Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1895 SLY BORROWING.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1895, Page 2

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1895 SLY BORROWING.

The oharge made against the co\otty of Bly borrowing ia unfortunately too truo. The people are apt to bo gulled by statements of surpluses and monoys carried to credit of Public Works Fund. It may bo well to state what wo have done with some of our borrowed money. Up to the end of March last we had borrowod during the years IS9I04 no less a sum than .£1,530,568, which was a very good sum for threo yoars' administration of a non-borrowing Ministry, and it was done slyly. Thus onr Pnblio Works. Fnnd would have Vanished long ago had it not been that again slylyborrowed money has been paid into it. Evou during tho past financial year we have paid into it £54,681 of Sinking Funds, and thus increased our debt by that amount. The total sums paid in during four yoars to tho Public Works Fund from this sourcereleased Sinking Funds-is .£541,240 ! The boast that we are carrying on publio works ! out of revenue is pnrefndge, and can only bo believed by persons who are ignorant of our finance and pnblio accounts. Even if our surpluses wero not made up by borrowed moneys nndor tho Debenture Stook Act of 1884—whioh they are, for last finanoial year wo borrowed jeil?,800, and tho year before £284,000—still our Publio Works Fund has had to depend on borrowod moneys outBido our bogus surpluses. It is, as wo have said, impossible to check the statements made by the Premier regarding the exponditnre or revenue during tho past year until the accounts are published. We know that outside revenue proper the Consolidated Fund must have got somo aid. We notice a small amount of .£4500 was transferred from tho Cheviot account for an amount formerly paid by tho Consolidated Fund on account of Cheviot. Whethor tho Cheviot account oan afford that payment remains to be seen, but we Bupposo overy little paymeut was seised to mako a " surplus." We havo to wait until the accounts are publishod to sco how the last quarter's revenue Was increased. The quarterly accounts ought by law to havo been in the Auditors hands on tho 14th April. Have they been placed there? If co they ought to bo audited now, as wo have a system of control, and if audited they ought to be published in tho Gazotto. Were this done the public would be informed how the revenue during the last quarter has boen swelled up. But, however that feat has been accomplished, wo need not as a colony imagine that wo have got on without borrowing either for tho Consolidated Fund or Pub. lie Works Fund. Both have been aided by sly borrowing, and wo have given somo figures to show it.