A TRITON AMONST THE MINNOWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 156, 3 July 1888, Page 4

A TRITON AMONST THE MINNOWS.

We think that the local assemblage of amateur political economists styling themselves the Auckland Politi.

cal Financial Eeform Association, may very fairly be credited with scoring heavily off the Premier with respect to the Association's report indicating where further retrenchment in. the general expenditure of the colony is possible. As a financier Sir Harry Atkinson stands head and shoulders over his fellows. Valiant is* the politician who dons his armour and couches his lance against the Taranaki knight in a financial joust. None so clever as he to make facts and figures fit into his description of them, and where a change of front in the face of an enemy, ever ■ hot on the scent, is necessary, he can do it with the adroitness of a conjuror. Smart indeed is the man, no matter how well up in Atkinsonian tactics,* who can detect the subtle intricacies of his wizardries. In writing in this strain of adulation of Sir Harry's cleverness we are not seeking to place him on a pedestal for public admiration; we are merely endeavouring to give some idea of the difficulties in the way of the completion of the contrast that the Political Financial Reform Association undertook when they came to an issue with such a Past-Master in the art.

The most casual acquaintance of Sir Harry must know that when he has condescended, from his place on the Treasury Benches, to devote half an hour or more of the valuable time of the Parliament to reply to the lucubrations of a small irresponsible conclave, for whose amateur opinions he must experience the fine contempt of the practised parliamentarian, that the iron has entered his soul. He must have felt keenly that there was a large amount of incontrovertible fact in the report of the Association, or he wonld have ignored it entirely ; while the jauntiness of his diatribes against the members of the Association, and the characteristically Atkinsonian sneer, that " without any special knowledge gentlemen were fond of getting together and talking," rather gives the impression that he was doubtful whether he had failed to convince the House that he was right and the Association wrong. The amazing prestige of the man amongst those with whom he comes into personal contact is borne testimony to by the fact that fairly able men like Messrs Monk and Moss spoke after him, and yet .were wary to attack the figures of which the Premier had unburdened himself with such pert glibness. The contention of the Association, stripped of all redundancy of verbiage and omitting side issues that only serve to confuse the reader, is that, taking the departmeutal expenditure of 1860 as a basis and comparing it with the present departmental expenditure minus the cost of departments non-existent in 1860, there is still room for a saving ot at least ;£150,000 per annum. That is allowing also for the application of the principle that the greater the number of persons to be governed the less proportionately the cost of Government per capita. The reply drawn up by a committee of the Association, pointing out the palpable mistakes of the Premier, is an able document, and fortified by it no doubt some of the minnows of the House will take heart of grace to set the financial Triton right It points out that the cost of Government last year was £947,213 instead of £704,242, stated by the Premier, and adds :

" There is consequently still room for a reduction of £221,213, in order to arrive at the minimum of £726,000 demanded by the Association. Even granting that this reduction be obtained, the colony will still enjoy the unenviable notoriety of being the most over-governed country in the world; a notoriety attained during the last seventeen years, for the greater part of which time you have had the honour of being one of the Crown's chief advisers. The sum of £704,000, erroneously assumed by you to be the whole cost of governing this colony, is, even if it had been fortunately true, according to a recently-compiled comparative return of the Association, 3s 3d per head in excess of the relative State expenditure of Sweden with its fleet, army, and public works included. The Association having placed the matter before you, rely upon your courtesy to correct the wrong impression left upon the members of the House. Referring to the statement that the Association • quite overlooked the fact that there were now many charges which were formerly non-existent, or borne by the Provincial Governments,' the Committee of this Association have for some time past been collecting data upon this and other subjects, but we are directed meantime to tjxpress the opinion that, so far as the examination has proceeded, the explanation

suggested by you is insufficient to account for the vast increase in our national expenditure.''

Throughout the entire controversy the Association have the best of the argument, but no doubt the members of that body will feel that the honour of a tilt with a real live Premier is even more pleasurable than the laurel wreath of victory.' " You learn more of some men when they are wrong than you do of others when they are right," wrote Froude of Sir George krey, and we hope this trite remark will also apply to the connection of the Association with the Premier. We say this to show that though we rejoice in the Premier's reverse, we are quite prepared to pick him up, blow the dust out of his hair, and wish him better luck next time.