The Trail of the Serpent. etc.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1361, 21 May 1895, Page 3

The Trail of the Serpent. etc.

( Wellington Post.) Our readers do not forget that the public rate Mr Seddon’s power of memory very low, and his powers of imagination very high. We have also had an example of the lack of memory of the Hon. Mr M‘Keuzie—what he said at Woodville he forgot when ho reached Wellington. But for the most marvellous loss ot memory, and the most vivid imagination, we think the palm must be awarded to the Hon, Mr Ward. Jf the cablegrams were correct, he has told the Loudon Chamber of Commerce that the colony of New Zealand has £3,000,000 worth of unpledged securities in London ready to be operated upon in the case of a ciisis. Such a statement is entirely without foundation. We must assume he never said it. It must be that, like the Woodville reporters, the London reporters have misunderstood what our Treasurer said. Uo our readers wish to know what securities we hold? We shall inform them. We had in all £1,306,400 of New Zealand Government debentures issued under the Consolidated Stock Act, 1884; we had £20,000 of Wellington-Manawatu Railway debentures ; we had £9OOO of Oaraaru Gas bonds ; we hadj £33,400 of Uamaru Harbor Board bonds; we had £BOO,OOO of Government debentures guaranteed by the Imperial Government; in all, £2,168,800 not £3,000,000. Mr Ward is simply nearly £1,000,000 out. So raucli for his imagination, But that is not the worst of it. Cut of all this sum of £2,168,000 only £476,000 is held free for the Consolidated Fund. The balance is held for the Post Office, for the Public Trustee, for the Sinking Fund Commissioners, for the Government Insurance. To get even this £476,000 free he had to issue £476,000 Treasury Bdls. What a gross misrepresentation, therefore, to say that.there were £3,000,000 of unpledged securities. It is not true ; it is not near the truth. If our readers will refer to the returns 810 and B2D in Volume 1 of the Appendices ot the House of Representatives they will see a statement of the securities held in London and held by the various Departments. Unless the Treasurer means that securities held by the Government Insurance, for example, are unpledged, these securities were not unpledged. Further, we doubt if these Government J.O.U.’s would have bom saleable in a crisis. It is mere ‘ blow,’ therefore, to say we had £3,000,000 unpledged securities. We held in London only £2,168,800, and of these only £476,000 belonged to the Consolidated Fund and were unpledged. The reason why they were redeemed by £476,000 of Treasury Bills was that it was not safe to have nothing in London that could, if the need arose, be pledged to get an overdraft from ■the Bank of England. How can our readers accept any statement by Mr Ward if the report published in the cablegram is correct? ft is that by companionship he also acquired a vivid imagination, and lost the power of memory, or is it that the trail of the serpent is over them all ?