Capt. Russell on Finance.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 166, 23 July 1896, Page 2

Capt. Russell on Finance.

» Opening the debate upon the Financial Statement on Tuesday, Captain Russell said he proposed to take a -retrospective view of the state of the country in the years occupied by the' present' regime on' tho Treasury benches, and pointed to the fact ,that Mr Ballance had initiated the system of deriving money fiom sinking funds, which had been followed by Mr Ward. The policy of selfreliance and non-borrowing had never beon adverted to. Going back to the time of the first Financial . Statement' delivered' by Mr Ballance, Captain Russell pointed out that it was delivered two months after the" Atkinson ' Administration left office, and showed a surplus of £143,965, which- was a genuine exhibition of the actual excess cf revenue over expenditure resulting from the, operations of the Atkinson Government. He quoted figures which he claimed showed that tho finance was fairly strong and sound wbon thfpresent regime took office, and so satisfactoryiyere the finances that Mr . Ballance' was '-.able to state that there was no, necessity for the colony to rely on the, foreign money-lender. His Government adopted the -motto of " Self-reliance and non-borrowing," but he (Captain Russell) claimed that this really belonged to their p'redccosso'rs ; in office, viz., the Atkinson Ministry. Ho traced the various financial operations of the present regime, and said that in 1893,. the cry. was still; " self-reliance," but -.in/^fia'tj. year. - several: schemes were brought -down', which Ministers claimed would, be/ self-supporting, but which, he contended, really meant borrowing. Up to 1893 the Government- had.- lived on ' their predecessors and on the conversion of loans. In 1895 the administration pf the Government began to bear fruit, and tho Colonial Treasurer had to devise several means of raising money, including increased taxes through the Customs, on the necessaries of life. Non-resident commercial' travellers and native lands also came in for taxation, and in addition the local bodies' sinking funds were seized. Coming to the present year, - Captain Russell . Baid the savings of their i predecessors were all - exhausted, and the sinking funds were practically all gone. This was why the Government had to borrow a million, as proposed in the statement, and it meant that an extra L 35.000 would have to be annually wrung from the taxpayers to pay the interest. Jobs, blunders, and harassment had been the retrospect of the past five years, and so far as he could see the outlook was cheerless. Referring to the national debt, he pointed out that the annual increase during the- la3t Atkinson Government was L 482,324- while the annual increase during the term of the BallanceSeddon Governments "was L 919.363. There >vas now a steady decrease in our two principal sources of revenue— viz., customs aud railways— which- showed that the oitrepeated statement that the Government had a strong finance was entirely misleading. He quoted extensively from figures in support of his contention.' Ho admitted that there was au increase in the customs revenue . last year, but contended that was due to the - increased jaxation imposed last session. As to the railways he said that taking into consideration the new payments for the earriago of mails," Government officials, etc.,' the railway revenue last year was £30,000 less than in 1893. He condemned, this practice of debiting one department with the expenditu-.o of another, which was done apparently, to swell the revenue. The Financial Statement of this year proved that the contention he had always held that the finances were. weak was a correct one, for it showed that the ' whole scheme of Ministerial finance had brokeu down and that their policy had proved of no avail. Had it not been for the seizure of the sinking funds and the use of the Land Fund there would have been, a deficit this year of £26,246, which show-'d that the colony was spending considerably more than it could afford. He strongly denounced the seizure of the sinking funds, which he characterised as a most immoral proceeding and one that mjjgtland the colony in financial disaster lia^the- end. There was one proposal in the Budget which he hoped the House would view with the greatest suspicion: it was to abolish tho sinking funds in connection with the Advances to Settlers loan.