The Politician.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 243, 15 July 1876, Page 7

The Politician.

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT. (Prom the New Zealand Times.) The Financial Statement received on Saturday evening certain local literary treatment of a very peculiar kind. In a criticism, as crude as it was brief, Sir Julius Vogel's remarkably clear Budget was designated as " foggy, inexact, and indefinite," and its author consequently was counselled to exercise prudence and caution. This criticism is incorrect, and the advice is simply superogatory. However much some may differ from the Premier politically, it is pretty generally admitted that his Financial Statement was eminently clear, whilst he himself has been emphatic in pointing out the necessity for exercising prudence and caution, in consideration of the important enterprises, so intimately connected with its finance, which this colony is carrying on, and which therefore demand the utmost prudence and caution, as for some time to come it is plain that New Zealand must be enabled to carry out the policy which has so far proved most successful, and which in the future will give even more gratifying results. Fortunately criticism of the kind alluded makes but little impression, partaking largely of that element of " slapdashiness," if the term may be allowed, which enables a juvenile debating society to settle the vexed question of the origin of man in an hour and a half. In a previous issue we have dealt with some of the leading features of the Financial Statement. We now propose to turn to its consideration with some little detail. The request of the Premier that Parliament should refrain from hurried legislation on many subjects, which though they admittedly require attention, may be left undealt with for a time, was a request founded upon the best discretion. In the mere settlement of the primary legislation attendant upon abolition there will be plenty of work for the present session to see accomplished, and certain other general measures must be postponed. The Colonial Treasurer deserves credit for having the Budget presented early, though the figures are not the actual results of the completed transactions of the year, for there is no doubt that they are so practically correct as to be sufficient for present discussion and conclusion, whilst the early appearance of the Budget will greatly facilitate the w6rk of the country. No wonder can be expressed at the statement of the Agent-General and the Crown Agents, that they found it jointly impracticable to sell £1,250,000 of unguaranteed debentures. The former financial efforts of the Crown Agents, as was shown by their practical failure to effect that which Sir Julius Vogel, on his last visit to London, accomplished, might have prepared anyone for this statement, as might also the bad management displayed by them on previous occasions. Under these circumstances the -judicious policy of the Government in advising the Minister for Public Works to retard for a time the operations of his department, must become at once apparent. The prudence of avoiding disposing of the guaranteed bonds will, too, all the more commend itself to Parliament, whilst the twelve months' loan of £1,000,000 on short-dated debentures will answer all the purposes of the country. It will be seen by a comparison of the actual and the estimated expenditure for the past year, that a saving of over £200,000 has been effected by redvictions in various estimates, showing again that prudence and caution are being exercised in "every possible manner. It is important to notice that whilst the revenue under the head *' Railways " has not come up to the estimate, the excess of receipts over expenditure in regard to railways opened fairly upholds last year's anticipations, while the fact that there was a less length of railway completed and opened for traffic than was expected quite accounts for that revenue not equalling anticipation. The railways are those under General Government control, and therefore do not include those of Canterbury and Otago, but they show in their returns receipts of £57,000, and an expenditure of £50,000. It is easily seen when the railways now under Provincial Government management come to be included in the Financial Statement how important and large an item the excess of their receipts over expenditure will become. " The tabular statement of the progressive increase in the Consolidated Revenue, shows the increased consuming power of the country, owing to the increase of population and consequent development of our resources ; and parallel with this may be taken the tabular statement of the land sales for seven years past, which indicate the steady settlement that has contributed towards this development. The Condition of the Annuities and Insurance Account leaves nothing to complain of, and the fact that the return for the calendar year 1875, for the Postoffice Saving Banks, shows that in that period the withdrawals exceeded the de-

