THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1895. THE PREMIER AT NAPIER.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2414, 21 January 1895, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1895. THE PREMIER AT NAPIER.

with, which are incorporated the Wellington Independent , established 1845, and the New Zealander.

An vmcontradicted lie by frequent repetition has often ultimately been received as a truth. History is full of instances. Half the work of scientific investigation is devoted to the destruction of fallacies which’ have for ages been received as facts. Politics offer no exception. Prominent politicians are peculiarly liable to misrepresentation of various kinds, and if these >re, repeated by the press day by day without contradiction nobody need be surprised if at length they are accepted as facts. It is therefore the plain duty of the chiefs of both the Government and the Opposition to see that misrepresentations of their actions do not become accepted as truths, even though' it require line upon line, precept upon precept and speech upon speech to place the actual truth before the people.

The newspaper has groat power. It is the Book of the Age. Everybody reads it, it thinks for thcraand speaks for them, but if it will not show fair play to those who differ from it, it becomes a curse rather than a blessing. The present Government has nothing to thank the Conservative press for in thisrespeot. Fair criticism is its plain duty. It is what the people expect, and what every Government worthy of the name may justly demand. But, if day by day, abuse and misrepresentation deface the columns of a, newspaper, it is incumbent on the Ministry to resort to the platform to put the truth before tho people of tho Colony. In bid Roman times the landowning patricians killed Gracchus for endeavouring to put the common people ou the land. Had they lived in our day they would have followed the modem fashion and stabbed him through the press. At Napier on “Friday night the Premier, before a crowded and attentive audience, availed himself of the opportunity which the platform gives to correct the misrepresentations of a prejudiced press. Naturally, the Premier noticed the remarks of our colonial Lord Dundreary, Captain Russell, leader of the Opposition, who had boon recently denouncing the Premiei as “a charlatan," “an impostor,” and " the Sequah of politics.” The Premier might well have reminded the Captain of the trick of the barrister, who, without a ease, falls to abusing the plaintiff's attorney. Mr Seddon contented himself by saying that “ho did not protend to be a gentleman by birth or education, but simply a man of the people.” Tho rank is bnt the guinea stamp, Tho man’s the gowd for a’ that.

If Captain Russell’s vulgar epithets are the evidence of “ a gentleman,” then nobody will regret that the Premier is not a gentleman of that colour. However, as Captain Russell formerly denounced Sir Hairy Atkinson as “ a footpad" and then sat beside him, his epithets have long been regarded as 'mud that does not stick. Captain Russell reproaches tho Ministry for their moderate Advances to Settlers Act, and yet this same politician formerly proposed to advance 20 millions to landowners. Of course at that time land was at top values, and tho chief effect of such recklessness would havo been to raise land to still higher values, from which great landowners like Captain Russell would havo derived the chief benefit.

During tho long administration of Captain Bussell and his friends, the Premier reminded - his audience that “ there had been land monopoly and money monopoly, whilst tho burden of taxation

had been cast upon the people,and a general utainpcdo from tho Colony had followed." Nothing could havo been more forcible, nothing more true than the Premier’s •statement that tho depression and the unemployed difficulty in Hawke’s Bay were dec to the fact that 1,431,3)31 acres were held by 124 landowners. The antidote was. to acquire these large estates and subdivide them into small areas. When that is done 7000 farmers, involving a population of 40,000 instead of perhaps 2000, will hold the land, who will produce far more wool, mutton and butter, and will pay ten or twenty times more Customs duties than tho 124 people who, like Robinson Crusoe, now reign in solitude, whose rule nobody dare dispute. During three gears’'' rule of Captain Eiisseil and hit friends, from 1887 to 18fl0, only 78,000 acres of Native land ii-bre purchased, whilst Mr Seddon showed that for a similar period, during which the present Government held office, up to March 31st last, they had purchased from the Natives 1,740,000 acres. Tho eloquent words of the Premier on tho cheap money scheme will be long remembered. Tho picture he drew of the slavery of “husbands and‘wives toiling on small holdings, being slowly but surely overwhelmed by usurious rates of interest," was true to tho life. Nothing this Government has yet done will do more to make tho farmers of, this ‘Colony prosperous and free than the cheap money scheme. Of course money lenders, and their satellites denounce this beneficent measure in vicious and 'unmeasured abuse. To be compelled to reduce their Yates of interest is, in their eyes, an Unpardonable sin. Wool may come down 30 per cent., and wheat may bo Bold for a song, but,aceording to the money-lender's gospel Shylock must still have his interest or his bond.

