ECONOMY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 21, 13 April 1872, Page 11

ECONOMY.

" Nelson Examiner," April 6. If the " Retrenchment Budget" of the Hon. J. Vogel was so called on the lucus a non luccndo principle, because it did not retrench expenditure, it may be useful to inquire whether other arrangements emanating from the same master mind deserve equally well the name of retrenchments. There are of course other things besides expenditure which may be retrenched — the utility of existing institutions is one of them. Any power for good which provincial institutions originally had — such for instance as the encouragement of immigration and the opening of the country for settlement — has been so successfully retrenched by the " Payment to Provinces Act, 1871," that in this respect we must allow that the name which Mr. Vogel claims for his Budget is justified, with an irony different from that suggested above. We will however mention a few of the economical arrangements of New Zealand's Financial Dictator which certainly do require some such explanation. The "Temporary Loan Act, 1870," affords an instance in point. This Act was forced through a thin House, at the fag end of the session; and under its authority £453,280 were raised. It is not our purpose to animadvert at present on the way in which this sum was spent. According to the return granted to Mr. Bradshaw, £319,500 of it was employed in anticipation of the Defence Loan. This might be considered a tolerably large war expenditure, were it not for the fact that Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, and Otago, had to be subsidized out of it, to the amount of £118,572 19s. 9d. It is | needless to remark that the votes of most of the representatives of these places were I in favour of the " Temporary Loan Act." The same return states, that £110,500 was expended in anticipation of the

Immigration and Public Works Loan; whether anybody was subsidized out of this we know not ; £23,280 were unapplied, which is remarkable. It is the manner in which the money was raised, which appears to be an instance, worthy to be recorded, of the economical administration of Government. In the first place, £200,000 were advanced by the Bank of New Zealand nominally at 7 per cent., against £225,000 New Zealand Government debentures. These debentures the Bank was empowered to sell at whatever price they would fetch, and to charge onehalf per cent, commission. None of this loan was advanced before November 12, 1870 ; some of it not until January 10, 1871. Yet we find in the return above alluded to, that although it was repaid in London, on December 20, 1870, no less than £3,329 ss. lid. was paid to the Bank as interest, besides £1,000 commission on Bale of debentures. This transaction is probably viewed with satisfaction by the Bank authorities. In order to pay off the Bank, £204,000 were borrowed from Messrs. Scrimgeour and Co. This loan, contracted in December, 1870, was repaid in April, 1871, together with interest to the amount of £4,027, and commission £510. Altogether, the £200,000 borrowed from the Bank was paid for by the country at the rate of about 20 per cent, per annum at the least. With the exception of £30,000 from the Trust Fund, the rest of the temporary loan was obtained from the Bank of New Zealand at 7 per cent. If Ministers had not been in so violent and unnecessary a hurry, this money might have been raised under the " Immigration and Public Works Loan Act " at 6 per cent. It is an ill-wind that blows no one any good, and it is probable that the shareholders of the Bank of New Zealand will not blame the Government so much for the way in which the " Temporary Loan Bill " was carried out, as will those who are not connected with that happy institution. The present Ministry boasts so loudly of the reductions of expenditure which it has effected and intends to effect, th?,t the over-taxed public naturally looks about with pleasurable anxiety for practical instances of this economic spirit. One of the first objects which meets our expectant gaze, is the "Luna." Known in Australia to be what is called an extravagant vesssel, the " Luna " could find no purchaser until New Zealand came to the rescue. With that princely munificence, which afterwards scarcely found an adequate outlet in the semi-royal progress through America of " Mr. Vogel and suite," and which is so delightful when supported "by other people's money, Government at once bought her for £12,000. The New Zealand tax-payer, perhaps, was not as proud as he ought to have been of the aristocratic indifference to mere £ s. d. considerations which was manifested, in thus giving £12,000 for an article which had been previously offered at £6,000 and refused; refused, probably, by mere traders, determined to get their moneys worth, and anxious to make both ends meet, with whom of course Mr. Vogel can have no feelings in common. She was useful while the war lasted, which was not however long, for Colonel Whitmore had given Kooti and Titokowaru such severe thrashings, that not even the blunders of semi-civilian, semi-military rule could rekindle the warlike spirit of those leaders. The tax-payer endured, though he grumbled at, the purchase of the Luna. As this vessel is said to cost £50 a day for coal when at sea, and there is now no especial exigency for her services, one would naturally expect either that she would be sold, or if not sold at least used as seldom as possible. It would not perhaps be wise to sell her, as another native war may be found necessary, if the Fox-Noake native policy referred to in another column should after all prevail in the Cabinet ; but it is hardly fair to the public that she should be u^ed as a yacht by Ministers and their friends. It is hard to believe, but is indeed a notorious fact, that Ministers in the receipt of a handsome salary — knowing something of the distress which exists in the country, conscious of having added to the taxation which weighs down those on whose strength and industry the existence of the country depends — think it of such great public importance to secure their own comfort as -to use the Luna, costing £50 a day for coal alone, to carry them about on pleasure trips or electioneering excursions during

