THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, OCTOBERS 23, 1896.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10630, 23 October 1896, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, OCTOBERS 23, 1896.

The case to be presented against, the Government in the '■ coming election Campaign differs both in kind and in gravity from the case which was advanced by the Opposition of 1893. Ministerialists .will, not improbably, seek to ignore this difference.. The "Liberal" party; we shall be told, was in power in 1893 as it is torday; Mr Seddon was Premier then as now; the policy of the Government was assailed, and its opponents were defeated. Why, it will be asked, should the electors act j differently next month ? Let it be ] borne in mind that at the time of the last general election Mr Seddon had been First Minister for only seven months, and though in that short space he had not failed to show the inferiority of his principles and methods in comparison with those of his predecessor, still the policy upon which the country was called upon to pronounce a verdict was* speaking generally, the policy of Mr Balance. We disapproved the main features of that policy, and the result of the election was a disappointment. But though the principles underlying Mr Balance's legislation were questionable, he had adhered faithfully to a financial policy of self-reliance and non-borrowing—at all events, so far as the main body of the public finance was concerned. No doubt there had been some borrowing, but it had been of an indirect and minor character. And in the interval between JVlr Ballaitoe's death and the general election Messrs Seddon and Ward did not reverse this policy. They went to the country as non-borrowing Ministers. Mr BamiAwob had said in his last Financial Statement, "We have marched for 20 years at a f uriouß pace, too severe to last, and we have piled up obligations which would make some men pause "; and Mr Wabd,^ having succeeded Mr Ballakce as Colonial Treasurer, declared, "We find that borrowing is not necessary, and have decided to carry on the business of the country without having recourse to it." These words were uttered just before the .election of 1893, and it was as a non-borrowing Government that Ministers sought and obtained a renewed expression of confidence at that election. They—or, rather the remnant, with a few commonplace additions^are now asking for another renewal,—and on what grounds are they asking ? As continuers of Mr BaltjANCe's policy of self-reliance ? Mr Seddon would probably be equal to making this claim; and, indeed, he does talk of the " Liberal" policy of the last six years as though there had been no serious breach of continuity. But surely there cannot be many electors so wilfully or stupidly, _blind as not to see that the Ministers and Ministerialists whose self-reliant principles they endorsed three years ago have wantonly deserted those prin- j ciples, and that the Suddon-Wakd policy has been a direct inversion of the policy of Mr Baujanoe. With light-hearted recklessness Ministers have gone on piling up those obligations which, as Mr Ballanoe said, ". would make some mon pause." Having secured their places on the strength of such statements of intention aa that

■which we just now quoted from one of Mr Ward's speeches, they lost no time in starting the borrowing game. In the first session they produced 51 plunging Budget—insisting, and teaching their docile followers to insist, that they were not borrowing, not .adding to the obligations of the country —only seeming to do so. This year, their "strong finance" haying left them with an empty treasury, they have been forced to borrow in a more open and old-fashioned way. No oratorical conjurer can make the loan recently authorised appear other than what it is—a serious addition to the permanent and annual obligations of the colony. And this i 3 the Government whose Treasurer declared three years ago that they found they could do without borrowing and had decided to carry on the business of the country without having recourse to it. And they have been supported and encouraged by members who pledged themselves to a non-borrowing policy. We question whether the history of politics can show a more wanton abandonment of declared principles. The financial position was clearly explained by Mr Sadsdbbs, the venerable member for Selwyn, who addressed the electors at Kir wee on Monday. We quite agree with the Christcluirch Press that Mr Saundeks cannot be exonerated from blame, in that he has refused definitely to oppose a Government whose policy he disapproves. In the matter of votes he has not been particularly independent, and •we shall not be sorry if he finds himself replaced by a staunch anti-Ministerialist. But these considerations do not affect the force of Mr Saotders's criticism of financial policy. He is no amateur in finance, I having been chairman of the Public j Accounts Committee for five years. He j,pointed out that—whereas the average annual borrowing of the J3al:lanoe J Government, inclnding the money for j Cheviot,, was the average borrowing of the Sbddoh Government had been £1,375,000, to which must be | added £218,000, the average annual rate at which they reduced the £700,000 of borrowed money which was in hand when they came into office, and which their " strong finance " had brought down to £45,000 on the 31st of last March, —" thus practically in- j creasing our debt by £1,594,000 a j year." A Government which decided to carry on the business of the country without having recourse to borrowing ! After considering the probable effect of continued borrowing upon the, rate of interest on the whole debt, "which we should feel as each conversion became due," and excluding the liabilities in connection with the Bank of New Zealand,' Mr Saotders's final calculations lead him to the belief that the reversal of the Bai^ance policy will lay an additional obligation of £2108 per day upon the taxpayers of the colony. "In other words, £2108 per day, a sum sufficient to pay 5s per day all the year round to 8432 labourers, would probably have to be sent out of this impoverished country for all time to come to pay the foreign bondholders in consequence of the fearfully mistaken policy of men who really believed themselves to be, the friends of labour." Did the/electors ask" for this in 1893 ? Will they give thanks for it in 1896 ?

The financial question is not the only question upon which the electors •will be called upon to declare their opinion, but it is of salient importance, and our readers will not have failed to note the views expressed by Mr P. Faitheull 13egg, M.P., as "reported in our issue of Tuesday. The opinion of a candid and well-informed observer is always worth attending to, and Mr Begg's abilities and personal connection with New Zealand and Punedin give him a special claim to respectful hearing. He has been filled with ast6nishment and dismay by the recent financial policy of thd colony. " Only once there seemed to me to be a gleam of returning sanity, when Mr Bailanob brought in his self-denying ordinance, and resolved to borrow no more. I quite remember one of the leading London journals at that time remarking that this reminded them of the drunkard's promise not to buy any more liquor until he had finished the present bottle. This prediction was very much resented at the time, but it appears to have been literally fulfilled, as the present action of the Government shows." These are the words of a disinterested Home politician, and the electors will do well to ponder them. Equally suggestive and equally sound were Mr Begg's remarks concerning the future—the future as it may be, i£ electors will only recognise the folly of the past, and the peril of the present, before it is too late: "I would return with regard to finance to the policy initiated by Mr BailjANOE—that is to say, a complete abstinence from further borrowing; and in the department of general politics it seems to nic that what is required is discontinuance of all legislative proposals which involve unsettlingtliebasis upon which property rests. In short, the colony wants a period of careful administration, with as little new legislation as possible." In other words, our politics must be freed from the demoralising domination of Mr Seddon.