Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, AUG. 2, 1924. THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16498, 2 August 1924, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, AUG. 2, 1924. THE FINANCIAL DEBATE.

For some time past Mr. Rolleston, the member for Timaru, has been looked ' upon as a man of ability and indepei/d- I fence. His speech last. Wednesday will | still further increase his reputation. Mr. ! Wilford had made a good fighting attack ' upon the Treasurer’s budget, but he. did i not. show the wider grasp of the financial | position of the country, which was evidenced by the careful, and well-thought- ! out, speech of the member for Timaru. Mr. 'Rolleston made it quite clear that ‘ we cannot go on borrowing £S,COO,CCO a year and at, the same time relieve taxation at the rate of £l,Ol/0,11,0 a year. He also made it plain that fur the last lew years the Treasurer has been living 1 upon his surpluses, in tins point Mr. I lWleston -sunt : "v\e have teen leaning ! «n me tuna rattier rnqre tlian is wise, i mime, ilio present position is Hint, oi auviimuiiuca surpluses totalling 25V, there is a. uuanee oi £4,»0t,7i4, ot wineii more than halt is invested m .Suite Advances securities Ail tiiat could be relied on in the future was a. cash balance oi' £1,850,077, winch -was gradually diminishing. These accumulated surpluses have been getting less year oy year, and probably next year or the year after we will have to do without it altogether.” It is not easy, in the confusion of figures given by members, taken from different views, to arrive at an intelligent idea, as to the true position of the country's finances for any one period. It would be easier if the principle were adopted, as Mr. Rolleston advocates, of making the finance of each year rest cm its own basis. Mr. McKeen is quite correct, from his point of view, in claiming that the surplus should have been shown as £2,352,000. Mr. Rolieston, again, is equally right, from his. angle of vision, in claiming that the actual and real balance for the year was only ,£387,365. If it. were a personal matter, we could ‘easily get to grips, with what, in Itlie case of the national finance, appears to be a hopeless tangle. Suppose a. business man lias by economy stored up £IOOO in the Post Office .Savings Bank and makes £SOO profit in his business during the year. If his living and taxes have run to £6OO and lie has bought ft motor car for £450, and invested £2OO in bank shares, according to our national system of book keeping his surplus would be £9OO, It is obvious his time position is that he had no surplus, but a deficit, for the year, and be. lias eaten up £750 of his savings. In the case of the Government’s finance for last year it spent. £1,000,OCX) in public works, £375,000 in the purchase of Bank of New Zealand shares, £SO,COO' to make good depreciation in the soldiers’ settlement fund, and £IOO,OOO as an advance to education loans account. These transactions bring out. a. true balance for the year of £387,365. As Mr. Rolleston said, it is no good crying over spilt milk. We have had a good time.. Kismet. It is more difficult to follow Mr. Rolleston in his view that the accumulated surpluses should have been used to reduce the permanent debt. Neither are we sure that lie is right that taxation should riot b© reduced. We are forced to agree with him that it is follacious/to reduce taxation on the one band and on the other to keep up an expenditure beyond our means which entails continual borrowing and re-borrow-ing to keep going and an annual increase in permanent charges. After allowing for the extraordinary expenditure incurred in settling the soldiers, which really is part, of the war expenditure.' forced upon the country, and not a penny of which is grudged, we are living beyond our means and entailing upon the people a. burden their limited numbers cannot tear. Until the population can be increased to share the common burdens, expenditure must be cut down and luxuries in public works cut out. Tt is, we fear, useless to hope for simplification of the public accounts. National economy is even more remote, It' is in vain that the Treasurer cries “wolf.” The truth is that the pack is within the household, and they are not contented with bones. That so strong and sane a speech could have been made by a staunch Government supporter is some sign that, the 'House is waking up to the fact, that to live beyond our means is to gamble upon continued prosperity and bigli prices for our products. f)TJRi MEMBERS. Mr, K. S. Williams has made his mark in the House, as a member, whose opinions; on all questions which affect the true progress of the Dominion, .are of real weight. Some men have for a time obtained credit for wisdom by following a plan of studied silent*. Mr, Williams is reticent hi public speech, but not of design. His good comradeship and prudent counsels in the real work of the session amply acquit him of such ft charge. The fact is that to any man who thinks, the great flow* of average Parliamentary talk, is illogical, contradictory, and inconclusive. He would not willingly cast himself into that cataract. Mr. Williams’ speech in the House on the financial debate was a model of what such a speech should be from the particular speaker. Mr. Williams dealt, with subjects that he knew all about, and which nine-tenths of his hearers were ill-informed Upon. He recqgnised the Government’s difficulties in settling the soldiersj yet', he unsparingly exposed their faults, in rushing men upon the land, without considering first, of all what, men were fitted for settlement, and eliminating the numerous men who were entirely unsuitable for, and ignorant of agricultural or semipastoral pursuits. These last should have been provided for in some other way. Although not. so intended, tlie speeches of Mr. Rolieston on finance, and Mr. Williams upon soldiers’ settlement —brief as this last, was—as indictments of poor administration are heavier than anything that has fallen from the lips of the leaders of the Opposition. The. reason is that the speakers knew knew what they were talking about. Tlic House listened with respect because they knew that the speakers were true men, speaking with knowledge. Mr. Lysnar, though heavily handicapped this session by his brief for the Poverty Bay Farmers’ Company, in their cause qf s complaint against the Minister for Agriculture and the Meal Board, lias done good work for the district. We are glad to note his fine insistence that, the rather thin excuses, of the Public Works Department, for stopping Hi© railway works, at. the point they had reached upon the southern, line to Napier, are too flimsy for words. We refuse to believe that all the money which has been spent, so far upon this line from Mnkaroka has teen so spent without a prosurvey as to the route to be followed. If this be so, it ; is a heavy impeachment. of Public 'Works methods. We are quite. sure that Mr. Lysnar will not leave the matter where is now stands. Tt is not too much to sav that with threatened reduction of the sea communications, which are still left to us,

