Free Lancings

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 706, 9 July 1892, Page 10

Free Lancings

Here shall the Press the People's Eight maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain ; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion. Liberty and Law.

Sei/f-heliance is the -keynote of the Financial Statement that has just been brought down by the Government, for ifc propounds a new doctrine of finance, and one that will be as distasteful to the reckless and improvident as it is certain to be acceptable to the thrifty and prudent. We have for the last twenty years and more been living on borrowed money. Our Colonial Treasurers, when they could not make both ends meet, made the deficit good from borrowed money ; our railways, political and otherwise, oar roads and bridges, and even our publio buildings were constructed from borrowed money, and when our indebtedness increased to a great amount and a large charge for interest had to be met annually, that also was provided for out of borrowed money. We were virtually living on loans ; the greatest financier was he who could borrow most and spend it fastest. But the day of reckoning came. With our indebtedness at nearly forty millions, our credit was exhausted, and we ceased to borrow because no one would lend.

This was the position when Mr Ballance took possession of the keys of the Exchequer, and his opponents gleefully predicted failure or fresh borrowing. But we have had neither. We have been warned that the Ballance Government was an extravagant and corrupt one, and yet the Colony has recovered itself and prospered under its adminstration. And now Mb Ballance himself has met the representatives of the people with a Budget such as has not been delivered in New Zealand for many a long day. The prosperity of the nation means the prosperity of communities and individuals, and viewed in this light we have all reason to be gratified with the Budget of 1892. Ifc is remarkable for evidences of prosperity. Take the fact that there is a substantial surplus, that £100,000 has been paid off the floating debt during the year, and that ior the first time for many years, if not, indeed, for the first time in our history, public works have been paid for from the ordinary revenue of the Colony. These are in themselves three remarkable indications of financial reform upon which colonists have reason to congratulate themselves.

Mb Ballance has accomplished much in even making both ends meet, but in living well within his income, and saving a portion of it for useful public purposes, he has justified the prediction of his friends that he was the man to lead New Zealand safely out of the labyrinth of financial difficulties into which the recklessness of previous Governments has ensnared her. Nor is it only in the matter of finance that the Government has done well. To use Ma Ballance's own words : — ' It is no small thing that we were able to pay off £200,000 of the floating debt in one year, one half the amount coming out of the revenue ; and that we should have devoted £30,000 out of the revenue for roads and bridges, and made good from

the same source the deficit of the land -fund. Above and beyond this I have had the gratification of announcing a splendid surplus of £165,000 brought over from last year, due partly to the improved position of the great body of consumers who contribute to the revenue through the Customs, and partly to economical administration. The people have more to spend, and have had the courage and heart to spend more in this direction than in previous years. Economy on the expenditure side is seen in the ' unauthorised,' whioh is the smallest on record, while the liabilities have also touched low- water mark, showing that payments were promptly made, and none held over. Many of the difficulties attending industrial employment have been overcome ; and what has been accomplished may inspire us with the hope that the time is not far distant when the satisfactory solution of the labour problem will have been discovered. In the introduction of a new system of taxation many obstacles stood in the way to be overcome. The result, on the whole, has been as successful as the strongest advocate of the principles on which ifc is founded could have desired; the great departments of the Government have been administered with vigour and prudence ; the lands have been disposed of for the benefit of the people, and not in the interest of speculators, and checks, as far as the law allowed, have been placed on monopoly. The difficult and delicate task of converting some of our loans has been satisfactorily performed through the agency of the Bank of England.'

These are the proudest and most hopeful words that have been spoken in New Zealand since the dark days when the cloud of depression descended like a black pall upon our fair land, bringing in its train miseries and privations that we had not been accustomed to. They are words that afford an emphatic contradiction to the slanders thafc are uttered from time to time against New Zealand, to thp injury of her credit and the detriment of her trade. They are words calculated to inspire confidence ones more in the minds of those who have invested their capital in our oolony or its securities, and to give fresh hope and encouragement to the struggling farmer, tradesman, mechanic, or manufacturer who has suffered from the effects of the period of depression, and who has struggled bravely on, hoping for better times. And there are others, too, who will read this brighter record in distant lands, while their hearts will warm towards the country from whence they have been driven by the disastrous consequences of misgovernment, and their souls will yearn for the day when brisk trade and a general demand for labour will enable them to return to God's Own Country— the country which is endeared to most of them by hallowed memories and associations. It is to our lost population that this hopeful Budget will appeal most powerfully.

