The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY. AUGUST 7, 1890.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2819, 7 August 1890, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY. AUGUST 7, 1890.

Equal and exact lustice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

—* The eternal New Plymouth breakwater has la-en the cause of another very pretty quarrel in the .House of Representatives, which places the colony and the bondholders in a new and peculiar position. It places the Public Accounts Committee in a still more peculiar position, and drew from members an almost unanimous agreement that it had deceived the "Parliament which appointed it, and deserved the strongest reprobation. The quarrel arose in this way : Mr Seddon asked Mr Macavthur (chairman of the Public Accounts Committee) a question, of which he had given due notice in accordance wMi the Standing Orders. The question referred to an alleged unwarrantable authority to the Government to pay the interest that fell due on the New Plymouth Harbour Hoard's bonds in November last. It referred also to an alleged suppression of the minutes giving this authority, thus keeping the House in ignorance of what one of its committee had done. Now, this particular transaction is one of the charges made by Mr Hutchison against the Government,and into which a special Select Committee is making investigation. Mr Macarthur is one of that committee also, and replied that under these circumstances he considered Mr Seddon's question in bad taste and should not he answer. Mr HecUlon wrathfully answered that he did not wish to take lessons in good taste from the honourable member, and that no taste, good or bad, was involved. The charges made; by Mr Hutchison were against the Government ; the charge which he referred to was against the Public Accounts Committee, and that he held to be an entirely dillerent allair. Then he opened out and g.ive what he stated to be a full and correct narrative of the business, chal lenging Mr Mac Arthur to say if, and where, his information was wrong. From this narrative, from the minute book itself where Mr Seddon obtained and read from, and from the speeches of other honorable members who were serving on the Public Accounts Committee of the llous", we glean the following information The Harbour ]5o ird was bound to make default in the November interest, and i'lformed the Colonial Treasurer to that eflect. He was at the time engaged in the conversion into a three and half per cent, .stock, of the two million and seven hundred thousand pounds of outstanding Colonial Loans, and become alarmed at the prospect of the transaction being s riously affected by this default. The colony was in 110 >vay responsible to the bondholders Kvery bond stated this expressly on its face, and the low price at which the bonds were purchased, as compared with those of the General Government, showed this was well understood by all. J3ut it was argued, the people in England know little of our internal arrangements, and stock jobbers would eagerly seize the chance of " bearing " the market. Hence the anxiety of the Colonial Treasurer and his cablegram to the AgentGeneral on the subject. The Agent'ieneral replied that in his own opinion the effect would be small, if any. Jsut he added that others, competent to judge, differed with him, and thought that default would cause a material loss to the colony. Thereupon the Treasurer communicated confidentially with the Public Accounts Committee, and laid the case before them. After careful consideration a motion was submitted to the committee by Dr. Newman that the colony should not assume any liability or ma Uo any advance whatevor in connection with the New Plymouth Harbour Board. This motion li.mif over till the next meeting' Hid was then shelved by " the iirevimis question," a ParliamentM V d. vie ll for fivoiding a verdict of aiiv kind and leaving the whole , siiiijeet open for future eoe.siderainn if necessary. Against this ■ e > o;i!y tli'.!" iii" the committee • v.)t ;, d. namely, i >r. >.Wnmi, Ml' Barron and Mr .Moss. I'lio rest of this large committee acquiesced and loft the Treasurer to deal 011 his ' own responsibility, their reason Ijf■ in"• apparently that the fact of such a decision being come to woidd be, practically, declaring to (lie world the imminent dei'aidt of I In; Harbour I'oard and doing 1 the mischief which the Treasurer sought , to avort. Thou came the furtlior action of which complaint was ! made. Tho chairman, moved by

the sumo fear as tho Treasurer and with, it seems, the knowledge and at all events tacit consent of the committee, mado no report at all to the House. The precedent is bad and in every respect mischievous. It' a committee, at its own will, act in this way, what security will there be that the House may not at any time be deceived and find Parliament morally committed against its own judgment and pronounced will ?

This is exactly what has occurred. It is now patent to tho world that, for its own purpose, the Government bolstered up tho credit of the New Plymouth Harbour Board for six months, well knowing that at tho end of that time default was inevitable. We do not care to go into motives, or to argue with those w!-io hold that the Treasurer was influenced also by his care for the New Plymouth people, as their special representative. To them tho break water is a heavy burden. In itself useless for any purpose, it entails upon them local taxation to meet a very large portion of the interest, the rest being made up from their share of the land revenue of the district, allotted by ct as a contribution towards the cost. Whatever the motives, the deed remains, and will be eagerly seized by the bondholders as another reason for throwing the burden of this useless waste of .£200,000 upon the colony. They will argue that the Government is now morally bound to see them paid, especially those who may have bought debentures between the November advance and the May default that followed. They already base a claim upon the alterations made in the land laws, whereby land has been sold on deferred payment, and in other ways non-exis-tent when the endowment was made. Of course, this is only a pretext. The real security was to be the breakwater itself, and the revenue derived from it. The rest was collateral, and only intended to make good possible deticiencies, in the same way as the taxing power over the settlers' land in the district. The breakwater lias been a total failure. It is .£200,000 thrown into the sea and brings in nothing. Who is now to bear the loss ? The bondholders will not if they can help it, and the action of the Government in regard to the November interest will be made the most of to aid their claim. They will also argue that the buyers of the Converted Colonial Stock were deceived, and they will seek their help. If the default would affect the price during conversion, it must affect it after the conversion had been concluded. To that extent the bondholders will be induced to cry out that they too have been taken in, especially if any of then) happen to hold the debentures of the Harbour Board as well. Here is a pretty cmbroglio. The moral is that even in colonial finance the straight course is the best, and that 110 motives, however good, justify a deviation. Some one is sure to suffer and to claim compensation, while the Government cannot fail to lose character and caste. This is the moral. The end will, too, probably be a successful attempt to throw upon the colony and its already-burdened tax-payers a heavy burden that must largely counteract the retrenchments made so liaidly, and bearing so hardly upon many persons and many local bodies. How long shall these things, these wretched blunders, and worse than blunders, be allowed to continue 1