THE Mount Ida Chronicle AND St. Bathans Weekly News. THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1881. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 615, 14 July 1881, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle AND St. Bathans Weekly News. THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1881. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

On reading the Financial Statement, delivered last week, the thought immediately is suggested that the Colony could not have been (as we all along maintained) m that dreadful state in 1879 that the Colonial Treasurer averred. Had -there 'been good grounds fyr the panic he ...preached it is hardly possible that the Colony would, in the space of two years, have regained its present apparently satisfactory position, even with the aid of those extremely hard and certainly non-original adjuncts—the imposition of a direct tax and the reauction of salaries. The Colony doubtless suffered, like other countries, from the universal depression, and as that depression came at a time when our borrowed money was beexhausted, the unfavorable fluctuation in the monetary world af- ' fected us more keenly than it otherwise would have done. Our resources, we are told, are " wonderfully elastic," and.we are also told that they are beginning tb again abound with life. ■'■■:••

It was not to be wondered at that the Hall Government blamed the bad state of affairs, in Zealand to. the Grey Government—in fact that unfortunate Government was, as we have Jbefore pointed out, apparently held partly responsible for the failure of the-City of GJaagow Bank. And on the other hand it is no cause for surprise to find that Major Atkinson appears to consider the revival of trade and the state of the money market attributable in no small de r gree to the wise administration of himself and his colleagues. We can honestly do him and his brother Ministers the justice of saying that they made New Zealand's affairs appear in the blackest possible light, but we do not know that we can go further with them. ThC. Colony has now, in a measure, passed from under the cloud that hung over it, but that movement was .purely a natural one, altogether free from propulsion on the part of the Hall Ministry. That the Government did not retard that movement is the most that can be said of them. We admire their closefistedness (while sympathising with the victims,) and that is the only thing admirable about them.

The., Treasurer admits that there is nothing new in his Statement. The only thing that is new is the proposal to attempt to raise a loan in the Colony of a quarter of a million of money. It is an excellent notion, that the individuals residing in a State should provide such money as the State needs to borrow, but such a condition is only possible in old, populous,, and rich countries. New Zealand is not such a country. The idea of the Treasurer is to induce those who at present invest their money in Savings Banks to subscribe the loan, at an advantage to them of from a-half to one per cent. Wo think the proposal will not be a success, for it may safely be; assumed that those who have so. small an amount of money, or who know so little about monetary matters, that they are content to allow their savings to lie in the hands of the, Government at four, and four and a-half per cent. 1 , will be very unlikely to bother themselves about

the loan. State loans are only payable to practised speculates. Such of those as we have in New Zealand have much more profitable ways of investing their rconey than by taking up a Colonial five per cent. loan. The Local Government Scheme of last session iB again hashed up, with all its defects, so frequently pointed out. And one feature of a very undesirable kind occupies no small space in the Statement; That feature is this—" That afte/the lands have been " surveyed, and the roads marked ou'-, " an estimate of the cost of forming " and metaling the main road through ' the block shall be prepared by the " local body having charge of the dis- " trict; that to the fixed upset price " per acre of land to bo served by " the road shall be added a sum, ac- " cording to situation, sufficient to " cover the coat of construction, and that the money so obtained shall be "set apart and paid over to the local " body, under proper safeguards, to "be _ used for that purpose "only." This ia. another straw on the camel's back, and a very heavy one. "We contend that the ordinary difficulties in the road of settlers are sufficiently great, without additional stumblingblocks being placed in the way. It was a great imposition—though a thing quite in accord with the spirit of this proposal—to charge them with the valuation of the fences on the blocks thrown open ; and we do not believe that act of the Government could be upheld in law. Surely the settler is taxed quite enough under present circumstances. He pays a very large quantity of rates as it is, and deserves to have his road. The proposal, if sanctioned by the Houße —which we do not anticipate for a moment—will be another check on settlement. The Treasurer professes to hold an opposite opinion, but we frankly say we do not believe him. We shall be surprised to find that such a thing exists in any part of the world. It is practically an attempted reversal of the hitherto accepted idea that settlement is a sine qua non of prosperity. ; No reference is ififtde in the Statement to the permanency or otherwise of the ten-per-cent reduction on the salaries? of civil servants. Nor is there any mention made of the suggested Bill to enable Public Companies to Undertake the formation of railways. But the unexpected Statement is made that, if the system of Native [and purchase in the North Island is abolished, as proposed, there will be something over a million of money to be devoted to public works. No doubt there will be a great scramble for the division of this money. Had bhe money been devoted to purchasing land from the Natives (a thing desirable enough, no doubt, if we could ifford it) we suppose the North Esland would swallow it all. Tinder the present proposal it; is likely that the South Island will get a share; ind, if this does happen, we think it impossible that the claims of the Otago Central can be overlooked. It is not often that we are able to compliment any member of the present Ministry. On that account we are the more anxious to say that the Statetnent just submitted is, in our opinion, the most intelligible that Major Atkinson has delivered, but we cannot add that it is " eminently satisfactory."