posits by a sum of £72,106, merely means that the high rate on fixed deposits offered by the banks doing business in New Zealand during that period, attracted a certain amount of the national savings that would otherwise have remained in the national Savings Bank. As a matter of course, one of the most important portions of the Financial Statement is that which turns on the new arrangements that have to be made with regard to several subjects as a consequence of abolition. The Colonial Treasurer very clearly puts forward the circumstances of the colony that must _ govern these arrangements, and then points out that in making them three distinct objects have to be kept in view, those objects being plainly _ suggested by the previously mentioned circumstances. The interests of the towns must be kept from conflict with those of the country districts ; the interests of both towns and country districts (that is to say mere local interests) must be kept from conflict with what are purely general or colonial interests, and it will be absolutely necessary to keep the finance of all separate. One of the worst effects of provincialism, of late years, was undoubtedly that these three interests were in perpetual conflict, and that as a result the general interests of the colony sufered correspondingly. To prevent such in future there will be one Legislature, for, as Sir Julius Vogel says, " clearly the risks of conflict increase with the number of bodies empowered to make laws. The form of local government which it is proposed to establish in order to carry out the aims under notice, was pretty plainly indicated in Sir Julius Vogel's speech at Wanganui, and is very plainly summarised in the Financial Statement. The imaginary difficulties raised by the provincialists, that as a consequence of abolition Parliament would in future be found occupying itself with the merest local details, will be avoided by the Government measures, and, as the Financial Statement puts it, the name of any particular road or bridge—of any work indeed but the buildings for the Government services and the main railways of the country—should in future be rarely heard in the House. # There are no two opinions as to the advisability of the police and gaols being under General Government control. And here we may say at once, that we have no faith in those wonderful statistics which have annually appeared throughout the provinces, and which proved, on paper, that our gaols were self-supporting, whilst the annual cost of those gaols to the country proved the very reverse. The wisdom of avoiding a property and income tax will be at once apparent. Such taxes in the United Kingdom are those which excite the greatest possible discontent. We all know that according to book theorists, the most equitable form of taxation would be that which would levy upon all, from the highest to the lowest, according to their interest in the country : that is, according to the property they possessed in, or the income they derived from, the country. But practical statesmen, they who have to deal with men and measures in political life, know that the best form of taxation is that which is least felt by the people in their everyday lives —that which is least obnoxious to them. And in connection with the subject of an income and property tax in this colony comes the question of, under any circumstances, the present inadvisability of imposing an income or property tax in New Zealand. The result of such imposition would be to place us in most unfavorable contrast with other colonies, where every possible facility would be given for the investment of capital, while here the investment of capital would be handicapped with heavy penalties in the way of taxes. The proposal for abandoning all education rates throughout the colony runs on all fours with the practical good sense which avoids an income or property tax. In many provinces in which an education rate has hitherto prevailed that rate has been found most objectionable from the very reasons which operate against the above-mentioned taxes. The whole question of national education, with the exception of the one point under notice, must be deferred for future legislation, and in the meantime the Government may be congratulated upon having made, perhaps, the only step in the' right direction which present circumstances would permit. That hospitals and charitable institutions should invite the aid of private charity, and be under the management of local committees, is most wise ; and that boroughs and road districts, which are to receive heavy subsidies from the Consolidated Revenue, should contribute towards the support of such institutions, is not unjust. Supplemented by such contributions, and by a %>ro rata grant-in-aid from the general revenues, we may expect to see increased efficiency in the management of such institutions, with increased results so far as public benefit is concerned ; and we say this without any reflection on the efficiency or management of the past.

Until the Government measures which are promised, in order to effect a change in the system of native land purchase, are before the country, we cannot deal with that portion of the Financial Statement which refers to them. But thus much may be said, that if those measures only fairly promise to carry out what is predicated concerning them, there is little likelihood that they will meet with much opposition. This will be understood when we quote what the Colonial Treasurer said concerning them : " If our proposals have effect given to them, the most fertile cause of native expenditure will be removed ; the value of property in this island will be largely increased, and therefore its capacity to contribute to local works ; the condition of the natives will be vastly improved, and the land revenue of the North Island much augmented, without the necessity of further loans and constant interestbearing expenditure. No longer will the natives be galled with the reflection that, instead of aiding them, and receiving a legitimate consideration in return, we are always trying to get the better of them in the bargains into which they and we enter ; no longer will the land revenue of the North Island be a questionable equivalent for the expenditure incurred; and no longer will the Government of the colonj be forced into competition with private individuals." If reasonable hope of the predictions contained in the above be found in the Government measure when it is brought down, it is not too much to hope that the personal or political prejudices of some members of the Opposition will be laid aside, and they will give then? assistance towards passing a Bill effecting a revolution in the system of native land purchase, which, in the language of the Budget speech, would be a worthy crown to the other great changes that will relieve New Zealand of the principal difficulties under which she labors, and qualify her for the pre-eminent position amongst the Australasian colonies to which her capabilities entitle her. * SIR GEORGE GREY. (From the New Zealand Times.) . Since his return to public life, we have had occasion more than once to compliment Sir George Grey upon the fact that time has not impaired his often displayed talent for picking a quarrel or getting up a grievance ; and recent occurrences have shown that another great talent, the existence of which obtained general public recognition in New Zealand a quarter of a century since, has lost none of its lusti-e, viz., the talent for what was called " systematic misrepresentation and inveracity." Enemies of Governor Grey, whose ill-will survives the years, rejoice to see that he is still the same man whom they denounced long ago, whilst the friends of the ex-Governor, still numerous with all his faults, are fairly put to shame by his recent proceedings. The testimonials of Governor Grey's early character on official record are legion. It is true that they are far from flattering, but of their truthfulness he himself affords hourly evidence in his place in Parliament in these latter days. There are men enough amongst us still who remember all the incidents of the long and desperate battle against his despotism, and for the establishment of free institutions, which lasted throughout the whole of his first term of office in New Zealand ; and for those who desire to refresh their memory, or for those who desire to learn the history of those early days, the Parliamentary blue books of the time have stores of information, which will repay the labor of research. We select a few of these testimonials as examples merely. On the 27th August, 1849, the Chairman of the Settlers Constitutional Association, Br. Dorset, transmitted, in a despatch to Earl Grey, certain resolutions adopted unanimously at a meeting of that association held in Wellington ; of these we select two : Resolution 1. Moved by Mr. Fitzherbert, J. P., seconded by Mr. John Mcßeth, —"That the attempts of Sir George Grey, in his various despatches, to conceal the complaints and dissatisfaction of the colonists, to mislead her Majesty's Ministers, and to avail himself of the distance which separates the colony from the parent country, for the purpose of obtaining, by means of suppression and misrepresentation, the sanction of the Home Government to measures having for their object his own maintenance in the possession of despotic power, and calculated seriously to retard the prosperity of the colony, render it the imperative duty of this association publicly to protest against the unfairness and dishonesty of his Excellency's conduct, and to bring under the notice of her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State f or _ the Colonies, the general untrustworthiness of his despatches, more especially of those dated the 29 th November, 1848, and 2nd February, 1849, recommending the postponement for four years of the longpromised representative institutions, and the substitution in the interval of councils, which consist exclusively of Government officials and nominees, the

