The Press. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1891.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7803, 5 March 1891, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1891.

Ministers hare evidently resolved to keep themselves thoroughly in evidence. Their present proceedings and their future intentions are made known to the public with unfailing regularity. They are hob content with taking the public into their confidence with respect to the petty details of administration, such, as the enforcement of the law with respect to weights and measures and other equally momentous affairs. They have also disclosed to the astonished public the advice they intend to tender to his Excellency before that advice can be considered and acted upon in the usual manner. There may be two opinions as to the wisdom of advertising well beforehand what they intend to do with respect to matters over which they have complete control. The public have proverbially short memories, and by the time Parliament meets the electors will have forgotten all about their promises. Iα the meantime, the impression, will have been produced thai Ministers are taking a profound interest in the affaire of the country, and have their minds filled with numerous schemes professedly devised for the public good. For the benefit; of those who may have indulged in the juaoßveaient practice of collecting:

these promises, and reminding Ministers of them, we ere already warned that the approaohing session will be a most important one, the infeirenoe being, that it will be quite impossible to deal with a percentage of the questions which are pressing on Ministers for settlement. Bβ that as it may wa # are satisfied that Mr. Ballanob and hia colleagues have displayed a want or knowledge of constitutional propriety in connection with the case now occupying the attention of the Executive which is simply deplorable. If secrets intended for the Executive alone are to be disclosed in this reokless manner, anything like good Government will become impossible. It is difficult to predict where this sort of tiling will end. Confidential communications of all kinds may be dragged into the light of day simply because by so doing Ministers think that they can gain a little temporary popularity. Whether this is the best way of obtaining a permanent hold on the publio remains to be seen.

But if the scheme of advertising is to be worked with anything like success, there must be some element of fact in the -puffa. In proclaiming the wonderful virtues of the Ministerial safe cures it is a mistake to make inconvenient comparisons. -As long as the members of the Government confine themselves to glcwing descriptions of what their remedies will do, they are on comparatively safe ground —till the remedies come to be applied. But when they venture, as the Minister of Lands did the other day, to show wherein the piesent method of treatment has failed, they come to tread on dangerous ground. Wheu they begin to handle facts and figures there is no room for play of the imagination and they come to grief. We have hitherto refrained from taking any notice of what Mr. McKbnzie said when he was in Christchurch with reference to our past finance, but it would be a mistake, we think, to pass his remarks over altogether in sileuoe. He is reported to have said that, " The "Government would have considerable " difficulty in keeping up the revenue, " as it had been fictitiously bolstered " up during the past few years through " the sales of land for cash, which had '* been treated as ordinary revenue and " not placed as it should have been to '•" capital account." The above statement is destitute of any foundation in fact. It is not true that the revenue has been "fictitiously bolstered up during the last few years through the sales of land for cash." Mr. McKenzib will in time get to know that the land fund is kept entirely apart from the ordinary revenue, aud has been so kept apart for over ten years. He will also learn, if. he sets about the task in earnest, that, instead of the revenue being bolstered up by the proceeds of cash sales, the land fund account has been in debt, after paying the cost of surveys and otbersimilaroharges. The actual figures are given by the Daily Times, and are as follows:— " Let us take the year ending March, 1890, as an example. The sales for cash amounted to £36,656; deferred payment, which is a delayed, sale, £51,035; total land fund, £87,691. But the charges against, the, fund were—for surveys, £59,92 d; * thirds , to local bodies, £18,159; rates payable on Crown lauds, £11,684; with other statutory charges amounting to £2153; total expenditure, £121,916. If, .therefore, the total land fund yielded £87,000, and it. was chargeable with £121,000, how could it bolster up the revenue?" It was expected by the late Minister of Lands that the deficit on the land fund account would be abouo made up by the end of the present financial year. It may be true, as Mr. MoKenzie states, that the Government will have "considerable difficulty in keeping up the revenue." But if this is the case, it will be no fault of their predecessors. Their chief work during the past three years was to restore the finances from the state of confusion in which they weref left by the Government of which Mr. Ballanob was a member. When they retired from office they were to point to the flourishing and healthy condition into which the finance had been raised. We <ian only hope that when the time comes for a change of Government the .financial condition of the colony wilt be in a more flourishing condition still. In the meantime the Minister of Lands would do well to set about the task of making himself acquainted with a few of the leading facts in connection with our finances. As the Daily Times points out, "it is no doubt creditable to Mr. John MoKbnzib tbat he should desire to dissooiate land Bales from revenue, tyit? be is, unfortunately for him, exactly 5 eleven yearri too late." The separation was effected by Sir Harry Atkinson in 1881, maiuly in consequence of the overwhelming difficulty which overtook- the colony in consequence of Mr. Ballasob's attempt to " bolster up' , the ordinary revenue by the assistance of cash .sales of land., Mr. Bal&ancb's finance was based on the assumption that laud sale?, would contribute over a million to the Cohsoli* dated Fund,-and about three-quarters of a million to the Public Works Fund. This scheme for the wholesale alienation of the Crown lands for cash broke down utterly, and when the Hall Government came into office they fonrid themselves face to face with a deficit of nearly a million sterling.