THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1914. THE SURPLUS AND LOANS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 7554, 18 April 1914, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1914. THE SURPLUS AND LOANS.

The address given by tho Hou .las. Alien, at iiiltou, was uoteworMiy by reason of its particularly lucid explanation of the position of tho country's finance, and its crushing reply to the pessimism of those political opponents with whom the wish is father lo many depressing thoughts. Mr Q. W. I{ussell, M.P., who appears to have been entrusted by th-a Opposition eainip;;, : ign leadcr.s with the task of belittling the Government's financial ability, made the (fiuto confident.assertion recently that the Government had only transferred £50,000 of the £-G7s,fiOU it had promised to transfer to (lie Public Works Fund by March Hist. "They then owed/' said Mr Russell, with that convincing llourish of his, £025,000, and there was only £527,000 in the Public Account. . . - This was tho position into which the country had besh, brought by having those- amateur financiers on the- box seat instead of a man like Sir Joseph Ward," etc., etc. Mr Allen, in tho course of his address, made special re|fcrence to Mr liussell's arithmetical

peculiarities, ami) , 'explained to his audience that the full amount of £G'ib, 000 (not £so,ooo)'had been transferred from the Consolidated Fund to the Public Works Fund, and that every treasury bill had been paid off before March 31st. Added to this Mr Allen had to make the annoying announce-

incut that there -was a niuguilicent surplrs of £400,000. To Opposition ists like Mr Kussell who, hi regretful tones, have. 'been prophesying; 'a deficit, this will come ; as sad news indeed. Nevertheless we do not fear for Mr Ilussell, knowing that that gentleman frequently makes assertions which he knows will not tear the light of investigation, but a few of he hopes, nevertheless, to ' impress' upon the * more -undiscerniug elector.; I'fhe surplus, as revealed by Mr Allen, is one of the few '"genuine" that have been announced -to the country for the past twenty years. Mr Allen has refrained, according to

promise, from the old Liberal method of swelling the surplus by means of ' the proceeds from land sales, so that

this year the sum of £102,000 has been properly devoted to the' fund for the prosecution of further;'-''settlement-. Thus the surplus is the sounder by reason of it having no connection with unworthy bookkeeping tactics ; it is an actual surplus of £400,000, after the transfer of £675,000 to the

Public Works Fund, and allowing for a total loss of £200,000 for the strike and the epidemic. Dealing also with the relative costs of the various loans floated since 1910, concerning which there has been a great doal of controversy and misrepresentation, Mi: Alien (juoted the official figures that serve to separate once and for all the sense

from the nonsense in this matter. Sir J. G. Ward's loan of £5,000,000, raised in 1!)UJ- for the miserable period of four years, cost the country sills scl per cent, ; and the Hon. A. M. flyers' loan of ,£1,500,000 in 1912,. covering the * still more miserable

period of two years, cost the country £'s Is Id. In comparison with these official figures, the loans raised by the Hon. J. Allen make the boast-

ed financial aWlilv of Sir Joseph Ward and Mr Mvors a thing of stu, pidity. Mv 'Allen'si loan of £3,ooo,U;jtl raised in .February, 1913, was for a term of 30-50 years, and cost X. 1 5s Id ; his loan of £3,500,000, raised in (X'lobiT H)l3 to meet Mr Myers' miserable two-war loan, covered 1'

jcriocl of ten years .(convertible, 'into 30-50 years), and cost the country, bonds X] Ss sd, stork i-1 3s 3d j Ins final loau of .C,1,000,00U (CI,OOO,OUU oi which was to pay oil' Mr Myers' loan), raised in January of this year, covered a period of ten years (convertible into 30-50 years) and subscribed live-fold. at a cost to the country which is estimated to be lower than am- of .Mr Allen's other successful loans. These sorts oi figures , speak for themselves, and -when the Government can show such ai splendid result within two years, the country has. reason to look forward to a series of years of sound iinanc;' and luv-dthy jrovenmienl under the Reform Administration. It is regrettable ibat such success should briim ehairrm to •<n> porters of the Opposition, but we fed .«ure that with a little more time to foi-pet the bitterness of recent defeats, they too will rejoice in the additional measure of prosperity and security that the change from reckless to sound /malice is bringing them. '