Don’t Hurry.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 27

Don’t Hurry.

(From the Few Zealand Times, June !.) To discuss the Financial Statement on a motion for the second reading of the Customs Duties Bill, before the full particulars 'of the retrenchment already effected and still proposed by the Q-overmnent are in possession ot the House, appears to us very like “ putting the cart before tho horse.’ It; is of course essential that in due time theproposals for raisingadditional revenue shall bo thoroughly discussed. But the first step surely is to prove in detail the necessity tor raising any additional revenue at all. We do not pretend for one moment to assort that no fresh taxation is fiecessary. All Ave say is that its necessity should be clearly proved before the country is asked to take upoli itself the huge extra burden proposed in tbe Budget. We put forward precisely the same contention when Sir Julius Vogol brought down his tariffs of 1885 and ISB7, and tho obligation rests equally on Sir Harry Atkinson to show that financial equilibrium cannot otherwise be restored. It may bo said that he has done so in his Statement, but that is nob the case. ITe lias distinctly indicated one alternative at any rate in the raising of the school age, which alone would save without impairing the efficiency of the Education system. There are other possibilities of economy which may be suggested by various members, and we contend now, as we always have done, that every possibility in this direction should bo exhausted before tho Colony is required to take on itself this heavy fresh load. When it is indisputably demons!rated that every practicable saving lias been effected or arranged, then it will be the duty of Parliament to make provision for obtaining tbe requisite revenue. But most certainly tho first thiug. to be done is to see whether some part of the proposed new taxation might not bo dispensed with, it a few additional economies wero carried out in the public service.