NEW SOOTH WALES POLITICS.

Evening Star, Issue 12164, 7 April 1904, Page 6

NEW SOOTH WALES POLITICS.

1 THE BRINK OF'DISASTER. £18,000,000 OF DEBT IN FOUR YEARS. MR CARRUTHERS'S OPTIMISM. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, April 7. (Received April 7, at 10.32 aan.) A conference under the auspices of the Liberal and Reform Association was convened for the purpose of putting the final touches to the Liberal platform for the forthcoming campaign. Mr Carruthers (Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly), president, said that it was an admitted fact that the indebtedness of the State during the Ministry's four years of office had been increased by seventeen or eighteen millions. The Government had flooded the local and English markets with Treasury bills, and they were now borrowing at pawnshop rates. The State had been brought to the brink of national disaster, from which it had been saved, not by the prudence of the Government, but by the prudence of those who would not lend more money until the colony had mended its ways. The future was still pregnant with difficulties. During the next nine years the redemption of no less than £26,000,000 of loans would have to be arranged. He, however, took an optimistic view of the colony's recuperative powers if their resources were only properly developed, but tie liberals must fight against the creation of class £rmkg^aad^i»Jg^£^