CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1921, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

"MELANCHOLY QUEENSLAND.” (To the Editor.) Sir,—lf your Toko correspondent would read the Bulletin, he would never write about Queensland. I enclose cuttings from the last number, which are illuminating. The worst tiling, though, is about the railways, which, through putting on three men to do one man’s work, lias ended in a three-milfion deficit, yet the E.D., F. & C. Union recent!}' resolved that, ;as all the engines were out of repair, it was , only possible to get to the journey’s end by large quantities of horse manure to stop the leaks. Coming from the workers, no adverse comment could beat this.—l am, etc., SETTLER. Rahotu, October 26. (Enclosures.) Nothing indicates with more damnable emphasis the rapid descent wherein the Theodore Government has involved Queensland than the figures regarding public relief. The totals for 1920 passed all previous records, but 1921 puts them completely in the shade. This is how matters stand:— Year ending June 30, 1919 .. £28,162 6 6 Year cTiding June 30, 1920 .. 77,938 12 11 Year ending June 30, 1921 . . 120,000 0 0

So that, judged by • the official statement of doles distributed, the number of out-of-work and destitute in Bananaland has gone up over 50 per cent. In 12 months. There has been no drought, no series of devastating floods, no collapsing of banks to explain it: it has been due simply to governmental incapacity, shirk, and cowardice.

When the Queensland debt was a mere £52,900,000, the exuberant Fihelly (he wasn’t Treasurer then) wrote a pamphlet to say that its magnitude appalled him. It is now £81,000,000, and £29,000,000 will have to be provided for within four years, and, of course, there isn’t a sinking fund, and Fihelly's Government hasn’t a shot in the locker. What makes things worse is that most of the maturing loans are 3% and 4 per cent, propositions floated as far back as 1884. Agonised at Hie prospect, the Auditor-General has appealed to the Government to struggle out of the chaos that is engulfing It, and present such balance-sheets "as will appeal to the State's creditors and tend to the obtaining of favorable renewal terms.” Treasurer Fihelly has risen to the occasion heroically. He has brought down another £9,185,000 Loan Bill.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Queensland Auditor-General’s staggering report is a little table dealing with the increases in population, receipts and expenditure for 192021, as compared with 1916-17. Increases on a percentage basis showed up as follows: —Population, 10.3 per cent.; income tax, 218.7 per cent.; totalisator tax, 43.4 per cent.; licenses, 2.6 per cent. ; land tax, 29.4 per cent.; stamp duty, 105.7 per cent. The total public debt at the end of 1919-20 was £69,680.764, while at j the close of 1920-21 it amounted to £80,382,051, an increase of £10,701,288. A leap of £l4 per head in public debt in 12 months surely beats anything this side of the equator. Incidentally, the Auditor-General devotes a paragraph to the Premier’s visit to England, and shows that the little jaunt cost the country £4043 Ils 3d. When Wullle Kidston paid a visit to the Cold Land. at. a cost of about £9OO, the Labor Party of the day called It extravagant. But. evidently Wullle didn’t know the ABC of the game.