In this cheap im'-av-V scheme, which it i has been the fashion to revile as a new Arid reckless experiment, Mr Sodden'S Government have but followed the main lines of the French Credit Fonoier, than whioh no other institution has done so much to establish a prosperous farming class in! France, More than all the political j schemes, more than Imperial and, Repiih-’ lican administrations this wise hp'd Canoflcent system of mpney-leiVdihg has kept Franco prosperous*, tSKte, arid safe in the midst of the plftts of the charlatans and, rogues who for fifty years and more haVq ■ played their parts in French affMtft ’nud played in vain, because, JVollCh liberty reposes on tho four WVlllion small landowners who hjr thoir thrift and labour have tftado France ono of tho most prosperous and wealthy nations in tho world, The Seddon Government havo given the I people cheap lend. By this wise iiteisuro ’ they havo made it possible IxSl' a farfrier to ; make a living elf lli» lapd, For orioq.q'fld'aTl i they havo removed laid from the, rihVfefites of laud speculators. AfoVM&Vo it was the fashion to paadco friOfoj’y, not by working tho land, bSi.t by buying land cheap and selling i't dear to tho man who worked it, Arid then, by lending him money at usurious rates of interest, to ruin his fortune and break his heart. Mr Duthio and bis friends tell us the depression has not passed away, though Government have given! the people cheap land Arid Cheap money. Mr Duthie poses as a practical i business man. Mid yet, fri tll'o trio'e of the greatest decline all over the world ill the • prices of all ptodvict's efet ekpprienped, - causing the lOugOSt arid ‘the most severe depression eVer known, ho reproaches the Seddon Goverririieritfo r it. .MrDjitl'ie Plight' as well reprriach the Seddoft Government with being the Caris'o of the recent depressing hurricane in Fiji. Wo can 'only,-jsuppose that Mr Duthie’s common sense and native shrewdness have boon jaundiced by hia foclith habit of wearing yellow Spqetaoids whenever he loots at arid attoVripts to criticise tho measures cf trio Seddon Government. Mr Wafa took a wiser view when he said that it was of no use looking for improvement by whimpering about low prices for onr products abroad, over which wo have no control, but by giving the producers in the Colony cheap land, cheap, money arid cheap transit Wo , should priabld tifem, by producing more at ■ieSs'ridSt, to compete on ' advantagedft’S Vdfshd with tho rest of the world.

