The Bruce Herald. MILTON, MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1909.

Bruce Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 6, 2 August 1909, Page 2

The Bruce Herald. MILTON, MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1909.

The North Canterbury Farmers' Union Executive have been expres* sing themselves as being jubilant over the retrenchment schemes of the Government, and the Chairman declared that the Government deserved every credit for tackling the question seeing the position the Dominion had got into in view of the large amount of unproductive expenditure that had been made previously. It was also a cause for thankfulness that the party who had, by their extravagance, brought the finance to such a depressed state that the same party was trying to straighten out the financial position. There is an inclination to saddle the Seddon Administration with more than their share in the increase in the' departmental expenditure, but the following table prepared from authentic sources by the Dominion shows that the Ward Government out-Seddoned-Seddon in the matter of

The following is the table : Skddon Government, Annual Increase over appropriations, previous year. £ £ 19045 3.964.930 144,566 1905-6 4.252,233 287,303 Ward Govurment. 19067 4.736,806 484,573 1907-8 5,085,344 348,538 1908-9 5»575»483 490,i39 It will be seen from Ihe foregoing that since Sir Joseph assumed office, the expenditure rose with startling rapidity. The savings by retrench* ment in the public service are set down as likely to amount to a quarter of a million, which seems but a small amount when iu three years the ex-* diture went up at the rate of a million per annum.