The Press. THURSDAY, JULY 23. 1874.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2794, 23 July 1874, Page 2

The Press. THURSDAY, JULY 23. 1874.

Mr Vogel's financial statement is in two respects the most satisfactory that tie, or any other Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand, has ever delivered. In the first place he has an enormous, revenue. The large income of 1872-3 has been thrown entirely into the shade by that of 1873-4. The receipts during the latter period co far exceeded the estimates that the fortunate Treasurer ie able to begin the year with '•' a balance in hand of no less than £207,000. The revenue for the current [ year, estimated, bo Mγ Vogel says, with moderation,amountßto£l,496,ooo. Altogether then the Treasurer" will hare at his disposal for 1874-5 the extraordinary sum of £1,704,000. In no former year except the last, has the ; colonial income m:ide any approach to j such an amount. In 1872-3 it was only £ 1,124,000. Even in 1 he year just concluded, when the receipts so very greatly surpassed those of any previous year, it did not exceed £1,420,000. Of course the surplus is attributable chiefly if not entirely, to the change in the tariff! Mr Vogel, wise after the event, admits now what every one off the Treasury Bench saw plainly at the time, that |he new duties are much more productive than the measurement duties. So far then the surplus is nothing for him to be proud of. In point of financial foresight it is a monument, not of genius, but of incapacity. For tho-Governuient it will be remembered s'outly contended that the alteration Tii the tariff would have but an inappreciable effect on the revenue. In opposition to the unanimous opinion of all mercantile men in the colony —r whom they ridiculed as a set of ignoramuses who did not understand their own figures—they maintained that, the ad valorem duties would "be scarcely at all more productive than those J)y measurement. They professed to have made exhaustive calculations, and to lave proved to a nicety that the eaee would not be more tfian £10,000,

actnesa of the reckoning — than £12,000. It is worth while to compare t&e confident predictions of the ?srdvernment last year with the •actual results: Mr Vogel ascribes the large increase to " the honor and X truthfulness of the commercial classes

" ofthe country." The merchants, its seems; have not salted their invoices tpthe extent he had expected. We hope they are obliged to him for the .'compliment. For as he professed to expect no profit, and accounts for the profits that have beeu realised by attributing them to the honesty of the merchants, it is evident that he had looked to bein& defrauded, of them by the merchants' dishonesty. The other satisfactory feature of the

Budget—and a very admirable feature indeed it is—is the cessation of borrowing. Mr Vogel has resolved to abetain from his favorite practice of throwing expenditure upon loans, and will endeavor ac far aa possible to provide for the current year's expenses out of the year's revenue. Of course the Government will have to raise money for the completion of the authorised railways; that is alia part of the original scheme. But there are to be no fresh loans. " The " essential principle of this Budget," Mr Vogel says, "is different from " that of any previous one ; its great " object being to prevent the G-overa- " ment from recruiting its revenues by " a resort to borrowed moneys." Here, by the way, we have a plain admission that the " essential principle" of the previous budgets was to enable the Government-to recruit its revenues by a resort to borrowing. But the present Budget "has for its object to "relieve the loans at the expense of " the consolidated revejjue." "With this view Mr Vogel proposes to bear on the consolidated fund half of the defence expenditure, and half (why not the whole?) of the subsidy to Boad Boards; and also to spend £271,000 in the redemption of Treasury bills and in payments now chargeable to loans. We heartily applaud his determination. It is gratifying in the extreme to those who like ourselves have lifted up their voices against the indiscriminate borrowing of the last three or four years, to find that their labor has not been in vain, and that the principles they have striven to inculcate are at last recognised and acted on. Mr Vogel's budget is a practical condemnation of the spi%fc which anrmated its predecessors. In this respect he leaves us nothing more to wish, except that he had been an earlier convert to his new faith and that his i conversion will be permanent.

"With regard to provincial borrowing, the telegraphic summary of the statement is so confused as to give no very intelligible idea of what Mr VogePs intentions are. On the main point, however, there is no doubt. It is distinctly stated that the Government will not renew their proposals of last year as to provincial borrowing. They appear to have substituted a* kind of sop-in-the-pan policy, by which the needier provices will be appeased for this year by email grants in aid —or, as Mr Vogel phrases it, "a limited amount of ns"eistance." Auckland, Westland, and Nelson are to receive a special allowance respectively of £25,000, £10,000. and 4J5000. Auckland ia also to receive an advance of £ 10,000 for the current year and £50,000 spread over three years; the latter for works on the Thames goldfields. Wellington and Nelson will obtain advances of £66,000 and £50,000 on special landed securities; Otago will sell to the General Government the Bluff and Winton railways; Taranaki and Westland will receive " some funds" for .immigration purposes. We must defer any comment on the arrangements till we have the text of the statement before us. But on the general question of the expediency of investing the provinces with borrowing powers, we are at one with Mr Vogel. We congratulate him on having, in this respect also, at last attained to souud and sensible views. But here again he has undergone a marvellous change. The opinions he now avows are in striking contrast to those he maintained last year. Those who remember the budget speech of 1873—how Mr Vogel laid it down as a fundamental maxim that the colony could not do justice to local works, and that, while main lines of railway should be undertaken by the Colonial Government, all other works should be left to the provinces— how urgently he contended that for such purposes the provinces must possess the power of borrowing—how he introduced an elaborate measure to | give effect to these, opinions, and supported with the whole weight of Government Provincial Loan Bills to the

amount of .considerably more than

£I,ooo,ooo—and finally, with what vehemence he denounced the Legisla-

tive Council for rejecting the Bills,

and thereby, as he declared, arresting the progress of the country—will hear with surprise that the outcome of such strongly expressed sentiments and so much vigorous declaration is a mere proposal to give small bonuses to three or four favoured provinces. But this is characteristic Mr YogeJ's career has been one succession of" such changes. Never yet has he been able to hold the came political principles

for two years ruuning. He has never advocated any scheme of financial policy in one year which was not abandoned or reversed in the next. In the present instance, however, we accept Mr Yogel's altered sentiments with thankfulness. We mil not loojt our gift horse in the mouth. We are too grateful for what we have to be very critical of the means by which we have arrived at it. We only bfig to suggest a slight addition to the statement. 4-s it standa, there is an omission which mars its finish. When referring, to the proposals of last year, Mr Vogel should have introduced some complimentary allusion to the action then taken by the Legislative Council. He ought not to have njissed the opportunity of acknowledging the service they rendered to the colony by the rejectiou of his Provincial Loans Empowering Bill aiid its accompaniments, the impolicy of which is. co decisively affirmed by ti»» pmt' Budget,