,' Ab Napier, Mr Seddon carried the war into the enemy’s country. Once more * he met the enemy face to face. J In the beat speech he ever made Mr Seddon refuted the oft-repeated calumnies t of the detractors of the Colony and its t Government. We Venture to think we - have hoard almost the last of their shallow t abuse. True, they may still sneer from * platform and press, and attempt to make * the worse appear the better cause, biifc though they may still deal in mCMlWelesa abuse of Mr Seddon to Att eVef narrowing circle of great landowners and moneylenders, the crowded and enthusiastic pub- . lie meeting at Hawke’s Bay has made it ; clear that the common people hear hM J gladly. ; . THE PtjliLlO ACCOUNTS. i Wa have the elements of a very pretty little _ scare. On the one side the Press i Association has wired all over the country that there is a deficit on the three first quarters of dCßi,oooj about Which the Colonial Treasurer makes SOm'6 remarks ill i another column • and they are probably in every morning paper th the county this : morning. On the other there is the Post, , with Its Usual assumption of infallibility. Sotting down the deficit for the year at very nearly a quarter cf a million, “ despite tile fact that the Treasurer estimated the revenue at .£133,583 less than the actual revenue last year.” To support this wonderful conclusion the i Post thought it necessary to treat our figures as Inspired, indicating a source ■ of information not open to everybody. The Post will be surprised to learn that we got the figures from a source in its own possession, viz., the Gazette returns. We | simply did what the Post might have done for itself if it had possessed the necessary enterprise, i.e., we took the revenue and expenditure for each of the three quarters) and made a balance-sheet of actual results for the throe quarters, or up to December 31st, 1834. The figures are quite Correct, but they are not from any source "of information not open to the general public. That, however, is a minor matter. A graver error the Post has tumbled into occurs in his forecast of the fourth quarter. He evidently is not aware that the returns of the first . three quarters represent only the Treasury bookings up to the last day of each quarter, not the revenue collections. For ■ which reason it happens that the last quarter’s revenue frequently appears to be considerably larger than that of its predecessors, as the collections, are in that quarter all brought to book, of course after the last day, so that everything which belongs to the year is brought into the year’s account. It is of course. difficult to say exactly wKat this amount is. The Treasury offioials could probably tell if applied to. But we are not in the Treasury, and we have to do what we can with the published figures. The only course open to us is to compare the last two quarters of last year ; and to compare them fairly, so as to get light on the question of the increase due to the booking of the collections, wo must eliminate the direct ■ taxation from both. The amounts of revenue collected in the December quarter of 1893, and the March quarter, 1891, were respectively .£1,195,539 and .£1,295,112. Taking off from the first the land tax, .£270,973, and from the second the income tax, £71,000, we reduce the revenue totals to ' £924,566, and £1,224,112. The ordinary revenue then of the last quarter of last year (irrespective of the direct taxation) exceeded its predecessor by £299,546. This is probably not all due to the extra collections; but much of it undoubtedly is. We will next make an estimate for the current quartdb of the present year. The expenditure estimated in the Budget last year plus the Supplementary Estimates (£48,000) ' was £4,349,098 j and the expenditure for the nine * months that have elapsed was £3,492,636, as our figures the other day showed. The balance remaining for expenditure during the current quarter is therefore £856,462. We have to add £200,000 for public works; £250,000 was voted, and £50,00') paid over last quarter. Lastly there is the deficit balance of the last quarter,£34,l73,as shown in the Gazette returns. On the otl>er side there is the revenue. The revenue of the December quarter was £903,793. From that we subtract £33,300, one fourth of tho Treasurer’s estimate of the total year’s shortage below the actual receipts of last year. Wo will add £299,000 on the basis -of the increase of the ordinary revenue in the | March quarter of 1894 as shown above. There remains the income tax. The estimate was £75,000, and we see no reason to suppose there will be any deficiency. We will subtract an item of £O4OO, which was the amount credited in the December quarter for land tax, as that may not recur in the revenue for the quarter, which wo have taken at the full amount, viz., £905,793. These figures balance as follows: REVENUE. Eeccipts as for December quarter, £905,793 (less £33,300) ... ... £372,493 Income Tax (less £6,400) 63,600 Excess of Revenue estimated on basis of March quarter, 1891 ... 299,000' £1,240,093 EXPENDITURE. Balance from December quarter ... £81,173 Remaining expenditure of year ... 856,462 Public Works Account ... ... 200.000 ' 1,140,635 Balance surplus ... 99,453 ~ . £1,240,093 Now, tha Treasurer’s estimated not surplus was £91,940.- and tho Supplementary Estimates (£43,000) reduced.it to £43,940. At this point wo recur to the question of the £399,ooo,.estimated addition to tho quarter’s revenue. Tho booking of tho collections will undoubtedly jnako good a jargo share of it; then there are the pas-