colonies having no voice, influence, or control in making the laws by which they are governed, or in the expenditure of the revenue which they contribute." Resolution 6. Moved by Dr. Featiierston, seconded by Mr. Lyon,— Ci That the various reasons assigned by Sir George Grey for postponing the introduction of free institutions, though very specious and peculiarly adapted to find acceptance with the Home Government (which, by reason of distance from the colony, and of certain prejudices to which Sir George Grey has addressed himself, is not in a position to form an independent opinion), yet they are in truth entirely without foundation, and based on premisses expressed or implied which are the very reverse of fact." In November, 1849, Dr. Weekes, chairman of a meeting of the people of Auckland, transmitted to Earl Grey a petition with more than five hundred signatures, praying for the removal of Governor Grey, for the following among other reasons : —"That they have lost respect for his official character for veracity, on account of the systematic misrepresentations of his despatches, some being filled with glowing descriptions of the prosperity of this colony—merely fictitious. While at other times they contain calumnious strictures on the characters of individuals, compounded and forwarded with such complete secrecy and such utter disregard of truth that no man can venture to think himself secure from being assailed—a grievance which your petitioners feel the more keenly by the conviction that they are entirely in the power of such statements, being cut off from any official channel of communication with her Majesty's Government, being denied the privilege of representative institutions, through the unfounded representations of his Excellency." From Dr. Weekes' letter we take the following on the subject of what he calls the crowning charge against Governor Grey—'' his utter want of official veracity :"—"For the art of seizing on trifling facts, magnifying or perverting them to suit the purpose of the moment; in conveying impressions he dare not assert ; seldom risking being convicted of direct falsehood, but contriving openings for future 'explanations, or pleas of misrepresentation to fall back upon should his veracity be called in question ; in the guarded care with which he fortifies his misstatements by intermixing as much truth as possible, consistently with working out his ends, yet not without the courage occasionally to hazard a bold assertion where the gain is likely to be commensurate with the risk, he has shown a talent which all must regret to sae so ill-applied." In a despatch to Earl Grey, of date October 8, 1850, Dr. Dorset, commenting on a despatch of Governor Grey, says : —"lt appears from his own statement that the despatch in question was written by Sir George Grey before the petition to Parliament which induced him to write it had been seen by him, and while he was entirely unacquainted with its details. We will not dispute this statement, although the petition had been printed. in the colonial newspapers nearly a month before the. date of his despatch, and had, we presume, been seen by those who informed him of its existence, and who, it might reasonably be supposed, would have informed him also of its contents. Nor will we enlarge on the want of dignity exhibited by him in his attempting before he had seen the petition to disparage those from whom it emanated, and to forestall its contents, of which he professed ignorance. But we may be permitted to observe that such a course was not indicative of much confidence in the force of argument used by him in his previous despatches of November and February, nor in the goodness of his cause. Nor if, as he states, he had in his contemplation when he wrote those earlier despatches the facts contained in that under comment, do we understand why he omitted them from the former labored and most carefully written documents. We are inclined rather to attribute their subsequent appearance to that feeling which induces one fighting a desperate battle to aim at his adversary any blow with any weapon which he may be able to snatch in the heat of the contest, without considering whether the one or the other is consistent with the rules of honorable Gornbat. 1 ' We regret to observe in the despatches under consideration several passages which appear to have been written with no other intention than that of misleading your Lordship, and which, though they evince some ingenuity and cleverness, are entirely unworthy of an officer filling a high appointment and enjoying the confidence of her Majesty's Ministers. '' Sir George's cue appears to have been so to confuse the circumstances and statistics of two provinces as to oppose to a petition, emanating from the Southern only, all the objections which could _ be found to exist in either, and, by jumbling the whole together, to make it appear in many parts as if what belonged to the North solely, really had application to the South also, and in the South specially. He confounds the boundaries and extent

