Grey River Argus And Blackball News PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 30th, 1905.

Grey River Argus, 30 May 1905, Page 2

Grey River Argus And Blackball News PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, MAY 30th, 1905.

Me Seddon's address at Dunedin last week, mainly in reply to that of Mr Massey at the same place shortly before, was what might have been expected ; and although the Premier was accorded at the close of his speech a vote of thanks and confidence in himself and his Administration, it can scarcely be said that the explanations given are as satisfactory as were i looked for. Generally speaking, Mr j Seddon denied Mr Massey's allegations in every instance. It was the old, old story. Betweea the two sets of statements the public will find that they are no wiser than they were before the leader of the Opposition and the Premier made their speeches. As a matter of fact Mr Massey does not intend ' to allow the matters in dispiite to rest as they are at present, as he annennces that he will reply before the coming session to Mr Seddon's address at Dunedin. He intends to stand by all he said in his address, and will deal with such poritions of Mr Seddon's statements as are worth replying to. Mr Seddon's address appears to have been prepared with great care, especially in regard to the array of figures, which must have been a little bewildering to his hearers. It is very seldom, however, that the Premier tries to impress his audience withotit deluging them with a formidable array of statistics calculated to. show the good position of the colony and the blessed benefits of his Government in the most favorable light. But he was not always quite fair in his inferences and deductions. He drew an invidious comparison between the wretched position of the colony when his predecessors wej*£ in office and its . condition now. But he did not feel called upon to mention that the Ballance Ministry came into power at that most happy juncture just when the frozen meat and" dairy industries were , beginning to exercise a benign influence upon the affairs of the colony. This is not mentioned in any sense. by way of disparaging the energy and intentions that the Govex*nment are en- \ titled •■' to" lay claim to. Fortune ! favored them at an opportune time and they have enjoyed a flood tide ever since. Had Mr Seddon and Mr Ballance's predecessors been similarly ! foratnafce. there is very little doubt that they also would have been clearsighted enough to have advanced in correspondence with the flowing tide of prosperity that has so long and so remarkably favoured the present Administration. All natural products of ' the "colony flhave shown an mcreafsed * yield during the last 12 oi; 13 years— * «,;.'•■ meat, dairy produce, cereals, Max, s gum and gold. While the increases * jn these products should of themselves a assured prosperity, the colony has been * speridipg at the rate of a million and a a half of borrowed money every year, wMck also must have exercised y sfreat influence in stimulating and in- * creasing the trade and industry of the v colony. Add to this the effect of the * half million, surplus every year— aU ways siipposing it to be real — that lsas n been taken out of the pockets of the t people quite unnecessarily under the h specious plea of the Treasurer that it « is absolutely necessary to keep a o strong finance. Altkongh a good deal b >£ the 18 millions borrowed during the tl ast 12 years has teen spent in reiroductive directions, such as the ac- y luisition of land for settlement, there y s a strong opinion in many quarters a] h&t a good deal of it might have been tl jpe&b jjjpre advantageously than in tl rarchasing big' estates at fancy prices, fi t is--als.o kee«ly£e|t that the balance ri i the 18 millions hfcs nvb gW&Ti- ,. .us w he mileage in railways that ought .w airly to have been expected. On the T;

whole, therefore, it is a question ■whether t'e Government have always turned the excellent opportunities afforded them to the best advantage. The Premier ia a too much addicted to disparaging the ■vrork of others while belauding his own until the people have become weary of hearing those invidions comparisons. As is so often noticeable in Mr Seddon's public addresses, he referred rather contemptuously to the Railway Commissioners, and quite unfairly and altogether unnecessarily. He knowns as well as '.anybody that no board of Railway Commissioners could exercise the same powerslas.the Government can do. The Commissioners were compelled to run the railway out of the revenue of the service, while the Government are not compelled to do so. The Commissioners could not, in an emergency, do as Government has done, and will do whenever it' is deemed necessary, get a.vote of a few hundred thousand for purposes that ought to be met out'of the revenue, keeping up the apparent receipts of the railway of the colony. As for thebunkumlthat is talked of the people having the right to manage their own railways, they have no more hand in the management of the railways now than they had in the days of the Commissioners. As to the much-vexdd question of the Public Revenues Act and the auditing of departmental accounts, in respect to which Mr Massey and Mr Seddon flatly contradicted each other, it is difficnlt to pronounce; but we I have no j doubt whatever that the Public Revenues Act has been amended in a way that was not contemplated by the farmers of the original "Act It places altogether too much power in the hands of the Ministry of "the day and should either be re-amended or repealed and an altogether new Act introduced. In like manner the present mixed system of audit ought to be 'changed. We might ask why the colony Bet up an Audit Department if it was not to audit the public accounts instead of allowing several important departments of the public service to audit their own accounts simply because the officers of those departments said that they found it inconvenient to do so. Government' should either abolish the Audit Department or see that; it does the important work for which it was' originally called into existence. There can be no question that the powers ef the Auditor-General have been greatly curtailed of late years. But very few few of the Governments that have controlled the affairs of the colony, except the earlier ones, but have been more or less restive with whatever Controller was in office. As to the surplus, we believe with Mr Massey that there is some sort of a surplus, but that it is nothing like what is alleged. We cannot forget the statement credited to the late Auditor-General that he never knew of more tha* one genuine surplus in the colony. It . seems to us that by the way the public accounts are kept almost anything in the way of ajsurplusis possible. We cannot agree with Mr Seddon's condemnation|of the Civil Service Board. There is too much power of patronage altogether in the hands of Government. The Railway Commissioners were only appointed because the countrj and the Legislature were very much dissatisfied with the way patronage was exercised, and for a similar reason they are extremely dissatisfied at the way the power of patronage is used in the Civil Service, and nothing is ever likely to regulate that in a proper way but the appointments of an independent Board of Control. There is a good deal more in the address that might be referred to, but they are of minor importance. j . > ' i 1 < I 1 t * . . ;