OUR TARDY CRITIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10598, 6 March 1895, Page 4

OUR TARDY CRITIC.

It is rather curious that it should have taken the London Times nearly six months to discover the true significance of the various proposals contained in Mr Ward’s last budget. The delay affords room for the suspicion that the great daily has gathered some of its opinions from people who have a special object just now in decrying the credit of the colony. There are. of course, a number of financiers in London who might expect to derive some substantial advantage from depressing New Zealand securities. The funds required for the application of the Treasurer’s cheap money and land purchase schemes will have to be obtained from these gentlemen, and it is very natural that they should wish to secure our debentures at the lowest possible price. Then there are the shareholders in the Bank of New Zealand, irritated by the recent call, the promoters of the Midland Railway Company and the Directors of several large financial institutions all labouring under the idea that they have a grievance against the present Government. Their combined influence is very great, and there is plenty of evidence, apart from the tardy utterance of the Times, to show that it baa been employed to some purpose against the object of their resentment. But when we come to examine the latest and most important attack upon the finances of the colony we can find nothing that is either new or particularly alarming. The Times repeats the old story of six millionshaving been added Co the liabilities of the colony, but is evidently somewhat doubtful about its own figures, and finally congratulates the Government upon its abstention from railway loans. The fact is, our contemporary has swallowed a great deal of financial inspiration on trust, and does not exactly understand the conclusions it offers for the acceptance of its readers. It takes the two million guarantee on behalf of the Bank of New Zealand, the sums to be raised for advances •to settlers, and the amount required for the purchase of lauds as so much added to the colonial debt, and then implies that the huge total is the foundation of Mr Ward’s “ recurring surplus.” We confess that we cannot follow financial jugglery of this sort, but it is reassuring to find that even the Conservative newspapers in our midst, which never lose an opportunity to throw discredit upon the Treasurer, are bound to admit that the Times has not, in this instance, made itself particularly clear.