ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 12

ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

REFORM'S MILLIONS. SOME AMAZING FIGURES. A DISASTROUS FEATURE. HUGE COST OF UNPRODUCTIVE WORKS. (By Telegraph—Special to "Star.") WANGANUT, Friday. Discussing the public debt to-night, Mr. Veiteh said: "There has been a good deal of misquoting of figures. To put the matter briefly, the public debt when Reform took control of the Treasury benches in 1912 was a little over £84,000,000, and on March .'sl last it was £251,000,000, leaving an increase of the gross debt of £107,000,000. The accumulated surpluses of revenue over expenditure at Starch 31 totalled £30,000,000, of which about £3,000,000 remained unspent. Thus, nearly £27,000,000 of capital money had been disposed of by Reform in addition to £167,000.000 oi' borrowed money. Adding these two amounts together, we find that the total capital moneys disposed of by Reform since its succession to office was £193,980,945. The cost of the war, £81,843,534, is included in this amount. If we subtract the cost of the war from the total capital moneys disposed of, we find that Reform's capital expenditure amounts to £112,143,411 over and above the cost of the war. To this must be added some five or six millions that are to be borrowed during the current year.

"The disastrous feature of this finance does not lie in the fact that a large amount of money had been borrowed and spent, but that it did not add to the national income. New railway stations at Wellington and Auckland, expensive railway tunnels, and other such works were not reproductive expenditure.

"The financial proposals of the United party were to borrow £10,000,000 to complete railways that were now costing a great deal owing to their not being completed, and to eliminate very heavy costs of unemployment relief.

' The United party's proposal to borrow a sum up to £60,000,000 in ten years for . advances to settlers and Workers Will largely increase the productivity of the country and increase our national income to an extent that \vill meet interest charges several times over, in addition to eliminating distress of unemployment. Mr. Coates has seriously criticised our proposals to borrow £10,000,000 for the completion of unfinished railways, yet he himself only three years ago adopted the recommendation oi the Fay-Raven Commission to borrow and spend £28,000,000 on the Railway Department during ten years, from 192.5 to 1935, and this expenditure is going on now."