The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1911. MR MASSEY'S MISTAKES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7851, 13 July 1911, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1911. MR MASSEY'S MISTAKES

We prefer to call them mistakes. The leader of the Opposition makes so many misstatements and misquotations that) any consideration of them has to hej charitable to avoid imputation against his sincerity, lu his references to the) public debt, for example, Mr Massey) has made a number of obvious mistakes. In bis .speech at Hastings a fortnight ago ho admitted that much; of our loan money is returning inter-) est, but said the proportion was not 761 per cent., as claimed by the Government; it was C 3 per cent. Last week; ho said the public debt was a terrible l thing, though he admitted “there were assets, but not 76 per cent.” —they represented “66” per cent, of the total., These sort of utterances indicate aj mind becoming bewildered. Mr Masscyl —always a loose, reckless speaker on political questions—seems to become; specially eccentric on the subject of bor-j rowing. He admits that he has consist-; ently supported all the Government’s loan proposals with his vote in thal House of Representatives, and yet claims the right to condemn these loarg from the platform on the ground that “the responsibility lies, not with the) men who passed them, but with those; who initiated them!” It seems to us that while utterances of this kind would ho quite appropriate to comia opera they become merely contemptuous when applied to the serious affairs of life. Coming from a gentleman who) seriously asks tho constituencies to) make him their Prime Minister, they fill us with amazement.

"In 1894,” Mr Massey told his Wellington audience, “the indebtednefs per head was £57 8s lOd; in 1910 it was £72 13s 9d, an increase of £ls 4s lid per head.” According to his view, this represents frenzied finance, and ho argues that the increased borrowing (assisted by his own vote) has been indulged in with the deliberate intention to recklessly waste the money in order to secure votes. Wc propose to'show that the truth lies in quite a different direction. Why does Mr Massey begin his calculation with the year 1894? Any fair comparison ought tr go back a little further —back to those unhappy days when Mr Massey’.' friends were in charge of the Treasury and had been, with inconsiderable interruptions, for a lengthy period; back to the days of unemployment and sourkitchens, of sweating among the weaker classes of labour and big strikes among the stronger; back to the days of Conservative government, when property had great voting power! In 1891. when the last Tory Government was turned out of office as the result of the 1890 election, the public indebtedness was £59 11s lOd per 'head of population, so that the increase to date is £l3 Is lid per head. Now, it happens that in their alleged “wasteful and reckless” treatment of loan moneys during the nineteen years under notice the Liberal Administrations have, so sadly bungled their business that the average rate of interest charge on the whole of the debt has boon reduced from £4 10? 3d to £3 14s 4d per £IOO. .Thus we find that in 1891 interest and sinking fund costs amounted to £2 13s 7d per head, whereas in 1910 the amount was but £2 9s. In other words, while the indebtedness has gone up, as we say, by £l3 Is lid per head, or just under 22 per cent., the actual charge is reduced by 4s 7d per head, or 9) per cent. This is what it pleases Mr Massey and his colleagues to call “frenzied finance!” Lot us give particulars. The latest figures—those for the year ended last March —were quoted by Mr Millar at Dunedin in May. The Acting-Minister of Finance showed that since the Liberals took office in 1891 additions had been made to the public debt totalling £43,610,958, less redemptions £1,363,186, leaving a balance of £42,247,722. The gross amounts are classified as under: REPRODUCTIVE LOANS. £ Purchase of native lands ........ 977,842 Land settlement 6,304,026 Loans to local bodies 4,623,100 Land improvement .... 500,000 Advances to settlers ..—7,094,935 Advances to workers 844,765 Advances to dairy companies State coal mines 170,000 State fire insurance . ..... 2,000 Reserve fund securities 800,000 Bank of NZ. preference shares 500,000 New Zealand consols 539,693 Waihou and Ohinemuri rivers improvement 100,000 Railways 11,022,948 Total £33,481,090 OTHER LOANS, I

Public works, roads, etc. 5,379,325 Increments by conversion 4,290,737 Sinking fund accretions 392,580 Naval and military settlers 27,226 Scenery preservation ..—... 40,000 • Total .£10,129,808 The interest and sinking fund charges on our total debt of £31,078,122 amounted in the last financial year to £2,850,000. Towards this sum reproductive loan expenditures brought in no less than £1,982,091, providing for their own interest and leaving a bal-

lanoo of £246,574. It is, therefore, legitimate to look at the question in the following way; £ Total interest charge - f. 1 -0-000 Warnings by loan expenditure... 1.952.091 Leaving balance of interest charge to be provided by taxpayers .£367,909 tSo that there may be no misunderstanding, we give chapter and verse:

