THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1887.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7975, 15 June 1887, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1887.

During the debate on the no-confidence motion, which resulted in the defeat of the Ministry and the subsequent granting of a dissolution, there was no speech more incisive and convincing than the one delivered by Mr. Scobie Mackenzie, member for Mount Ida. Nothing could well surpass his stateruent of the country's financial position, his exposure of the attempts of the

Colonial Treasurer to gloss it over and divert men's thoughts from its alarming, character, or his specification of the remedies that position calls for. The case of the colony is simply that, through mismanagement and extravagance, it has for some years past been going to the dogs. Some time ago its progress was found to be stationary, its revenue showed a tendency to decline, and now, despite the bright prospects 'which the StoutVogel Ministry, on taking office, held out to an expectant population, it is condemned to gaze with amazement upon what Mr. Mackenzie aptly designated huge deficiencies. This ought to have revealed to Parliament the necessity for suspending all ordinary business until the headlong race towards national bankruptcy was arrested. But, instead of taking this prudent course, it allowed itself to be deceived by the specious representations as to the country's soundness resorted to at various times by the Colonial Treasurer. All can remember how, on one of these occasions, what was really a gigantic deficit was converted into a trifling sham surplus by appropriating the Sinking Fund for the purposes of revenue. This was the first step towards the ruin of the country's credit, and the utter collapse of the revenue which we are now compelled to face. j The abolishing of the Sinking Fund was I in itself a grave and mischievous mistake ; but, whatever might be thought of this, there can be no doubt that the immediate effect of its appropriation as revenue was to create a fallacious impression respecting the finances of the colony, and to represent these as being in a healthy condition, wholly unjustified by the real facts of the case. This was pointed out to Sir ulius Vogel at the time ; but, having failed to gauge the country's true position, it was essential to his retention of office that he should keep up the illusion ; and hence, with a perilous consistency, he repeated the experiment upon the House at the commencement of the session which has just been brought to a sudden close. j Foreseeing a deficit in the revenue of at least a quarter of a million, and knowing that the announcement of this fact would ring the knell of his career, he cast about him for any available sums by which to reduce the alarming deficiency, and discovered accumulations of Sinking Fund items amounting to a little over £100,000. Adding to this sum several amounts voted for certain necessary public works, such as the Customhouse of this city, but which were intentionally not expended, he managed to diminish the shortcoming, and tried to persuade the House that the deficit for the last year amounted to no more than £92,000. This species of financial jugglery the member for Mount Ida fearlessly denounced, and very appropriately characterised as pilfering. The whole thing was, in short, a huge fallacy. And, now that the device has landed the country in " confusion worse confounded," the only remedy for the disorder so created which the fertile brain of the Colonial Treasurer can discover, is by a fictitious representation of the colony's material wealth to assert its capacity for the enduring of further and more grinding taxation. And yet this is the financier whom Sir Robert' Stout, as the representative of Radicalism, wishes the country to retain in charge of the treasury. The most striking portion of Mr. Mackenzie's speech, however, is that in which he exposed the flimsy and dishonest attempt of the Colonial Treasurer to ascribe the collapse of the revenue to the growth of temperance in the colony. To the absurdity of this statement we drew attention at the time that the Budget was published in our columns. It was an unprincipled attempt to employ a praiseworthy cause for the purpose of hoodwinking the people as to the true secret of the deficit. The member for Mount Ida, however, goes further than this, and boldly declares that the assertion, iterated and reiterated as it is throughout the Financial Statement, is really an insult to the intelligence of the House and an affront to the intelligence of the entire country. The absurdity of the position becomes apparent from the fact that if the growth of temperance is accountable for the decrease in the revenue from spirits it must also be held responsible for the decline of revenue which Sir Julius Vogel admits to have taken place on many other items, such as cigars, wine, beer, and even tea. But the dishonesty of the device lies in the endeavour to represent temperanceexcept of the compulsory sort — as having so increased in a brief space of time as to become an important factor acting on the revenue. This Mr. Mackenzie asserts to be contrary to fact, and adduces proof in support of his contention. It is in short those who have always been temperate that, as he puts it, have through lack of means become more temperate still. That is the fact which Sir Julius Vogel makes it convenient to ignore, and for the deliberate purpose of diverting public attention from the obvious cause of the collapse in the revenue —the diminished spending power on the part of the people. That this was his intention is evident from his assertion that the said collapse is due to circumstances which are " in every way satisfactory," and that " the people are able, if required, to add to the revenue such amount as may be necessary." A contention of this nature reveals a crafty design to make the population of the colony console themselves for their financial embarrassment by attributing it to an improved moral condition, and to deceive them into the belief that they can afford to submit to more taxation. Such fallacious reasoning is simply disgraceful to the Government employing it, and, in view of the object of it, is extremely wicked. No unworthy strategems such as those that are here disclosed can have the slightest effect, however, in inducing the electors to believe anything else than that the finances of the colony are in a serious condition and demanding the most stringent treatment. Everyone will be delighted to hear of the progress of temperance, provided it is not of the enforced order. But to preach that as a corrective, or even aa an explanation, of national embarrass- > ment, is to do an injury to that cause instead of promoting it. The remedies : for the present evil must be of a dif--1 ferent kind. And chief among these ; must be rigid retrenchment—retrench- ' ment so radical that, as Mr. Mackenzie says, " it will shake the whole Governmental fabric to its foundation—so radical that, when • the upheaval subsides and the move-

merit, is over, it will leave us on a permanently lower financial basis of expenditure." Other remedies will come in the rear of this one, but this one must take the lead. And it is the people who, as we have before said,, must begin the movement. It is idle to expect this retrenchment from any ordinary Government, and especially the Government now guiding the affairs of the colony. What is essential for this end is that we have men, new men if need be, pledged and capable of undertaking this truly radical work; and such men it is now the duty I of the electors to look out for. I