JUGGLING MILLIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18355, 22 March 1923, Page 6

JUGGLING MILLIONS.

Having proved himself an unreliable witness on questions of taxation, Sir Joseph Ward has shown himself to be equally misleading in his discussion of the public debt. In his speech at Morrinsville he said his statement that the national debt had been increased by £08,000,000 since March 31, 1918, was supported by the Budget, which was unanswerable. The figure is accurate; the reference beyond challenge. But reports of his Tauranga speech show that Sir Joseph does not quote the figure simply for the information of his audience, but uses it as a weapon to attack the Government. At Tauranga he said •— At the end of the financial year just concluded. our indebtedness was £219.054,000, while in 1913 at the end of the war, the whole indebtedness was £150,840,000. We. hare thus increased our debt since the war ended by £68,000,000. in addition to utilising nearly 17 millions* of surpluses I left while Rational Minister for Finance. ... You cannot tell me that we can afford to go on borrowing for public works and other development to the tuno of £68.000,000 in less than three years, as we have done. ♦Actually £15,239.561. The amounts of the public debt at the two periods are correctly given, but they have been abused in an amazing fashion. From March 31, 1918, to March 31, 1922, is not three years, but four, and March 31, 1918, had not seen "the end of the war." It seems necessary to remind Sir Joseph Ward that hostilities continued until November 11, 1918, and that expenditure directly due to the war continued long after that date. Moreover, he was Minister for Finance until the end of August, 1919, so that his figure of £68,000,000 is at once subject to a deduction of £25,236,000, the increase in the debt during his last year of office. The present Government is therefore responsible at most for the increase in the public debt in three years of £42,978,000. Since this amount includes £21,819,000 borrowed for war purposes and for the settlement of discharged soldiers, the total amount borrowed by the Government during the three years for "public works and other development" was not £68,000,000, but £21,159.000. Is that a figure beyond the means or the necessities of the country? The Government expended in that period 8 millions on railways, 1 million on telegraphs and telephones, 4.\ millions on hydro-electric development, and increased by 6i millions the amounts lent under the various advances systems. It had to make up for the neglect of public works during the war period, paying high rates for everything, and it accomplished a great deal more in those three years at a cost of £21,159,000 than Sir Joseph Ward's Government achieved in the three years from 1909 to 1912, when the public debt was increased by £13,416,000. In a word, Sir Joseph Ward's criticism of the increase in the public debt is utterly wrong and misleading. Fortunately there are official publications to reveal the facts, but reason, research and even intuition fail to discover the meaning of Sir Joseph's preposterous claim that when he resigned from the Ministry of Finance he had repaid £29,000,000 of war debt to Britain and that "the New Zealand Government did not owe Great Britain a penny." He has made that statement on several occasions, but it is only in the realms of frenzied finance that threefold repetition establishes truth. According to the unanswerable evidence of the 1922 Budget, New Zealand still owes the Imperial Government £29,623,073 in respect of advances for war purposes and loan redemptions, and as forecasted in the Budget, a funding arrangement was concluded a few months ago by which £27,532,164 of that debt has been placed on a 6 per cent, annuity basis, so that interest and principal will be paid off in 37 years ; the balance of £2,090,909 is State Advances debt, for which that department will make its own arrangements. Though we "do not owe Great Britain a penny of war debt," the Imperial Chancellor has committed us to the payment of about £1,800,000 annually for 37 years. It is impossible that the Imperial Government, the New Zealand Treasury, and the Prime Minister should simultaneously lose their reason. The only possible explanation of Sir Joseph Ward's statement is that he has made still another mistake. Tauranga electors may therefore ask themselves whether any foundation remains for his reputation as a financier. \