So far as wo know, neither Mr Massey nor any of his henchmen has been able to seriously challenge these figures or to show that any of the items under the heading “ Reproductive loans ” are improperly scheduled. Indeed, there is a considerable sum—over five and a quarter millions —classed among ‘Other loans,” owing fox public works, (roads, etc., which may fairly be do(scribed as indirectly reproductive. Can 'any sane person doubt for a moment that the reading of the backbloeks has |not wonderfully assisted the expansion |of the dairy industry and aided generally towards higher revenue and greater production ? Which, if any, of the loans set out in the foregoing does [jlr Massey consider the country ought not to have incurred? Would he have eliminated any of the items ? Or what particular borrowings, if any, would jho prefer to have been smaller? Apparently none, since he voted for them all. Yet he labours on trying to show (that the money was not obtained for (tho purposes enumerated, but to '“waste” and to " influence the people at the polls.” No person whose vision is not restricted by prejudice can be[liove that the money expended on 'land settlement, purchase of native lands, and advances to settlers has b’en “ wasted.” A cardinal feature of the policy inaugurated in 1891 has been to promote settlement. In this successive Liberal Governments were bitterly opposed at each and every 'turn by Mr Massey and his followers, ■who cried “spoliation’' and “robbery,” and predicted the hurried escape ’of capital and the early collapse of the whole misguided country. In spite of this opposition millions of acres of .Crown lauds have been surveyed, subdivided, and settled; up to March of last year 1,238,096 acres had been purchased' from private owners for closer settlement, at a cost of £7,666,420; and £9,343,660 had been advanced to settlers to; enable them to profitably occupy their holdings (the last-named transactions yielding a net profit for the - year of £41,833). The activities of the State in this direction—the most hotly contested and fiercely denounced of all the works of Liberalism—give results of this kind (tho figures for 1909 are the latest available in complete form):

1 1891. 1909. focupiers of land in areas exceeding one acre 41,224 75,152 Land under cultivation (acres) 8,893,225 15,566,308 £ £ Value of produce exported 9,400,094 19,462,936 The money borrowed has boon required to develop the country, to provide railways and roads and bridges, to supply settlers with money, to facilitate land settlement, and generally to carry out a policy endorsed by the people at tbe polls. Let us see what the country has obtained for its outlay. Lot us go to tbe source from which Mr Massey gleaned the scanty figures ho has quoted—the Official Year Book. This is a publication with which the public 1 might profitably cultivate closer acquaintance, and which the leader of a party, like Mr Massey, ought to know by heart. Does the leader of the Opposition know his Year Book? If so, he might surely give his audiences a little fuller, and therefore more reliable, information. Take the railway figures. In them alone is something for people to digest who talk of “ frenzied finance ” and “ reckless expenditure ” —something tangible and substantial to represent the loan money which the Opposition declare has been “ wilfully wasted to buy votes ”:

1890-91. 1909-10. Miles open for traffic 1,842 2,701 Train mileage 2,894,776 7,889,166 Passengers carried ... 3,433,629 11,141,142 Season tickets issued 13,881 199,371 Goods and live stock carried (equivalent in tons! 2,134,023 5,490,018

JS s. d. £ s. d. Net revenue 420,988 0 0 1,080,316 0 0 Percentage of

rerenue to _ _ „ . capital post 2 18 11 3 16 0 These are the results of what the electors of New Zealand are asked to regard as bungling administration and frenzied finance, yet tho story of advancement merely inspires Mr Massey to suggest “a thorough investigation of tho Dominion’s finances with a view to keeping borrowing within reasonable limits and of preventing wasteful expenditure.” Not the slightest indication is given of what the Opposition leader is pleased to consider “reasonable borrowing.” His performances in the division lobby show that he approved all the loans, even though he knew they were intended merely to “ bribe the electors.” We ask him seriously to state, without equivocation, what, in his view, is a fair and reasonable amount for tho country to borrow? How much and for what purposes? Where would his party begin tho tapering off declared, to be necessary? So fax, we have no evidence that Mr Massey has ever con-

sidered this question. Apparently he has no ideas on the point; nothing to offer in the way of useful suggestion; nothing to submit to tho constituenciessave groundless complaints and groundless accusations. This is where ho differs from the Government, which has declared a definite policy covering a gradual lessening of borrowing, and has actually made definite provision for the extinction of the existing debt. Mr Massey voted against tho mea-

Interest Interest payable. received. Profit. £ £ £ Railways 1,037,910 1,190.910 103.000 .Land for settlemeats 224,319 271.200 46,882 bodies S'.ste 002.I mines 125 (XM 112 531 12,469 4,550 4.550 1 an d sha res .. 17,500 48,750 31,250 28. n 00 26.355 1,665 [Cansols 17,364 16,356 1,003 .Advances to set197,939 271.601 75,612 r-r* 32.380 39.858 6,972 Totals 1,755,517 1,932.091 246,574