The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1889. OUR FINANCIAL POSITION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1917, 16 July 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1889. OUR FINANCIAL POSITION.

Cablegrams a few days ago informed us that the Melbourne Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald published , articles lauding the financial position of this colony to the skies, and Sir 1 Harry Atkinson for having extricated us out of the Slough of Despond. We are informed, also, that the credit of the colony has been greatly improved, i and that now we are regarded everywhere as on the high road to prosperity. This is pleasant news, but let ' us see by what magic art this happy \ state of things has been brought about. : Sir Harry Atkinson has effected some retrenchment it is true, but we do not believe it is anything near so large as has been stated. Sir Harry Atkinson ■ I has boasted that he has effected a saving of £230,000, but really we do not believe it. He has no doubt made ' it appear so, but let us remember that a part of that is the reduction of the number of members, which has not been reduced yet. We are still paying the honorariums of 95 members, so that we have saved nothing in that way. Another way in which savings have been effected is that the subsidies to | local bodies have been reduced. This is no saving. The local bodies have to pay it in direct taxation. Another , is the abolition of provincial auditors and charging public bodies now for auditing their accounts. Local bodies must now pay auditors, instead of the Government doing so as heretofore. The Government also nearly suspended public works last year, and dismissed the officers of the public works department. We are promised that many railways will be pushed ahead shortly, and these public •fficers will hare to be re-employed. The saving, therefore, was only for a time, to make a show, so as to throw dust in the people's eyes. Great noise was made about the reductions effected in salaries last year, but we find in the financial statement that they have been increased again this year by about £50,000. Taking all these i things into consideration we have I very little hesitation in saying that a j great deal of the so much tallied of I retrenchment ia mythical. It is not i retrenchment that has improved the i condition of the colony; that is certain. The amount sayed by retrenchment J

would not be felt ono way or the other. What then ? Simply taxation. Sir Harry Atkinson iucreased taxation by £330,000, and by doing this he has been able to pay his way. Now, is it not ridiculous to praise the man for taxing the people ? Could not any fool do it? This is all Sir Harry Atkinson has done. He has heaped taxation on the people, he has had sufficient money to pay his way, and for doing so he is lauded to the skies. It is very remarkable that articles favorable to Sir Harry Atkinson always appear in the Australian papers, but perhaps when the fact is remembered that the Bank of New Zealand and the N.Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Company have branches in all these places, it will not be regarded as such an extraordinary thing. Let it be remembered that Sir Harry Atkinson has often been styled " the book-keeper of the Bank of New Zealand." What then is easier for the manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Melbourne than to walk into a newspaper office there, have a talk with the editor, explain to him what a splendid fellow the bookkeeper is, and what dastardly cowardly rascals those who oppose him are. That is very easy, and that is how it is frequently done. We wore told by the prophets that the colony would go to ruin and misery if protection were adopted. We have adopted a sort of protection, and what is the result ? The whole world is admiring the way the colony is recovering from the depression. This ought to make people think before placing much reliance in future on the utterances of freetrade orators.