the vigorous completion of this line is the most urgent work as a. first charge upon any funds which are available for public works. If Mr. Lysnar is not publicly supported, he may. fail in his effort- to keep the Government up tc their past, promise that this railway should stand first in the list of essential works, after Otira, which is now com pletert.

Messrs. G. M. Reynolds (chairman), J. Barns-Graham, W. G. Shcrratt,. and Gluts. Matthews proceed overland on Monday to interview the Minister of Public Works and the chairmnn of the Highways Board respecting the Cook County loan proposals.

'The Public Works Department has let a contract for the erection of a new Post Office at Motui, the price being in the vicinity of £llOO. Th© building, although not particularly large, will be a great improvement on the existing accommodation, and will contain all' tin modern facilities required in a country Post Office.

A periodic inspection t>f the local section,of the railways is being made by Mr. R. S. Kent, chief engineer of the Railway Department, and Mr. Jeffreys, District Railway Engineer. On Monday they will travel to Motuhora, making an inspection of the track and bridges; ahet subsequently will probably inspect the Ngatapa branch. A young Maori, Manu Pihema, was convicted by Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M.y and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon for attempted suicide at Gkauiu, near Matamata. Pihema had informed the police that he had taken a pellet of rabbit poison to frighten the parents of a girl whom he wished to marry. To the magistrate he said, verging on tears, that he recognised the silliness of his act. - The engineer in charge of the New Plymouth harbor works has been asked by the board' to prepare a comprehensive report on the conversion of the dredge Parilutu to a side discharge. vessel in order to expedite dredging by having the spoil conveyed to sea on barges-. The engineer was also asked for a general report on dredging, particularly in regard 1 to more effective and expeditious blasting.

