The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1895.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1774, 7 June 1895, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JUNE 7 , 1895.

The last mail brought reports of the Colonial Treasurers speech before the London Chamber of Commerce on April 25th, which was mentioned in the cablegrams a day or two afterwards. We have now read three of those reports, furnished to as many of our contemporaries (the Lyttelton Times, the Press, and the Otago Daily Times), It is evident that Mr Ward met with an excellent reception, and the speech contained a good deal that every sensible man who is acquainted with the position must endorse. Of course Mr Ward spoke as the Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand — as an important member of the Seddon Ministry — and he placed the finance and general policy of his Government in the most favourable light. No one can blame him for so doing. He must be credited with a thorough belief in the finance and in the policy ; and he certainly did not go to London to advocate the views of the Opposition out here. The first thing that we looked for when these reports came to hand was the paragraph, contained in a cablegram which reached the colony on the 27th April, in regard to the amount of unpledged securities lying in London at the disposal of the New Zealand Government when Mr Ward asked Parliament to assent to the collection of the land tax four months before it would have been payable in due course. That cablegram represented Mr Ward to have denied, in his speech before the Chamber of Commerce, that the land tax had been collected early because the Government were hard up. He said that it had been done merely in order to avoid the needless issue of Treasury bills. And then (still according to the cablegram) he added — "Moreover the colony at that time possessed £3,000,000 of unpledged securities in London, twothirds of which he had himself forwarded at the time of the crisis in Australia, in order to guard against any emergency." No sooner had that message been published than its truthfulness was questioned all over the colony. It was declared to be impossible that New Zealand could have had such a mass of unpledged securities lying in London at the time referred to. Writing on April 30th we suggested that the extraordinary statement must be set down as a blunder on the part of the Press Association's agent, and we alluded to the fact that a story of the same sort though relating to a much smaller sum had found currency some time previously in New Zealand, on the Treasurer's responsibility, and had been contradicted on evidence which could not be upset. As to the statement in the cablegram the Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times went to the trouble of turning up the figures. They are worth re peating now when the reports ot the speech, from three independent sources, are to hand. He wired from Wellington as follows : — " We had of Government debentxires issued under the Consolidated Stock Act of 1884, £1,306,100. These were held on the following Government deposits :— For the Public Trustee, £20,400 ; for the public debt sinking fund commissioners, £19,400; for the Government Insurance, £494,300; for the Post Office Savings Banks, £754,400; do, £17,600;— total, £1,306,100. There were held also for the Post Office Savings Bank : Oamaru gas bonds, £9000; Oamaru Harbour bonds, £33,400; and Imperial guaranteed debentures, £324,000; — total, £466,400. There were held for the

consolidated fund (Treasury bills having been issued against them), .£476,000 of Imperial guaranteed debentures, and for the public works fund £220,000 of Wellington and Manawatu railway debentures ; — total, £696,000." According to that statement,- and we have never seen its accuracy impugned, the total amount of unpledged securities in London at the command of the Government of New Zealand at the time to which Mr Ward referred was the £476,000 of Imperial guaranteed debentures. No official notice was taken of the cablegram, as far as we remember, but a semiofficial intimation was given that it would be wise to let the question rest till the mail with the report of the speech arrived, or till Mr Ward himself returned to the colony. The mail has arrived, and in each of the three reports to which we have referred there stands the bold statement about the £3 ; 000j000 of unpledged securities lying in London. We shall quote only from , the London letter of the Lyttelton Times, a consistent supporter of the Government. This is the paragraph: — "Loud applause greeted the explanation that at the time when Mr A. J. Wilson and his satellites were pointing to the early collection of the land tax as a proof of the colony's insolvency, the Government had not merely good balances to its credit in the country, but had three millions of unpledged securities lying at the Bank of England in London." It is clear therefore that the sender of the message did not blunder. He must have got his information from the London papers and transmitted it accurately. There is the possibility that the papers blundered, but it is highly improbable, because if such had been the case, a contradiction would have been cabled to the colony. Errors of much smaller importance are constantly being cabled from London to the uttermost ends of the earth. Besides which, the correspondents, whose reports have now been received, would have been apprised of the error, and would not have allowed it to figure in their letters. We assume, therefore, that Mr Ward did make the statement attributed to him ; and we are sure that it was grossly inaccurate — frightfully so. It is hard to say how the Colonial Treasurer could have fallen into such an error. Now let us look at the matter from another standpoint. Let us suppose that Mr Ward was right — that the £3,000,000 were actually lying unpledged in London at the time when he introduced the Bill for the earlier collection of the land tax. What then becomes of his plea of urgency, as interest on the public debt had to be paid in London by a certain date ? Why should the land-owners of New Zealand have been harassed for the payment of a tax before it was due, when the money could have been obtained in London at a moment's notice on that mass of idle securities ? Considering the state of the colony, it would have been far cheaper to pay heavily for an advance than to take such a large sum of money out of the farmers' pockets four months before the proper time. Look at it which way we may, it is evident that the Colonial Treasurer will have one or two awkward questions to answer when he makes his appearance in the House.