WELLINGTON NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1373, 20 August 1895, Page 5

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] FAIR FIGHTING is what a fair minded Britisher believes in. But for one contestant to wear gloves and the other party bare knuckles would be ruled out of court under any recognised rules of the P.R. Yet, metaphorically, this is the game being played in Parliament just now. The Treasurer brought down his budget last Tuesday week, and it was agreed that a full' Week was to elapse before discussion ; so'that members might digest it. The. 1 'time proved altogether too shbrt for any one to assimilate the incoherent, thass into their systems. The combination of increased debt, alleged savings of interest, involved problems concerning drawing bonds and mysterious dealings with' the Savings Bank funds were more than enough for one debate, but to these were added complicated reciprocity treaties with two other countries and the tariff revisions into the bargain. Seeing that members are confined to one hour’s speech on important debates, they had to study how they could condense their matter to keep within bounds before the debate commenced. A new surprise was in store for them when the ball was opened. Vlr Ward had occupied nearly two hours delivering himself of his budget a week before, and it was generally understood that he had had his innings and that, according to custom, Captain Russell would follow. Mr Ward, during the intervening week, had considered his own production, had seen' the press comments from all parts of tlxo colony, and found that the his party were antagonistic to of his sentiments. And Mr Ward, like other ministers, is always amenable to a change of sentiments, to conform with the party which keeps him in power; and, finding that his budget was received with murmurs and even loud expressions of dissent, to say nothing of a probable burst up of the Liberal party he took upon himself to deliver A SECOND VOLUME of the budget with notes, addenda and corrections by the author. If it were not so serious a matter for the taxpayers, the position is very comical, and the position is this: —Government has got very deeply into the mire, and it must be conceded that soap is wasted on a man who requires scraping with a bit of hoopiron. Yet this is what the 1 ministry has brought itself to. Mr Ward, one week after he delivered his budget, proceeded to give an entirely new set of figures to explain the unexplainable; figures professing to show how he had manufactureda balance sheet showing the interest on 41 millions was less tfym on 39 millions, and as his speech was a perfect whirlwind of rapidly recited figures impossible to note or follow, Captain Russell naturally asked that these new figures should be printed and distributed among members before discussing the new aspect of affairs. To this reasonable request Mr Ward airily replied “Oh, dear no, I decline to supply my private notes to the Opposition.” . Private notes, forsooth ! They are mere extracts from the books of the Treasury, and every representative of every constituency of the colony has as much right to know every item as Mr Ward or any other Cabinet Minister. If his figures are above criticism, he need fear no criticism ; if they are too ominous or too dangerous to be printed then the charge of crpokedness is sustained, and this was further proved on the following evening, when Air Seddon, in replying to Sir Robert Stout, followed on the ; same lines by repeating his braggart ttfetaph.br that he would refuse to supply ammunition in the shape of returns to the Opposition. The’ said Opposition made a tactical mistake when the Treasurer refused to print these figures. Without them they were powerless to comment on the amended budget, and, to criticise them with any thoroughness a. few days consideration was necessary for the extraction of the pure metal of truth, for Mr Ward’s finance is very much akin to a laboratory analysis of a refractory specimen of quartz with a large proportion of ' / BASE METAL IN IT, [ ' and if the Opposition had played the same game as Seddon and Co, delight to indulge in, they would, on refusal of the Treasurer’s new figures, have left the House in a body, with the protest that, as all endeavors on their part as guardians of the public purse had failed, they would throw the onus of the budget and all its misleading figures, and contradictions and anomalies on the Government; and then the Cabinet with all its majesty of bluff and effrontery must have given way or gone down to future history as a disgraced and disgraceful administration. But, in .spite of the refused ammunition thecr’ Opposition brought a gun or two to bear on the fortifications which now prove to be of the weakest character when the artillery is aimed at the assailable points. The first breach: was opened by Mr Mitchelson, vpho put in a very useful hour in knocking down the surplus and nonborrowing boasts, and he gave the Premier a nasty jar about his assertion last year that a number of people in the colony were hoarding up sovereigns in old stockings and tea pots, which would find their way into the New Consols for investment. The Treasurer came in for a fusillade both from Mr Mitchelson and Mr Duthie, and the budget figures so carefully compiled to mak;e the balancesheet show that the colony was sound and its progress sUhstahtial-fratl' the false veil ruthlessly torn,,aside,,.the surpluses were shown to be deficits and the alleged saving of interest of over £216,000 a falsity and a fraud, and the real state of things to be that the addition to our annual interest charges for last year is £68,000 and the increase of our debt since the present non-borrowing, selfreliant Liberal administration undertook to regenerate the colony, abolish the social pest and confer independence, prosperity and cessation of taxation from the “pore working man” the debt has increased by the mere trifle of £3,322,259. They, that is the crew who despite these disclosures, still stick to the SKULL AND CROSS BONES on the piratical flag of sham Liberalism at the masthead of their ship, now excuse themselves by going back into history 5, 10 and 12 years, forgetting to explain that in those days borrowing was done openly and above board. Of course all this is very disingenuous and, indeed, dishonest, but, so far as debate is concerned, the big gun which was expected to be most destructive was Sir Robert Stout, who is not allied to the Opposition but runs a show of his own. For lucid argument, clear grasp of figures, honest desire for the welfare of the country, and in this case a smashing denunciation of the quibbles of the Treasurer the senior member for Wellington can simply play with the whole House as if members were so many marionettes. In opening his speech he regretted being bound down to one hour in which to speak on the financial statement, the new” figures quoted by the Treasurer, the two reciprocity treaties, the loans, the tariff, and all the surrounding questions, and he protested against having to do all this

without certain financial returns which had not yet been furnished to the House, although ordered, and to certain pertinent questions asked but not yet answered. He briefly but cleverly exposed the quibbling in the Budget, item by item, showing how conversions of loans had been effected to the detriment of the colony for the sake of securing immediate cash at an enormous future cost. How in their extremity, Ministers had converted such a trifling sura as a portion of the Canterbury loan of £IOOO for which they had to substitute a new debt of £1250. How he was justified in using the “nasty word seizure,” which the Treasurer was so much offended at, from the fact that the Loans to Local Bodies Act provided that the Sinking Fund was to be devoted to extinguishing the debt in 26£ years ; yet Government had issued debentures against them, and if this were continued there would be no Sinking Fund at the end of the term. That was why he had said that these funds had been taken illegally, improperly, and without warrant. That is what he meant by seizure; and the truth of this explanation was so evident to members that applause came from all quarters of the House. The ridiculous statement in the Budget that our borrowed money was earning a profit was shown to be untrue by a contradictory sentence in the Budget itself, and then Sir Robert sailed into the question of whether Government had A SURPLUS OR A DBFIOIT last year. Figures, said he, could be made to prove anything, and he would show how either statement was true. If the actual revenue of the colony (eliminating borrowed money) were put against our actual expenditure for last year, there was a clear deficit of £229,194, but if borrowed money was reckoned as revenue it was quite right to say there was a surplus of LIBO,OOO. He went on to show how onr railway earnings had fallen to L2 14s 6d per cent., although they were credited with a guess-work subsidy of L 38,500 for postal services; how the cost of raising the million and a-half loan was mis-stated, inasmuch, as the interest we had to pay on it started from April Ist, although the money was not paid by the lenders till July and August. The finishing touch Sir Robert gave the Treasurer was a masterpiece even for him. Holding up the budget he said “I shall prove to the House that the Treasurer has not read the Canadian Tariff.” A SENSATION was apparent all over the House and galleries, and then, facing the Treasurer, he went on: “He does not know anything about the Canadian Tariff which he, has asked us to accept.'’ The Treasurer here rose and said he knew the Canadian Tariff from end to end. Then Sir Robert with only ten minutes of his hour left showed how Mr Ward had framed a reciprocity treaty and set the country by the ears on a list of customs’ duties in force in Canada in 1890, which had been entirely altered by a new tariff passed in 1894, which Mr Ward could never have seen, and which imposed entirely different duties on goods Mr Ward had so elaborately set forth in his budget proposals, among which binder twine is rated at 25 per cent., while the actual Canadian duty is 12| per cent., and some classes of wool set down as being liable to l£d per lb are free. Sir Robert finished with the significant remark that the budget was A TAXING BUDGET, a time serving, vote catching budget, and his time was up. The Premier followed, wrathful, fightable, and (to the surprise of everybody) scriptural. He commenced in solemn tones “ By their works shall ye judge them.” The House could not stand this sort of thing from the Premier, and it irreverently roared at him, and this brought out the old Adam in him, and he lost himself so far as to get into his old disregard of his H’s. He fired off an allusion to a previous debate and Sir Robert interjected “You broke your word.” The Premier appealed to the chairman who said the words were not in order: “Very well,” said the selfpossessed knight, “ I will say he gave a pledge and did not keep it,” to which Mr Seddon retorted the hon. member never kept a pledge and he then took refuge in figures relating to past history, and figures not being his forte, his speech was a thing which it would be well for him and the country if it were never printed. LOCAL GOVERNMENT. The members of the County Councils who are now in Wellington to attend the conference, are very much incensed at having been here for some days with no bill to discuss ; they consider that the Local Government Bill should have been circulated during the recess, so that the ratepayers might have had an opportunity of discussing its provisions. These country people forget that if ministers spent a few months in doing the work of the country by staying in Wellington and minding their business that they would not be able to “see the country” to the extent they have done, and banquets Would be fewer.