There is an exceptionally keen demand for hoggets at the present time, and farmers who have lines for sale are receiving good prices. The winter has been very good as far as stock are concerned. and those who are now buying hoggets and wethers are evidently speculating on tlie coming season’s wool values. Small lines of hoggets that have been offered at- recent sales have met with keen competition, and any lines that are put up for private sale have met with a ready response from buyers.' . A pleasant function took place in the office of the Public Works Department yesterday afternoon, when ,members ol the staff gathered to bid farewell to Mi'. G. Hardy, who has been transferred to the Napier office. During the time Mi. Hardy has been in. the local office . lie has proved very efficient and very popular. At the gathering the Resident Engineer, Mr. G. W. Albertson, spoke appreciatively of the work of Mr. Hardy] and, in wishing him success in til© future, presented him with an inscribed fountain- peii, the gift of the staff. ’ Mr. Hardy suitably responded. The death occurred yesterday at Invercargill of Adjutant Alex. Hanford, of the, Salvation Army, a brother of Mrs, Norman Moore and Mrs. Herbert Halliivell, and Mr. G. G. Hanford, late of Gisborne,l and son of* the late Mrs. W. ,S. Hanford. The late Adjutant was at one time a resident of' Gisborne. He left hei'C for the Melbourne Training College, and. later returned to New Zealand. He was highly'esteemed by all who knew him. He leave's a wife and three young children to mourn their loss. ' •

During the Work of constructing the additions to the Post Office, the parcels post branch will be. accommodated in temporary quarters on the section on the corner of 'Customhouse street and Childers road. The present parcels building is now being removed to the new site, while other detached buildings used by the Post Office staff will also be shifted, almost immediately, so that there will be no obstruction to a prompt start on the new work as soon as the contractor is ready to proceed. The removal of these buildings does not come within the contract.

Amongst, the list ,of companies regis tered appearing in the Mercantile Gazette is the following : Gisborne Abattoir Byproducts Cby., Ltd., registered as a private company, July 17, 1924. Capital : £2705, into 541 shares of £5 each. Subscribers: Gisborne—P. F. Nelson 25, Jas. Osborn 50, Weir and Sons 20, J, 0. Newton 20, F. McNe© 5, T. Smellie 10. Sutcliffe, Telfer-and Forbes 10, O V. Russell 50, J. Machell 141, F. Cbllin 140, L. G. Cooper 20, Fisken and Ludwig 50. Objects : To carry on business of a boil-ing-down works, tallow and manure manufacturers, bone merchants;(to buy or sell machinery, plant', and raw or manufactured material.

Had tli© Hutt. Road Board or the 'Wellington City Council been desirous, of applying a, severe test to the bitumen surface in the Hutt. road, they could not have found a more searching one than the recent bursting of the water main, remarks the N.Z. Times. There is a pressure of 1501 b to the square inch on the water main, and when the burst came this terrific pressure expended itself on the bitumen surface, and it says something for its flexibility when it 1 is stated that it lifted the whole strata of the hot mix for two feet above its ordinary level before it cracked. It is this quality which those who claim to be authorities in the matter say shows its outstanding superiority over concrete, the rival of the hot mix.

“The traffic in the city is damnable,” declared Dr. Thacker, of Christchurch, nt an old’ timers’ social of the Canterbury Automobile Association. “In Manchester street, between Worcester and Cashel streets the road is blocked for two-thirds of the day by ears permanently parked parallel to the,, footpath, whereas in any civilised country cars are parked 45 degrees to the gutter. I say that this system of parking is a scandiil, and if this association put a voluntary patrol on something could be done for the motorists and the pedestrians. The associntion should ask the City Council what right has a country driver to come into the city to the peril of the motorists who have passed the motor inspector’s test.”

Some time ago the experiment was tried of coupling two of the box ears in the' Dunedin tramway service. It turned out. quite satisfactory as to the running, but the equipment would' 1 not serve for continuous use, not being designed for the purpose. New equipment has now. been procured, and at tne tramway workshops eight of these box cars are to be converted into four double cars. The coupled car requires two conductors, but only one mot orman. The suggestion to adopt -this method occurred to the tramway authorities in Dunedin when the now regulations, which mean increased expense in working, were first drafted. If the number of passengers is to be limited to the proportion stated it will not- pay to run the box cars separately. Now that the coupling has arrived, the new svstem will be' adopted whether the regulations are or are not enforced.

