The Colonial Treasurer at Oamaru.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 2749, 16 June 1894, Page 2

The Colonial Treasurer at Oamaru.

A POLICY SPEECH.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

OAMAEU, June 15.

The Hon. the Colonial Treasurer addressed a large meeting in tbe PabJio Hall here tonight, and met with a very favourable reoeption. ' In the course ot his address he sail up to the end of this year tbe annual saving of interest made by the Government was £141,000. He made special referenoe th the balancesheet of the colony's revenue and expenditure issued by tbe Auckland National Association, and said that the balance-sheet was totally misleading, for be asserted, that instead of a deficit of £803,000 there had been a surplus of .£283,000. Referring to tbe subject of protection, he said he was not in favor of retaliatory measures, but he might say that he had ' learned that the other colonies intended to still further inoreaee tbe barriers that had been raised against j tbeir produce, and it was tbe duty of tbe Government- to take some measures to protect tbe people of this colony. ■He referred to the subjeot of land settlement, and said that Mr MoKeozie bad put over 7000 people on the land since he took office. On the subject of cheap money, he 'said the oolony's prosperity to a great extent depended on a sufficiency of money] and if money was withdrawn tbere was, a want of prosperity. The ' Government intended that .the colony's prinoipal in* dußtries would not languish for want of money, and cheap money too. These proposals are not revolutionary, and would not hurt the financial institutions of tbe colony, but he could not at that time disclose tbe nature of the Government's proposals. He would have to exercise discretion in regard to some matters, and th9y would have to waic till tbe Financial Statement waß made to learn tbe details of the Government's intentions, A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr Ward.