NEWS FROM THE FRONT.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 471, 16 August 1898, Page 3

NEWS FROM THE FRONT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wellington, August 10.

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Whatever merits Mr Seddon mar yossess i- as a leader of men, he does not shiiie as a writer.of Budgets., The opening sentence of this year's effort is sufficient proof of this: — " In accordance with the announcement made ' last week, 'it gives me very great pleasure to place before you the much-enquired-after and longed-for Financial Statement." Double adjectives aie common enough with the Germans, but the Anglo-Saxon . people of a literary turn of mind judge an author by the judicious use of . that particular part of ■ speech and the fewer of them used the better. But our Cambridge doctor's orations and State papers would be shorn of all their ornate qualities were he to rely on sense rather than sound. This year's Statement is a much more acceptable one than that of 1897, inasmuch as it only extends over nine pages whereas its predecessor occupied 39. Moreover, it is confined to finance and flatulency while the other roamed over every imaginable subject from freights on produce to rhea fibre. This year, also, he condescended to read the Budget in place of . merely throwing it on the table. Members , on his own side of the House did not appear enraptured with the oratorical efforts of their leader. As a matter of fact, it had a' somniferous effect on some. The first to succumb was his own colleague sitting next to him. The hero of Bushy Park gave his preliminary nod just ten minutes after the Treasurer started; five minutes afterwards he was dreaming of Tory judges, or perhaps haggis. The next who was overcome was his namesake of Motueka ; then Mr Synie, in a very comfortable corner, caught the prevailing drowsiness, while Mr Graham took occasional spasmodic slumbers. The Opposition members looked as if they would be glad when the end of the performance came. So much for the manner : we will now analyse the matter. Nearly one-fourth of the Statement is occu- _ pied with the Treasurer's defence of 'his J finance, especially with respect to his " surplus " of £-521,000. He owns now that | " balance " would have been the correct word to use, and he owns also that the public debt has increased by £596,806 for the year. Now in any other country a Treasurer who could produce the anomaly of a surplus and a deficit (for the debt is nothing else) would be judged an oddity. But .Mr Seddon supplies us in the State document .with his own estimate of his financial ability. He says — " We have been often taunted that we know nothing of finance — not even the rudiments; but, although even an unsophisticated plodder in the intricate labyrinth of finance, I claim to know, at anyrate, how to keep on the right side' of the' ledger." To give color to this, and to show what muddlers all former Treasurers had been, he, gave a table of each year's- yearly results starting with 1871. This shows that there were annually recurring deficits up to 1891, when the Liberals took charge, and since then there has been a succession of ever-increasing surpluses. The table is nothing niore nor less than bogus, and it is a disgrace that such misleading figures should appear in the most important official statement of the year. The . r many changes in our system of finance have ,all been -ignored in order to make the comparison favorable. The land fund, for instance, which is now part of the ordinary revenue, went to a separate account prior to 1893. In other cases deficiency bills were paid off out of revenue, instead at, as now, , converted into permanent debt. Loan money, in some instances, has been taken off the surpluses of former Governments in this table so as to make a deficit, but nothing of ■ the sort is done with the figures since 1891. The altered methods of book-keeping with respect to the drawing loans also materially affect the issues, and, taken altogether, ' the table is a thing for any conscientious man to be heartily ashamed of.

