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New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 13

TifE analysis of the present position of the Colony forms the bulk of the Financial Statement. A masterly analysis it is, in considerable detail, exhaustive, and complete iu many ways, As an advertisement for New Zealand nothing could be better, It teaches what a wonderful country we possess, peopled by an industrious, thrifty race, able, if properly governed and directed, to make these islands fulfil their destiny as the first Colony in Australasia. They have borrowed large sums of money, tremendous sums publicly and privately, thev have cat, off that stimulating pource of supply, and they have survived. Letharg-c they may be after their intoxication of twenty vears, but sound they are, and solvent. The Great Public Works Policy stands completely vindicated by the Financial Statement. Tried by many tests the position of the peop'e ffiars looking into, The land is being settled at an increasing rate, the exports have grown, the savings banks and the records of the friendly societies boar favorable testimony ; the results of industry when questioned tell a hopeful tale. All this is woll set out in the Statement. The thrift and pluck of its people have carried the Colony through g period of extraordinary depression. But all is, nevertheless not as it should be. Capital is lying idle, the land is not settled as fast as it might be, there are too many no -producers, the problem of geMing tin' people to come in large numbers to our fertile country to make homes is still very far from solution. These are facts. Awkward facts, for us to consider at home, after we have justified our position to the public creditor and the outside world. The task for the immediate future is the remedy of these grave evils. The Government that directs the destinies of this people has to do two things. It

has to enable them first to hold their own, and secondly to overcome the disadvantages by which their progress is retarded* The Financial Statement tells us that to hold our own we must maintain our taxation as it is. The Budget is an eloquent reasoner in support of that decision. We have before us for the current yearan estimatedsurplus of L4*8,000, the Supplementary Estimates have to be provided for, and there is the prospect of a large addition to the colonial system of defence. As the Treasurer remarks, the margin is not very large. It is laid down that no further economy is possible. That of course remains to be seen. But whatever may happen in that direction, it is clear that so great a disturbance as the repeal of the property-tax cannot with safety be faced yet. For the primage duty, that is another affair. There is not the same danger of disturbance. The tax was imposed for a particular purpose, and endured patriotically for that purpose by the importing class, who chiefly have borne the burden. We are not at all clear that any more money is wanted for the school system, but the case of the lunatic asylums is hard indeed. Money must' be found for them. If no economies can be effected, there are other sources of revenue of moie equitable incidence. Further econo mies and the discontiuuai.ee of the primage duty are things to be fought for in the House. The second task of the Government is to remedy the evils so graphically described in the Statement. Any Government worthy of the position must devise means to distribute the population by increasing the proportion of its working producers, and to induce the settlement of large numbers of people from the outside world. The Financial Statement announces a proposal for the acquisition of Native lands, and a scheme nearly allied to it for reading and surveying Crown Lands for sale. Of the second we may say at once that it is good sound policy, as far as it goes ; while of the first, it wears an air more cjangerous than promising. There are, in addition, proposals to slightly amend the Land Act, and to teach agriculture in some way in the schools. It is a quiet programme enough—quite unworthy of all the heralding it has received ; totally inadequate to cope appreciably with the grave evils so clearly exposed iu the analysis of the country’s condition. The want of a policy is the feature of the Financial Statement. Its strong point is the review of the financial career of the Government since 1889? cf the last period—in other words, of the 'Treasurer’s career. Of the claim put forward in that brilliant summary of figures and facts, we shall say nothing hard, and nothing critical. In an earlier portion of the Statement the Treasurer strikes a melancholy chord by the simple statement of a date ; in connection it is with former reviews of his of tae state of the country, We think of his past services, we are reminded of his long and honorable career, we cannot forget the peremptory order of his physician who deprived him of the pleasure of reading to Die House the words he hap composed The absence of a policy from the .Statement almost convince* us that he is about to retire from work, we trust only for a time. lie retires with the eradication of his past, leaving the future clear for his successor to mould as he pleases, At all events, if the Statement had been constructed delibeia ely for that double purpose, it could not have been cast iu a mould appreciably different.