Financial Debate.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 13927, 4 August 1905, Page 3

Financial Debate.

Per Press Association. Wellington, August 3. Tho Financial Debate was resumed in the House by Mr Hogg-. He did not say the colony had not been thriving-, but 'he complained that the legislation of 1892-3 had not been followed up. The public works policy was sound and progressive and land legislation had done wonderfully good work, but in spite of that he pointed out that land was becoming more scarce every year and the Government^ must unlock more land.

Mr Hawkins said , the premier had pointed to the prosperity of the colony, "but how, he (Mr Hawkins) asked, could a country of 900,000 people be otherwise than prosperous ' when they had not merely the seven millions or .so of revenue, but also two millions of * borrowed money every s year ? People were asking why, if the colony 1 was in such a magnificent position it had to pay about 8£ per cent, to float its recent loans ? The people should be enlightened as to the gross expenditure of public money on the West Coast of the South 1 , island as compared with other parts of the col-, ony. Mr Herdman dealt with the Government's borrowing, awd ; pointed out that no matter whether loan moneys were invested in productive or non-pi-oduetive works the .interest had ultimately \to \ be paid »by the taxpayer. The whole of the ; Government's legislation hadj he declared, '. been- in the direction of driving capital out of the colony. If the Premier J sincerely and genuinely; desired to benefit all classes of the community, and particularly the working classes, he should reduce taxation through the Customs. \ ' The Hon. C. H. Mills said with regard to the : New Liberal party he was quite satisfied that the people wantixl only two political ! parties in the colony" It had been stated during the debate that , the J Customs Department - -accounts word not properly audited, but he emphatically denied that. There was still a steady increase of the Customs revenue. The figures} for the first four months of 1905 showed an improvement of £14,000 as compared with returns for the corresponding period last year. He showed* remissions that! had been made, by * the present . GoVernm.ent in Customs' duties. He justified the present system of laud valuation. Mr Jast Allen, said the Government had been transferring to the Public Works Fund and paying out of that fund to create a fictitious surplus. One of the results of Opposition criticism had been that curtain * items chargeable to the Consolidated Fund were i*>t charged io the i>ublic Works Fund as they used to be. Hei pointed to the fact that the vote for school buildings had been under-ex-pended by £30,000 while the votes for Slate coal mines had been overexpended by £13,000. He complained that again this year the Government had been utilising tiro Post Oflice Savings Bank funds to invest them in 1 three per cent:' scrip at 9-i. The Government could not have sold the stock anywhere at ( .H, and yet the Post Office had to taUe it at that price.

Sir J. G. Ward gave figures to show the reduction in taxation made by tho. present Government, totalling about £150,000. The Audit Department audited every item of expenditure, and had power of inquiry in regard to the revenue of all the departirJents. As to . th« Post Office Savings -Bank he pointed out that the whole of the people of the colony wcro behind it, and therefore there could be no deficiency. Turning- to the railways, ho pointed to tho increase in the mileage and to the fact that the Government had regarded the railways as a very valuable adjunct to the settlement of the colony, instead of merely as an interest-earn-ing concern. With regard to ' the charging "of itoms to capital ., which should be charged to revenue, he read a letter from the Chief Engineer denying that anything had been chargvd to capital which should have been charged to l-ovcmie. The Traffic Engineer also wrote stating that the engines written off had a tractive power of 3i),3721b5, and that out of revenue th<?y had been replaced by engines with a tractive power of Bf>,3l9lbs. Wear and tear and renewals were charged to revenue,- and he quoted Australia and England in support of the practice. With regard to what Mr Hawkins had said regarding tho unfair proportion of exponditurc of p\ibtic money in 1 certain districts, Sir Joseph snid it would be asking the TTouso to perform an act of insanity to lay down the rule that public works expenditure should only be made on population basis.

Mr McLachlan having spoken, the debate was adjourned.