The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, APRIL 4,1909. SIR JOSEPH WARD'S BUDGET.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 3312, 4 May 1909, Page 4

The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1909. SIR JOSEPH WARD'S BUDGET.

In the halcyon days of Seddonism the annually recurring surplus was the chief theme of admiration by the late Air S;ddon, his journalistic isupporteis, and Gov( rnmont claqueurs geuera'.ly. The surplus, although fluctuating considerably between the years 1900 and 1903, rose to the munificent sum of £649,741 in 1904, and reached the unprecedented amount of £788,794 in 1900. \Ye fondly i niugiiHM.l that it would eventually roach seven figures in the following year, but our hopes were doomed to disappointment. Sir Joseph Ward certainly showed a surplus of £717,8*25 for that year, and of £707,849 in 1908, some £20,000 short of Air Soddon’ts best efforts in the art of financial jugglery. Rut for 1909 Sir Joseph Ward haw to be content with the miserable .sum of £184,321, indicating that he could not extract nearly as much from the people in th« shape of taxation as his illustrious predecessor, simply because their spending power had been greatly diminished by the depression which commenced with the American financial crisis. This, too, in spite of the

fact that Sir Optimist Ward said that New Zealand was outside the zone of financial fire. His assertion was falsified by the fall in the price of wool alone, which seriously affected the wool-growers of this country, and through them our traders and other sections of New Zealand’s population. It was contended at the time by a Alinisterial special pleader that the reduction in the price of wool would only be felt by a few large squatters. Now Sir Joseph Ward appears as a veritable Daniel—a Daniel come to judgment. He confesses that the monetary stringency prevalent in New Zealand is due to the depreciation of £3,000,000 in the value of wool, accentuated by the fall in the price of flax, and through money being Locked up in land. He also admits that there was only a decrease of £54,761 in the receipts for the past financial year. AYe admire him for his candour, especially when we consider that there was an increase in revenue over expenditure of £814,716 for the year 1907 and of £656,871 for 1908. It is a moral certainty that Sir Joseph AVard could not eat his financial cake and still possess it intact. He could not go playing the part of tlie political profligate, and still have the same collossal surplus to boast of as of yore. Neither can lie go on distributing Ministerial plums to appease dissatisfied electors. The sum of over £400,000 was distributed in this manner for the September quarter of last year, affording proof that Sir Joseph Ward is facile princeps in the art of “nobbling the constituencies.” New Zealand bears the reputation of being one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world, and our Colonial Wizard of Finance has added to this unenviable reputation by augmenting the debt of the colony by £1,663,173

during his three years of office—a feat worthy of his great predecessor in office in the heydey of the country's prosperity. It is evident that the Hon. A. AY. Hogg had not the sanction of the Premier in approving of the wild cat paper currency scheme that a hand of political irresponsibles are feverishly anxious to foist upon the people of New Zealand. Sir Joseph AA’ard rightly holds that a system oi paper cuireney would he fatal without a gold backing —a view entertained by all sober-minded people. A\'e are disappointed that Sir Joseph AVard did not disclose his retrenchment proposals during his Budget speech on Saturday night, as these are looked forward to with interest, not only by many Civil Servants, but by all those who evince an interest in the good government of the Dominion.