The Press. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1899. THE PREMIER AND MORE BORROWING.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10262, 3 February 1899, Page 4

The Press. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1899. THE PREMIER AND MORE BORROWING.

; The Premier's speech at Greymouth, i which we are informed was of the usual I dreary length of three hours, contained ] nothing very new. It is true that a fresh excuse was given for the attempt, which failed, to exclude the Dalmatians. If the Premier had any sense of humour, we should imagine he was poking fun at ins audience. The. Dalmatians are, it is said, "trained soldiers, who kept up their "drill on Sundays (I), and if there was " a war with Austria they would bar* to

"be reckoned with.", Wβ hope for the sake of the reputation of New Zealand that such humbug will not be pxiblisbed out of the colony. Dread of <T rupture with Austria led to the Premier attempting to exclude the.Dalmatians! It is so absurd that laughter is thAbest comment that can be made on it.

The most of the speech, judging by the report in the local paper, was made up of extracts from Blue Books about the increase of population, and of our exports and imjßrts. We hope for the sake of the reputation of the Premier for that the reporter has mixed his figures, for if they were given as reported they are false and misleading. For example, it is gravely stated the increase of population in 1897-98 was 115, ! We must assume that the wearisome . length of the harangue has prevented the reporter from accurately recording what was said. Even if the figures are not for one year they are incorrect. Let us take another subject dealt with by the Premier, namely, gold. The export of gold in 18.91 was £1,007,172; in 1897 only £980,204. In 1890 our total exports of New Zealand, produce was £9,428,761 ; in 1897 only £7,596,267. There is not much room for boasting here. The figures given in the local Press will not stand examination, and it is only charitable to suppose tne Premier has been misreported. He "could hardly have ventured to so mislead the Greymouth residents as the report of his speech makes out. The only point in his speech worth referring to-is that in which he stated' the future intentions «f the Ministry. He has no policy save borrowing. He is reported as having said: —"He intended ' to go on increasing the public debt, as "it proved to be for the benefit of the "colony. Although the debt was in- " creased, the taxation was not, owing to " the fact that the money was devoted to " reproductive works and land purchases." We may deal with the excuse for the "more borrowing" policy first. Mr. iSeddon says the taxation has not increased. Is this true or false ? We prefer when the veracity of the Premier is challenged to quote from a book that bears on its titlepage, the following announcement, "Pre-

" pared under instructions from the Bight "Hon. R. j; Seddon, P.C., Premier.' At page 403 of the New Zealand' Official Year 800k,_1898, a.' table is given of the amount of revenue raised by taxation, and we quote it at length: — Amount of re- ' Amount per venue raised head of poby taxation. pulation, excluding Maoris. * £ £ s. d. 1885 • ... 2,016,730 3 10 10 1890 ... 2,173,985 3 10 0 1895-96 ... 2,335,761 3 7 1 1896-97 ... 2,521,911 3 11 0 1897-98 .... 2,678,576 3 13 11 The figures speak for themselves. Did Mr. Seddon. know of these figures when he spoke at Greymouth ? , If he did, what can anyone say df his veracity? It is humiliating to this colony to have as its' chief citizen one who could stoop to make such misstatements. But let us look at what these figures show. The increase of taxation from 1885 to 1690 was in these five years but £157,255; in-the next five—Mr. Ballance being Premier half the time—the increase was £161,776, but in the two years when Mr. Seddon held sway the increase -of taxation wsS £342,815. Or to put it another way, the average increase per year was, from 1886 to 1890 £31,451, from 1890 to 1895 £32,355, but under Mr. Seddonte regime during the past ten years the annual increase has been £171,405, more than five times what it was under previous Ministries. And yet Mr. Seddon has the unblushing effrontery to tell the people in Greymouth that taxation has not increased. He used to say that though it had increased, the increase of population had lowered the increase per head. The table shows the contrary. It is now £3 13s lid, the highest per head it*has been since 1883. If, therefore, the excuse for more borrowing is the decrease in

taxation, the excuse does not exist.

The fact is that-Mr.- Seddon has no policy to propose. He never had any. His old age pension scheme was suggested to him in a report by Dr. Macgregor; the Labour Bills were iiot his. Can anyone name anything that he has suggested? He falls back on that last resort of the discredited politician, and he wants to borrow more money. He boasts they have spent over a million on roads, and tells the West Coast settlers they have not been forgotten, and he wants more money to distribute. He has not ventured to say what the amount of his new loan will be.' It will just be as large as he thinks the Parliament and the voters will agree to. He will carefully feel the pulse of the electorates and of representatives, and if he thinks he can carry a big loan that will be proposed, but if he imagines he can- carry a small loan better he will.be accommodating, and a. small loan will be proposed. \ He will run no risk to his position , by proposing anything that is not popular with a majority. Reading:*, between the lines of his speech we can "see he would dearly . like to propose a big loan policy, but he is timid, and he is in the various districts. he is visiting sending up "trial balloons" marked "More Borrowing" to see how the people receive the proposal. We notice that he said that, the interest on the debt had decreased, hence, though we had bordered, we had less interest to pay. This is very misleading. ~ The change in the system of dealing with the drawing, loan makes our interest appear to be less. But how our interest has mounted up under Mr. Seddon's regime may' be seen from this other extract from the New Zealand Official Year Book, 1888, page 396:— '■ /" /;■■.:■': •'.■: ■;":•;;■■•■ ■~ ", V; Interest. 1895 ... " ... £1,619,925 1896 v ... >: ..i 1,602,933 * 1897 — ... 1,630,577 1898 ... ... 1,668,697 Unless there is a strong public feeling jagainst the increase of our debt, the increase of interest we have to pay to the foreign bondholders will go 4 on. .Is there never to be an end of the increaee of our public debt V Not so long, must be the reply, as Mr. Seddon has any influence in New Zealand politics. .