, Coming to receipts and expenditure, the figures show how nearly correct Sir Bobert Stout was last session when he boldly predicted that the Treasurer's estimate of the revenue was under-estimated by a quarter of n million. At that time, 12th October, more than half the financial year had passed, and no great genius was required to guess what the year's income would be. As the event has turned out the revenue has been larger under every head; the total error in Mr Seddon's estimate being £286,238. This error was a deliberate one, and as the expen- • diture was £66,000 less than the estimate it j^yill be readily seen how the joint l^^sums went far to produce the "surplus." • These wilful miscalculations have prevailed ■iever since the Liberals came into power, the .only object being to throw dust in the eyes of , .the public, for Parliament is not deceived. ,-- t As to any remission of burdens through the Customs, Mr Seddon is indefinate — in fact, he is contradictory. He says, on this subject, " Under the item of tea, we have lost a reVenue of £75,000. Who has received the benefit ? Is it the consumer ? If I were to answer in the affirmative, by far the largest number of persons would say I was wrong, and that it was the middlemen who profited. N. 0% on- the broad lines of general policy, I submit that it would be unwise, impolitic and injurious to the colony to attempt to materially interfere with the tariff under existing conditions, and would be indefensible." Mr Seddon's jibe at the middleman on the tea question 'is based on his ignorance of the matter, but his views on the tariff question changed before the delivery of the Budget, for a couple of pages further on he remembers that he had orated largely at Jubilee time to London audiences on Imperialism, and so we find him shifting his ground as follows : — "Deference has already be 'made to the importnnt question of preferential duties on .goods manufactured in the Mother Country. I think the time has now come when we might with advantage make a substantial concession in the shape of granting, say, a remission of 5 per cent, of the duties now imposed on this class of goods. This remission, if made, will probably amount to £50,000." Mr Seddon is seldom consistent, but this is an amazing instance of advocating both sides at once. If the predatory middlemen absorbs the twopence per pound remission on tea, as he says, who will get the advantage of the 5 per cent on say* flannelette which is sold at 6d per yard. ■ Certainly the middleman will score here. Nor is it stated whether the duty is to be remitted on the landed cost of the goods or a>evely from the duty now collectable. If on' tne former, an invoice of goods now paying 25 per cent, duty would pay £20 in place of £25; in the latter the 5 per cent, classing would be 5 per cent on £25, i.e., £1 ss, which the importer and retailer would have have some difficulty in splitting up so as to give the consumer any benefit. If he desired »* to give relief he could do so by simply remitting the Jd per lb on sugar ; the consumer .. -.would get the direct benefit of, that at once, •-but by tinkering "with the .tangled web of ml ralorcm duties he is only playing into the hands and pockets of the middlemen, who know more of their business than Mr Seddon and all his Customs experts can tell him. BOBROWINO PItOPOSALR. "To unnecessarily borrow, to plunge, and squander must' inevitably land the colony in disaster. This emphatic language is not the bilious outpouring of a Conservativeskinflint, but is Mr Seddon's own. He proposes to " obtain," he cannot bring himself to use the word " borrow " yet, half a million. There was, at the end of the financial year, still £275,000 of the 1896 loan to be raised, and there will be at least £425.000 taken from the Consolidated Fund for public works, added to which was balance in-hand, £51,492. Out- , side public works there is to be spent £25,000 "each on harbor defence, Parliamentary buildings and hospitals. » The half-million does not represent the whole of the money it. is intended to " obtain "by loan. The provisions of the Advances to Settlers Act have been extended, so that another million and a half can be raised to distribute among State tenants and others. There is power given to borrow £50,000 for advances to dairies. There will be the usual blank cheque for any sum he likes to fill it in for to the Minister for Lands for purchasing estates. Altogether the programme is exactly as described in the Budget as what is should not be— one which pronoses "to borrow, to plunge, and to squander," more thad ever.

Mr W- G. Forbds, at one' time manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Mateura, died at St. Clair on Sunday last. The death was apparently sudden, as his brother (Mr J. A. Forbes, of Gore) had not received any intimation of illness. The late Mr Forbes, when at Mataura,. took a great interest in the defunct Southland Hussars (in which he held a commission), and in the progress of the township and district generally. Since leaving the Bank's service the deceased gentleman entered largely into mining speculations, and some of his ventures in connection with the dredging industry proved highly successful. Mr Forbes was the possessor of a handsome presence, a fcenrty manner, and a. genial disposition, and the news of his death will come as a shock to his many friends in this district.

Professor Elston has received from the Commissioners of the late Otago Jubilee Exhibition the certificate of merit accompanied by the gold medal awarded for his patent Empress Needle, presently, on sale at Green's buildings, Main street, Gore. The certificate is a handsome production, and the medal (the dies for which were cut in Dunedin) also leflects credit on the designer. The inquest upon the body of the male infant child, found dead in a lagoon at Jacobstown on Sunday evening, was opened at the Gore Courthouse this afternoon, before Mr A. Martin, J.P., Acting Coroner, and a jury of which Mr A. Latham .tras chosen foreman. On the application of the Police, the inquiry was adjourned for a week, no evidence being taken. '