THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 1182, 24 August 1901, Page 2

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Prudence and Economy — and a Million Loan.

MR SEDDON hit the right nail fairly on the head when he said in the Financial Statement that all we want for the future are prudence and economy — and a million loan. The million loan is a perennial want. We have become so accustomed to it now that we cannot get along without it, and session after session, we boast of our half-million surplus and calmly take authority to raise a million loan. Why wo should want a million loan when we have a half-million surplus is one of the things that passes our comprehension. But there— Dick knows best.

No one will object to Mr Seddon's desire for prudence and economy. This has also been the desire of the thoughtful sectiooa of the country for a good many years, but unfortunately the other section was not ripe for either prudence or economy, and so the old order of things has gone on. Probably Mr Seddon would not have been ripe for it either for a few years longer if the London money market had not gone back upon him. He has been brought ujp standing by the difficulty of getting money in London. The loan of one million authorised last session- has not been raised yet— thoueh it has been borrowed against in small sums— and the intention to raise the present million, in New Zealand shows that the time is not propitious for another visit to the London Loan Office.

The necessity for prudence and economy is impressed upon us by one startling fact in the Statement. During the year, the publio debt of the colony has been increased by nearly two millions sterling that

the Government confess to, and probably by a great deal more that they are not prepared to disclose. This makes no mention of the million that was authorised last year and has not been raised yet. Truly, this is the groat Loan Land. We are not only mortgaging nosterity with a vengeance, but we are mortgaging, our present population at a rate far in excess of its increase, and are also preparing heavy burdens For our own shoulders in the immediate future. And, oven while the Colonial Treasurer talks about prudence and economy, his own Estimates show larger increases in the salaries of already highly-paid civil servants.

The Budget indicates that another socialistic experiment is to be made by opening a State coal mine. There is much to be said both for and against this -proposal. But if the experiment is to be confined to a single State coal-mine, which will give cheaper fuel and other advantages to one part of the colony, at the expense of the other parts, there -will be great dissatisfaction. liy all means, let us have half-a-dozen coal mines. Cheap coal is a good thing. Hang the expense. But, in the name of all that is fair and honest, if private coal mines are to be worked under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, bring the State coal mines under that Act also. Don't let us have cheap coal at the cost of State sweating.

The assurance given in the Statement that there has been no unnecessary delay with regard to the pay of returned troopers will allay a very uneasy feeling that has been growing up. Mr Sedtion says that a special staff are kept busy at the present time doing nothing else but paying advances, and the Government have advanced about £3000 in excess of the moneys in their hands belonging to the Imperial authorities. To show how ludicrous and foolish was the statement that it was owing to the tightness of the New Zealand finances that our boys were not paid, he stated that the total amount involved is about £20,000. Already they had advanced £3000, and an apnlication had been made to the Imperial authorities for the amount rluo by them.

The fact that there is a surplus in the Statement has made it acotherwise grumbling. It doesn't matter a two-penny curse to them ceptable to many people who were whether it is a paper surplus so long as King Eichard vouches for it and it appears in the Budget. But is it not a paradox that with all our vaunted surpluses we are incessantly borrowing ? We don't even attempt to live within our means. Here we go on from year to year, receiving the congratulations of the world on our prudent finance and our balances on the right side of the ledger, and then, with singular hypocrisy, thrust our tongue in our cheek and authorize the inevitable loan without which we cannot pay our way.