the recess. Before the present Ministry came into office, Ministers were in the habit of going about like other people in coasting steamers ; when on public business, they drew their travelling expenses and no more. These travelling expenses, too, are on a much higher scale than any drawn by any previous Ministry. What possible excuse have the gentlemen now in office for requiring a grander mode of conveyance, or larger travelling allowances, than their predecessors ? Mr. Vogel may be a prince in disguise, of course ; we do not desire to penetrate the mystery of his antecedents ; but until better informed on the matter, we shall continue to think that what was good enough for a Stafford, is not inadequate to the merits of a Vogel. It is fortunate for the perpetrators of such abuses as these that, owing to geographical and other causes, public opinion in New Zealand is of slow growth. In spite of the press, true information seems to travel slowly — so slowly as to allow those who have the power and the will, to play strange pranks, and to do so for some time with impunity. With what feelings j would the toil-worn colonist regard the Luna passing by his coasts laden with smart ladies and gentlemen, some of the latter receiving £I,'ooo per annum, and travelling allowances of three and four guineas a day out of the taxes that he finds it so hard to pay, if he knew that her voyage was undertaken solely for the pleasure of those splendid " swells ?" If he was aware that the little scraps of work which are supposed to be done by the Luna, could be as well, and fifty times as cheaply done by local craft — that all the dredging, lighthouse visiting, &c, is merely an excuse for keeping a handsome yacht at the public expense for the use of Ministers and their friends — what would he say ? We have just heard from good authority, that the valuable service which this vessel is next to perform for the colony, is to go to Kawau and back to fetch some new fern for Sir G. Bowen. Mlix pretiosissima — let us call this most costly ornament of the conservatory in Wellington — the name will be only too applicable. Things of this sort only require to , be generally known, in order that the spirit which dictated the " Retrenchment Budget" should be appreciated. We wonder what are the feelings of Mr. Vogel as, snugly ensconced in an arm-chair on the deck of the Luna, with every luxurious appliance at hand, he looks through his binocular at the well-taxed lands of New Zealand ? Does he consider how the inhabitants toil and slave to pay the taxes which are to carry on his pretentious schemes ? Does he recollect how heavily the San Francisco contract weighs upon their shoulders ? Does he calculate how many comforts will have to be taken from the poor houses which he sees, in order to provide him with the means of securing a Parliamentary majority? Is he conconscious that the very steamer bearing him along represents a constant and entirely indefensible inroad on the small means of those toilers ? Perhaps so ; perhaps he hugs himself with delight at the idea of his own cleverness and success, and of their stupidity in putting up with these things. It is possible that he looks forward with amusement, not unalloyed by alarm, to the day when these folk will wake up to the knowledge how far they have been duped, and are ruined. Let -us hope that when that time comes, the members of the present Ministry will be able to depart to other lands, enriched with something more tangible than' the mere memory of former prosperity. If they are not by that time able to keep yachts for themselves, it is much to be feared that they will not easily find another country willing to keep one for them.

"Under the heading "The Grand," theDuhedin Echo contains the following paragraph: — "We are informed that the Hon. Mr. Julius Vogel keeps up in the colonial cities the same style as he kept up in London. In Melbourne and Sydney he had two footmen to wait upon him, while his equipage was second to none. He also has given sufficient dinner*, &c, to prove, we suppose, that. New Zealand is a very wealthy country, It is a good thing for us that we are enabled to send v peripatetic minister, who can do 'the grand.' Of course the small bill for travelling expenses will not be grudged." In reply to a question by Mr. Justice Johnston, in the Supreme Court, Wellington, last week, John Ah Tong said the preflx "Ah " to many Chinese names represented that the owner was a bachelor; when married, it was always dropped.