We understand (says the Herald) a local company has teen formed for the purpose of acquiring the old established proprietary gasworks in Pahiatatt. The new owners expect to assume control of the works shortly. ) During the night, some person, evidently armed with an iron bar of some description, cracked two of the plate glass windows of Messrs. Page,. Ltd., mercers and hatters, of Lambton Quay., Whether the work was that of a burglar or a mere vandal is not known. Nothing was stolen from the premise^. The farmers of New Zealand were told that the Labor party would rob and ruin them if it got into power, stated Mr Armstrong in the House of Representatives. But the only thing that the Labor party could rob the formers of New Zealand of was their mortgages; and he did not think that the farmers wohld object to it stealing them. (Laughter). , Snow fell to a depth of six inches.) last week (snyi? the Otqgo Times) and hard frosts have set in again, the lowest temperature recorded being 16 degrees of frost. Winter sports are in full swing. The toboggan track is well patronised’ by both young and old, the slide being' illuminated by petrol lights at night. Curling is qlso being indulged,in on one of the more sheltered dams. Great indignation has been expressed by a number of fruitgrowers in the vicinity of Auckland at- what they terra the “tremendous,disparity” in the prices paid to the grower and the consumer, (states the Star). There is a movement { afoot to start a shop in the city, XtyrjT which fruit will be consigned direct for ’ sale to. the public. The growers declare that they, are already guaranteed a supply of 5000 cascw of apples from Huapai alone, and that city ebrisnmers will be able to purchase-apples straight from tha. orchard at the proposed shop at an average price of 3d a pound all the year round.

The Gisborne Women’s Club, under the regime of its president (Mr. T. A’. Crawford) and her industrious corn's mittee, bids fair to become,, riot only a place for social enjoyment, but an in-

stigator of latent talent'. Th© Art and Handicraft Circle, llately formed., has met with unprecedented support, and many beautiful and exceedingly, useful articles hoave been turned out. Mrs Nat Hooper, who has so far occupied the dual position of chairwonfon and in- .. s true tress, placed before the circle at. the last fortnightly meeting a generous offer from a Gisborne lady to act as teacher of all forms of arts arid, crafts. This offer, which has been accepted, places he circle in a very advanageous position, and many club members are signifying their intention of joining. •

Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Christchurch North) mentioned in the House of Representatives a farm that' had changed hands no less than'six times in two years. On the first occasion, he stated, it was sold at £3O an acre, ,or , a total of £3600; but the sixth time the price was £95, an acre, or £ll*4oo in all. The first- fanner had an interest bill of £234 a year ; but the present- man was- paying £741 a year, or more than three,times as much, though absolutely nothing had been added to tha. productive value of the land. Stamp duties,: land agent’s; and lawyer’s fees, and other charges had added £lB- 6s 3d per act* to the price of the land. That, he' declared, was a state of affairs that should not be allowed to continue. <: V

After the Ongarue railway disaster, Riki Rangi Paoro, who at one time had a bicycle shop in Te Kuiti, set to work to patent an electric; railway lighting signal to- warn : drivers of slipti . on the line. By all accounts thee*G experiments have proved very, successful T and the young inventor.has extended, his researches, whereby the apparatus .will automatically close all gates, ■ including those on railway carriages., Riki Rangi was one of Ratani’s. party which is now at Home. The invention ivjts submitted to the London Committee of the Lfeague of Nations, the members, of which,! it is stated, very favorably .coriitiemml the same. This week a-cable Was ieceivbd by Ratana’s people-in New 2eklritid risking for'the remittance of ‘ £6OO, tq enable the invention to he patenied;throughout the world! The amount hits been cabled!