There is no reason to Buppose that the era of prosperity will be confined to the year just closed. Mb Ballance anticipates a surplus of a third of a million in the current year, and it is fair to assume that ' his expectations will be realised. What should be done with this surpluß ? The Government, having initiated the policy of constructing public works from surplus revenue, are determined to give it practical effect, and therefore £200,000 from the surplus will be devoted to the purposes of necessary publio works. These works will be carried out on the cooperative system, which has already proved so eminently satisfactory, and which owes its origin in New Zealand to the Hon R. J. Seddon. This provision for the con-

tinuance of publio works from surplus revenue is the death-knell of the disastrous policy of borrowing in London, which has been the curse of all the Colonies ; and the spirit of self-reliance so practically inculcated will have a remarkable effect in strengthening the credit of New Zealand in the mother country. It is only right that if we would have public works we should pay for them ourselves, and the fact that we have both the inclination and ability to do so will be an emphatic answer to the slanders so industriously published to our detriment.

The absence from the Budget of any ' provision for the remission of the Customs duties upon the more absolute necessaries of life will be a disappointment to those who bad hoped that this radical change in the fiscal polioy of the oountry would be given effect to. But the Colonial Treasurer was cognisant of the desirableness of this concession to the masses, and, in suggesting the appointment of a special committee to consider existing anomalies in the tariff, he speaks with no uncertain sound when he says:— 'The reduction of duties on the necessaries of life must be dealt with as part of the tariff revision.' He then goes on to explain the position clearly when he says :— ' If our policy is not to borrow money for the construction of public works, it is evident we shall not be able to part with the revenue. If duties are to be taken ofi the necessaries of life which cannot be produced within the colony, an equivalent must be sought for in a higher scale affecting those articles that can be manufactured by our own people. It may, then, be anticipated that to the extent we are able to develop, in consequence of the higher duty, the young growing manufactures of the colony, the revenue generally will show signs of greater elasticity, and make up for any loss occurring through a falling off in the import of articles protected. The money we Bhall b 6 spending this year out of revenue on works will be largely devoted to provide employment for those who might otherwise be idle, thus keeping up the standard of wages. It is more important that work should be found for all than that certain articles of consumption should be a little less in price, however much we may appreciate the advantage of cheapness.' There is an ultra-protectionist ring about this portion of the Budget thaf' does not accord well with the Liberal principles of the Government, for ultraprotection is the worst form of Conservatism.

One of the most gratifying portions of the Budget is that dealing with the proposed change in the inoidence of taxation. The Property Tax has been abolished at last, and this year the Land and Income Tax takes its place. The most powerful argument against the Land and Income Tax was that it would not realise the amount yielded by the Property Tax, and the deficit that must necessarily ensue would be disastrous to our credit. This was an objection repeatedly urged by the late Sib Habby Atkinson, wbo was wont to say that he would be quite willing to accept the Land Tax but for this reason, quaintly adding, in reference to the danger of a change during the depression, ' that it was unwise to Bwap horses while crossing the river.' Mb Ballance meets this objection, and shows on the basis of careful calculations that the assertions so frequently hurled againsfc him thafc he was over-sanguine in his estimates were groundless. He says : — ' In my Financial Statement of last year, I estimated the amount which would be derived from the Land and Income Tax at about £350,000, and I have adopted that amount in the present estimates. In making a forecast of the amount to be reoeived, I had cal-

culated, in order to maintain our finance, on the realisation of a sum nearly equal to that which was obtained from the Property Tax, whioh last year realised £356,740. The exact amount which the Land and Income Tax will produce has not been ascertained ; but I have obtained figures approximating closely to the actual amount which I think we shall receive in the present year, and have the gratification to inform the Committee that, taking tbe various sources from which the tax will be derived, the estimate will be realised.'

In these and many other respects, the Financial Statement is a mo3fc gratifying one. Every line discloses indications of the return of more prosperous times. The vigour with which land has been taken up and country cleared, the large increase of arrivals in the colony beyond the departures from it, in contradistinction to the exoduß of a year or two ago, the improvement in trade, the satisfactory|condition of the public services, all point to the conclusion tbat we have turned the corner, and have entered upon a new era of prosperity. Much of the credit of that desirable change is due to the wise and prudent administration of the affairs of the country by the present Government, who have fully and admirably justified the confidence of the people.