Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1893.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 23, 27 July 1893, Page 2

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1893.

THE PUBLIC WORKS FALSIFICATION. The Premier has. been pained. If the pain had been inflicted wantonly, unjustly, or improperly, wo shonld sympathise nith him. But punishment necpssaiily involves tho infliction of paiu, phynioal or uieutal; and when tho punishment has beon deserved , and is inflicted justly, tho wrong-doer is entitled to no pity on account of tho pain he endures. Mr. Seddon's conduct in regard to tho Public Works Statement of last session thoroughly merited far more severe punishment than any yet inflicted upon him. We have therefore no sympathy for him under Iho pain ho professos to havo suffered. His endeavours ro brazen ont his offence his apparent inability to recognise its enormity, and tho bad form iv whioh ho has accepted tho sharp correction administered, oxcito feelings very far removed from either respect or pity. Mr. Siddon is studiongly endeavouring to avoid the real i6sue, and to coiifueo judgment by the introduction of extraneous matter. He tries to make it appear that the error he committed was merely one in the figures of a table attached to the Public Works Statement, that the departmental officers wore the persons responsible for tho error, and that it was detected and correoted almost immediately after tho Statement was delivered. Mr. Seddon's offence was far greater than this. The charge sheeted home to him is not so much that he made a mistake, or was led into ona by his officers, as that he traded on the falao figures, and continued to claim tho crodit which thny mado it appear his Government was entitled to, aftor tho falsity of tho grouud of the chum was demonstrated. ■ ccepting to the full his assertion, borne out by the evidence of his TJnder-Secretary , that an error of .£95.523 was made in tho original figures regarding tho loan expenditure of 1891-2, it might not be unreasonable to suggest that a Minister of Publio Works who does not kuo.v tho ospondituro of the year within nearly *100,000 is not quite a safe man to bo entrusted with tho administration of such a department. But there is no need to enlarge on that view. It is evident that Mr. Seddon did not know tho correct figures, and that none of his colleagues woro sufficiently acquainted with tha publio finances to detect such a palpable error. He and they seized on the inoorrect figures as tho foundation of the following paragraph in the Pnblio Works Statement :— " For tho pur. " pose of showing how the ' tapering-off ' " polioy, succeeded by tho self-reliant nonborrowing policy, has affected our public works expenditure during the last few " years, I give tho following figures, wbioli " represent tho total expenditure under the Publio Works Fund during each of the " years mentioned, and which bear eloquent " testimony to the solf-sacrifioing spirit " exhibited by our colonists in accepting with thorough goodwill the decreased ex. " penditure which that policy has entailed " and which also afford tho fullest evidence ■ of the resources and capabilities of tho '• colony, seeing that, notwithstanding this " enormous diminution in our loan expondi- " ture, tho country is becoming year by " year more prosperous, and its financial " position steadily improving. The figures " showing the loan expenditure during the " several years are as follows, nttmelv "1885-86, .£1,475,880; 1886.87, £1,333,484; "1887-88, .6966,159; 1888-89, i 813,939 "1889-90. .£482,464; 1890-91 £334 756 : " 1891-92, .£295,978." This laudatory para! graph, so caloulated to place tho Government in a good light before the people, was telegraphed by the Government all over the oolony. Printed copies of the Statement containing it were placed upon the table of the Honse and circulated. The error in the

Urines for ISO! 02 was, the Untlcr-^ecro-tmv -.Ui-. apuetlilv iiolioeil and tlio fip;iiiPK Jt^il'i'.lTS uei'O iiUoiwl to ioUl.oOl in tlie U-ianeo of tho copies of the I'nlilic Worka Statement whioh ienuini'il to be printed, but no correction \vn- pent to tho newspapers throughout tlio colour to whom tho falso figures had boon supplied; no attention was drawn to the error or correction by tlio Minister in tho Hou=o, tind ovon when the error \\n<* pointed ont by Mr. Ricuabdson and Mr. JlircicrLbON". no Ministerial admission, eorroction, or t'X] la:, i irrn was in ulo. Tho paragraph wo l:.i\e quotu'l, bifcil as it was ou tho falso figniet, was allowed to remain in the Statement, and to po forth m Hnusard, bcarinfr its " clofiuent" but lying testimony to a stivto of tlmign for which tho Government claimed credit, although it wns uon-oxistcnt. It is true tlio figures were altered in Hansard, but the argument based on tlio incorrect iigurcb was left as originally printed. The correct figure*, of course, put an en i to the claim of tapering oft, for they showed that the o\licnilitnro ot 1801-2 was isG,<tTi in oice^s of that of tho previous year—a somonhiit singular " tapcrin?; off." Had tho MiuUtor of ii Jüblio Works acted in a perfectly straightfoward way, ho would havo cancelled and publicly withdrawn tho wholo paragraph. Instead of that, lie allowed it to remain unoontradictod, and ho and his Governuiont liavo continued to appropriate tho political capital arisin-r from the false claim it made. It is almost impossible to believe that the error was not brought to his notice by tho oflicers responsible tor making it If it was not, then Ins ignorance of tho Publio Works finance, and the disorganisation of his department, must bo much greater than tho making of tho original error even would lead people to suppose. Of couiso, in the corrected vorsions of tho Statomont a very careful study of tho figures would show that they did not bear out, but really contradicted, tho text they woro given to illustrate. }snt how many people outsido of Parliament inako such a study f Nineteen out of every tweiity who read tho words would not tioublo to compare tho detailed figures. '1 liey w onld accept tho deductions con turned in the Statement. Ninety-nino out of every hundred of tho fjciioral publio would derive thoir knowledgo on the subject solely from the Statement supplied officially to the preos of tlio colony, and published in almost every now-,-paper next day. In this both iijrurei and words woro false, but no correction wan supplied when Uio crt or was discovered by the i'uljlic Works Department. Tho action of th« Clovrriiw 'lit m this matter, in claiming credit on falao grounds, is unfortunately parallel with thoir conduct in unblusbingly asserting throughout tho recos3 that they had reduced tho publio dobt—a false statement persevered in, notwithstanding tho clearest evidoticc of its untruth, almost up to the moment when Mr. Wahd told tho truth in tho Financial Statement, and tltamcd -let us say his colleagues—by admitting that tho debt had boen incieasod. In legard to this Public Works misslatement tlio error in roßaul to tho figures is only a nv'uor one. Tho Undei'-Socrotary han sufficiently explained ?iow it occurred. Tlio Public Ac counts CommiliiOo therefore has roallv nothing to enquire into. Tho gravamen of tho charffo ngiinst Sir Sreoov i 3 beyond its functions to deal with Tho error is patent, \\lmt ho is justly censured for ia the deceptive and disingenuous uso made of the orror, and the failure to givo a publicity to the correction equal to that which had been eiibured for tho false statement, to the great misleading and deception of the public.