TELEGRAMS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 9

TELEGRAMS

(PRBSS ASSOCIATION.) INCREASING THE COST OF LIVING GOVERNMENT CRITICISED. I DUNEDIN, Ist May. '. Th© present Government was going^ to reduce the cost of living, and how. had it done that? asked Sir Joseph Ward in his address at Mosgiel to<night. What had it done? Instead of decreasing duties upon ordinary articles of consumption, ' according to the "Year Book," it had increased them by 3.19 per cent. The present Government had for eighteen years disputed every amount the , Liberal party had at the ending of the year by way of surplus, and a large proportion of the newspaper press had 'taken up the same a/ttrtude. Sir Joseph Went on to quote at length from a prospectus issued by the present Go-, vernment in London on the floating of the last loan, and pointed out that what was contained there was the , result of legislation and administration by the Liberal Governiaent. The present Government showed in this document that £928,000 had been transferred to the Public Works fund since 1891; that there had been an increase in population of 280,000, that there was> an increase in land under cultivation c' 2,160,000 acres, an increase in horses of 20.000, of cattle 20,000, of sheep 3,700,000, an increase in railway revenue of £2.150,000, in imports to £14,000,000, in exports to £12,300,000, in cheese £1,400,000, and in butter £1,300,000. They said further that land values had increased by £23,000,000, that deposits in the ordinary banks had in' creased by £23,000.000 and deposits in the Savings Bank by £12,300,000. All these statistics were given to show the prospeKius condition of the country, and if they had listened to the present Government they would have thought that ifc was impossible. For all this, it had used what the Liberals had done to get a loan on satisfactory terms.