MR SEDDON'S FINANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3625, 21 August 1901, Page 4

MR SEDDON'S FINANCE.

TWO WAYS OF BOXING THE COM PASS. i

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald." Sir, —I read the Financial Statement as reported in the " Timaru Herald " on the 17th inst., and it gave m* a surprise after all the boastings of Ministers regarding the alleged prosperity and Government surpluses of the colony. Every time the colony* a skipper, and his Minister of Marine, boxed the compass for the past few years, we had an excellent report, "everything most satisfactoiy, ship on the right course, full steam ahead, people of the colony (the -crew) in the best of spirits, and full of hope. Finances buoyant." And the people cheered, made merry, and said, " good old Dick, he's the right sort of skipper." A few there were, it is true, who found fault, and advised a mora strict examination of this compass-boxing, but they were cried down by the majority of the crew, and treated with contempt by the " skipper," who said,* " pessimists, I • take no heed of you." Once more the people cheered and Sir; pessimists take no heed of them." With such fair sailing, the skipper, or in | plain words, the Right Hon. the Premier, brings in a Bill and raises the salary and allowances of Lord Ranfurly, the Governor, by about £2500 a year, and at the same time raises his own salary and that of other Ministers by a few hundreds each. Now what excuse was there for these higher salaries? The Governor can travel throughout the colony as cheaply as any of his predecessors in office, and we heard \ no complaint from them. He has a free passage, by Government steamer, from port to port, free trains too by land, he is usually the guest of some well-to-do gentleman - in whatever district he visits, and is met at the train by a private carriage, and altogether travels very comfortably, and to all appearance without any great expense. And the Ministers. What about them? Well, the Premier said "the country was in a very prosperous condition and could afford to pay its Ministers a higher ealary," although, to be exact in this matter, we must confess he did not say so until after the last General Election. He voted £4O last session to each of the members of the House, or rather he gave them a chance to vote it for themselves, after he had got his salary raised. It has been suggested that this £4O voted was promised privately to members if they were of good behaviour and Taised'vthe Ministerial salaries, but this is stoutly d6pied by the members who were allowed to caucus meetings of the Government party. However that may be, it was generally believed, on the word of

Ministers, that the colony had lots of money and surpluses to spare, and that the Premier, if he had got matters all his own way, would have attended the opening of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament with a body-guard of a thousand New Zealand Volunteers at a very considerable expense to the colony. When the Hon. W. Hall-Jones gave us what ha called his post-sessional address a few months ago, he said, in speaking of the colony's finances : —" Upon my word, ladies and gentlemen, we had that much money we did not know what to do with it." Now let us compare this statement with a sentence or two taken from the Premier's Financial Statement. I quote the Premier's own words: —"I advise, and that in good faith, that at the present time the good steamer ' Finance' should be ' steadied' that ' slow' and not ' full speed ahead' should be the order of the dial." Later on the Premier says:—-"Certainly- the greatest care and economy will require to be exercised by my colleagues and myself to keep the public works expenditure within ways and means. We shall be aided in this endeavour if members will restrict their demands in Tespect to the requirements of their districts." Comparing the statement of the member for Timaru with that of the Premier, I am forced to ask mvself, Who told the truth? Or in other words, Who told the other thing? I am thoroughly convinced that there are two ways of boxing the State ship's compass. One way is for the raising of Ministers' salaries, when reports say "finances buoyant," " everything prosperous," " full steam ahead." The other way of boxing the compass applies to the requirements of the people, and the reports say " I advise -in good faith that ' finances should be steadied," and " slow down be the order of the dial," and members must restrict their demands in respect to the requirements of their districts, or the good ship will founder from being overloaded with loans. Meanwhile, the people can go without roads and bridges, or anything else they require, as they have done in the past, and the Governor and 'Ministers can live in luxury, grow fat and rich, at the expense of the taxpayers, until a skipper is elected (for the ship of" State) who has only one way of boxing the compass, and one way of making his report, and that way a truthful one.

I am, etc., VERACITY. Timaru, August 20th, 1901.