"JUGGLED DEBT"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 13

"JUGGLED DEBT"

GOVERNMENT'S CLAIMS disposal of reserves MR. HAMILTON'S CRITICISM pretence at reduction [by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION*] HAMILTON, Monday Accusations of financial juggling against the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, were made by the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, in his broadcast address at Hamilton to-night. Mr. Hamilton repeated his challenge to the Government to prove that the public debt was less at the end of last financial year than it was at the beginning. " Mr. Nash, in his reply at Lower Hutt, did not expressly take up my challenge," Mr. Hamilton said. "In case there are any peoplo who are fihclined to believe that the Government can have performed the miracle of owing less while borrowing more, let me say plainly and distinctly that Mr. Nash has not reduced our public indebtedness, but is merely making a pretence of having done so. " The Minister has been playing with the figures of various public accounts and juggling the reserves and other assets of State lending institutions in order to present a balance-sheet in the light most favourable to his own party. He admits that new borrowing during the year amounted tu £7,192,000, but appears to claim debt redemptions totalling £11,871,000." The Minister's Figures The amounts claimed as debt redemptions, Mr. Hamilton continued, were £1,924,000, representing normal transactions on the Debt Redemption Account; £2,700,000, the amount for which Discharged Soldiers' Settlement securities, were hypothecated; and an arbitrary figure of £7,250,000, created by the Minister himself out of the Mortgage Corporation Account. If Mr. Nash wanted to regard the two lastmentioned sums as debt reductions, he should have admitted that capital assets of the same value had been sold, i " Mr. Nash has not, in fact, sold any assets," Mr. Hamilton said, "but has put us through the fictitious process of selling our own reserves to ourselves. All that he has done has been to exchange Mortgage Corporation stock for securities held by some other Government institution (presumably the Post Office), and, having cancelled those securities, to say that he has reduced the public debt." Adjustments in Accounts Mr. Hamilton added that the Minister had also taken legislative power to make adjustments in the Public Account and other accounts on the last day of the financial year. He himself had some confidence in believing that neither the Treasury nor the AuditorGeneral would pass the transactions which the Minister had featured as debt reductions, except that the sole directing power was now reposed in the Minister, as supreme financial dictator, under special legislation pro-, moted last year. " As a matter of simple fact," Mr. Hamilton added, "the year's transactions resulted in new borrowings to the extent of £7,492,000, less ordinary sinking fund of £1,924,000, leaving £5,568,000 to be added to the national debt. The Prime Minister is surely hard put to it when he has to resort to making statements for the purpose of : confusing ,the issue." PEACE OF EUROPE MR. JORDAN'S ATTITUDE STAND AT GENEVA DEPLORED [b? TELEGRAPH —PRESS association] HAMILTON, Monday The action of the High Commissioner, Mr. W. J. Jordan, in opposing the British viewpoint at Geneva recently was deplored by the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, in his speech at Hamilton tonight. Discussing the need for New Zealand to co-operate fully with Great Britain in matters of defence, Mr. Hamilton said he was sure the people of the Dominion would deeply deplore the stand taken by Mr. Jordan in expressing , strong opinions diametrically opposed to the foreign policy of Great Britain. If there were to be differences of opinion, they should be discussed privately, and not in the hearing of many nations which would rejoice in the very thought of two members of tie British Commonwealth having even the slightest disagreement. "Mr. Jordan has done well as High Commissioner," Mr. Hamilton added, "but an exception must be made in the case of these lapses in dealing with a question on which, above all others, we must stand loyally together. I believe that Mr. Chamberlain is making a real attempt to prevent tfye growth of two opposing groups in Europe and that his policy is to avert war." As far as New Zealand was concerned, Mr. Hamilton continued, the defence Question was not all that it should bo. The position of the land forces was v «y disquieting and the seriousness Of the situation was indicated by the recently published statement from a gToup of senior territorial officers. The National Party, if returned to power, would seek the co-operation of the Imperial authorities in an immediate investigation of the Dominion's defence problems. What was needed was a better understanding of national requirements and an immeasurably better appreciation of defence as an essential part of national affairs and fl s a matter of loyal and patriotic devotion to a national cause.