THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 110, 10 May 1895, Page 2

THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

The Gazette issued last night contains many returns and figures, bu' not those most anxiously looked for —tho Public Accounts for the last financial year and the last qnarter of that year. It cortainly has not been the custom of the present Administration to publish those accounts as required by law, but we were justified in hoping that a reform was to be effeoted this year, for did not the Ministerial organ recently condemn the practice of keeping back those returns nntil Parliament meets, as " sonsoless and idiotic " on the part both of the Government and the Treasury, and intimate that the law was likely to bo complied with this year P It appears, however, that Mr. Seddon is afraid to allow the alleged surplus to be too closely examined. Ho wants to make all tho political capital he can out of the alleged totals before he furnishes the detailed figures whioh would Bhow that tho items really add up quite differently. He prefers to continue the practice which bis own organ considers " sonseless and idiotic," and which is cortainly illegal, to a bold and straightforward course in placing before tho public the details of the financial position. Perhaps it was at one time intended to publish the accounts. Mr. Seddon is not muoh of a financier, and it is within the bounds of possibility that he actually believed what he was told about there being a surplus. If so he would, of course, bo anxions to make public the details. Evidently, howover, he has discovered how doing so would oauso the surplus to vanish into tbin air, and so the former " senseless and idiotic" practice is to be continued by the Treasury and the Government. The public can draw their own conclusions. I