of the several provinces; leaves out whole settlements when it suits his argument, and again inserts whole settlements where properly they have no place; at one time referring with every appearance of precision to authentic returns, at another contenting himself with vague generalities and loose guesses; while the whole is so ingeniously put together that we defy any person not personally and minutely acquainted with the colony to detect the fallacy of the argument or avoid falling into the snare set for his understanding." Now, we might multiply these " testimonials" without end, if need were, or if our space permitted. Probably we have said enough to prove to those who have watched and wondered at Sir George Grey's proceedings in this session, and notably those in the debate on native affairs on Thursday night, the accuracy of our assertion that the talent which merited such testimonials has lost none of its original lustre. He is, however, putting his talent to a dangerous use in meddling, as he is now doing by his agents, in native affairs, with the view apparently of preventing the consummation which we all desire of peaceful relations with Tawhiao and his people. Opposition to the Ministry ought to take some other form. Sir George Grey himself, if he were Native Minister to-morrow, could not complete the work which Sir Donald McLean has now brought so nearly to a close. The man who shut out all hope of accommodation with the Waikatos by his foolish declaration that he would '' dig round the King till he fell" and brought desolation upon the tribes, is not likely in these days to win the confidence of men who attributed, and with justice, all their misfortunes and losses in the war to him. - SIR GEORGE GREY AND HIS 0 CONSTITUENCIES. Sir George Grey, when the House resumed at half-past seven on Wednesday night, announced that he had elected to take his seat for the Thames, and moved that a new writ should be issued, by telegraph, for Auckland City West, so that that constituency might obtain representation as soon as possible. In the interests of his party, such as it is, Sir George, in the election he has made, has perhaps acted for the best by virtually disfranchising the Thames and enabling some nominee of his to be returned for Auckland City West. But considering all that has passed in connection with Sir George's return for two constituencies, few can avoid coming to the conclusion that his conduct throughout, and his final decision, have not been marked by perfect straightforwardness ; and have, indeed, exhibited contradictions in statement by him not calculated to surprise anyone conversant with his public and political character. He distinctly, and in set terms, not long since, wrote to the Thames people, through Dr. Kilgoub, and acquainted them with his positive intention to sit for Auckland City West. The Thames people took him at his word, and a candidate for the seat which Sir George had promised to vacate announced himself in the person of Mr. J. E. Macdonald, a local solicitor of high professional reputation and great popularity. It was perfectly well understood that Mr. Macdonald was coming forward as a supporter of the Government; but the Thames electors never dreamt that with a gentleman like Sir George Grey, whose custom it was to prate loudly of honor and of the inalienable right of constituencies to return whom they pleased, the fact that they proposed, on his retirement as their representative, to elect a political opponent, would alter his intention as plainly expressed to them. Perhaps it has had nothing to do with the alteration in his intentions, but circumstances will hardly support so favorable a theory. It is somewhat singular that a member of Sir George's camp, Mr. Rees, left for Auckland on Saturday last, and there were who said that amongst the most urgent of the urgent private affairs which took him away Avas a mission to inspect the political condition of Auckland and the Thames, and then to report progress, by telegraph, to his chief. Mr. Rees did not arrive in Auckland until Wednesday, and on Tuesday night Sir George, by resolution of the House, was to have made the election which he made onWedne3daj r . But he exhibited a feverish anxiety on Tuesday night to get more time in which to make his choice; and as tongues will wag, there was plenty of talk in and around the House, which said that Sir George wanted delay because he had not heard from his emissary, Mr. Rees. When he did make his choice on Wednesday night, as a matter of course, it was freely said that his decision was the result of a communication from Auckland, which told him plainly that the Thames constituency was fixed in its support of the Government, and that there was no hope of victory if _ any one contested the seat in the Grey interest. Of course, as we have said, all this may have had nothing to do with Sir George Grey's final choice, which, as he explained, was made from very high and statesmanlike motives. It is to foe feared, however, that few will recog-

nise those motives, but that a good many will admit that, acting for his party, Sir George's choice has been in its interest, but that acting as he did in direct contradiction to his recent letter to the Thames, it was not the act of a highminded or statesmanlike representative.