MR ALLEN & THE PPEMIER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7929, 12 October 1911, Page 8

MR ALLEN & THE PPEMIER

SIR JOSEPH WARDS REMARKS. Yesterday in the course of desultory discussion iu tho House Mr James Allen made further reference to alleged inaccurate calculations in the Budget. Sir Joseph Ward briefly replied late in tho afternoon. Ho said that ho refuted Mr Allen's assertions when ho replied at the close of tho financial debate. But Mr Allen would hare the country overlook tho explanation and believe that everything in the Budget was incorrect. Mr Allen had never been able to show that he (tho Prime Minister) had made a single mistake in the Budget, but ho took occasion to dwell upon two or three minor clerical errors and then said that tho rest of the figures wore unreliable. Mr Allen and Mr Fraser had both had towels round their heads and an actuary at their elbows examining the financial statements ho had . produced, but the fruits of their examination had been exceedingly small. Every Minister for finance had to rely on figures many of which he never had the opportunity to touch at all. Anyone with sense knew that. Until the night of his arrival in New Zealand from England he had not been able to write a single paragraph for the Budget. He had a very heavy time in England—he did not expect credit for it from the Opposition. Coming out ho had missed his mail at Colombo and he had not received the ordinary figures for the Budget until getting to Hobart. He had devoted himself between Hobart and New Zealand to the huge arrears of public correspondence. He noticed that Mr James Allen at Shannon —where, by .the way, the people, who were keen students of politics, gave him a hot time —had tried to make the people believe that lie had corrected the Minister’s errors in tho Statement, As a matter of fact Mr _Allen had made more mistakes in five minutes of his speech on the Budget than any man ho had ever beard.

Mr Allen : Why don't you point them out? Sir Joseph Ward ; I did, aud you accepted them apparently. There were bon. gentlemen nodding assent all the time. The hon. gentleman was not responsible for his action, that was the only conclusion one could come to-