Sir Harry Atkinson may bo cordially congratulated on the Financial Statement which he delivered last evening. It was undoubtedly one of the ablest ho has ever made. He and his government have an excellent financial record, and he placed it before the committee with admirable clearness. The Post : Taking the document on the whole, wo feel that we can honestly congratulate the Premier on the Statement, he put forth last night. We do not accept his figures as altogether beyond question, nor admit that the administration of the Government has been as satisfactory as he represents, but with all necessary reservation on this point the Financial Statement, as a whole, deserves commendation, and its extensive circulation abioad will undoubtedly tend to raise the credit of the colony.

The Press says The vindication of the colonists in turning out the Stout-Vogel Government was last night complete. \Vc can most cordially congratulate the Colonial Treasurer and colony on the entire change of policy in administration of public affairs.

The Auckland Star says Criticism may, no doubt, fairly be applied to the methods by which the Treasurer has arrived at the surplus shown upon the financial transactions of the year, yet wo have no reason to doubt that the balancc is real ; and the knowledge that the public expenditure is now more nearly brought within the compass (if the public revenue than for many years past is a state of affairs on which the Government and the colony may fairly be congratulated.

15 Y ELECTniC TI'.LKQRAI'II. — COJ' VKIGHT.) Mkluoukxu, June 28. The Argus, this morning in an article on the Colonial Treasurer's Budget, says New Zealand ought to be fairly contented with the unwonted happiness of a satisfactory surplus, and adds that it may be a wise caution on the part of Sir Harry Atkinson not to repeal anyone of tiie innumerable taxes the New Zealanders endure. It goes 011 to say that a single favourable season and rise in the markets might prove only temporary and could hardly be supposed to warrant the Government in diminishing the source of revenues by a single penny. The Argus concludes: —If the prosperity was more permanent, and we have every reason to believe it will be, then the surplus ought to be used in the remission of taxation and not in again increasing the expenditure ; retrenchment 1 should still be the watchword of the colony, J