Another “Superior Person”

Southland Times, Issue 12767, 28 November 1893, Page 3

Another “Superior Person”

Mr John Duthie, who is standing for Wellington, is a hardheaded Aberdonian, yet withal a generous man, and this is what he had to say to an audience about the Government’s ways and means : —

After dealing with the broken promises of Ministers as to the penny post, Mr Duthie proceeded to deal with the Government finance, and said that a splendid opportunity had occurred for the remission of taxation on the necessaries of life, but the Government had not taken advantage of it. The surplus had arisen on the Atkinson tariff. The Government claimed that there had been prosperity owing to the Government policy, but any prosperity the country enjoyed was from its frozen meat and dairy industries. There was, however, great lack of employment in the country, owing to the feeling of insecurity causing the locking up of money. Our largest organisation, the Union Co., had had to reduce wages, and money was being sent to Australia. The Government claimed that it gave employment with the surpluses, but the taking of unnecessary taxation out of the pockets of the people reduced their power of employment. For instance, if a woman had to make her boys’ boots last another month, owing to the extra money paid in taxation, there was so much the less employment for the bootmakers. The Government, by borrowing money locally, raised the rate of interest by cleaning out the local funds, and high interest meant low wages. The “ non-borrowing ” policy of the Government was a sham, for it was borrowing for a variety of purposes. The Government was now converting loans not merely for the advantages to be derived from conversion, but in order to get the sinking funds. Mr Duthie entered at length into the conversion operations of the Imperial guaranteed debentures, stating that in place of 1,20,000 per annum interest on this loan, the colony was now paying 1/21,350, besides having added to the capital debt by LI 10,000, and this was to get at L 160,000 of sinking funds. Such a transaction could only have been effected by a profligate and spendthrift Government. The net public debt was now L 38,923,940, an increase of L 1,564,783 since the Government took office, and the yearly interest had increased by over L 37,000. The Government had in addition inc’reaased the floating debt of the colony by half a million, and this Government since its accession to office had increased the liabilities of the colony by L 2,757,000. The position might be serious to his noisy friends, for the Government, having spent all the money available, would leave an empty chest, and they might at any moment be thrown out of employment. The Government policy had been, “ Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.” The position was not a pleasant one for a colony to stand in with a load of debt on its shoulders. The Government proposed no remedy, but the supporters propounded such schemes as a State Bank and Government note issue. The note issue of the banks was usually under a million, and against this they had two and a half million of bullion. If, therefore, the Government took upon itself the note issue, it would have to keep bullion against it, or its notes would be at a discount, like American greenbacks. The Premier was now coquetting with borrowing and talked of borrowing money for small farmers. After dealing with the impracticability of this, he proceeded to deal with the graduated taxation, which had failed in its avowed object of bursting up large estates. Referring to the Lands for Settlements Bill, he said the bitter course would have been to have left the purchase of estates in the hands of the Land Boards. After put chasing the Cheviot estate, ostensibly to relieve the congestion of the towns, the Government was advertidng it in Australia. The course pursued would tend by competition to raise the price of sections to amounts that would ruin those who took them up, as had been the case in many instances on the Watmate Plains.