The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1895. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5282, 12 June 1895, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1895. To-Day.

To-night, another representative meeting in connection with the Unemployed difficulty is to be held in the City Council Chamber, the Mayor having invited the chairmen of local bodies to meet him. There seems now to be good ground for the belief that some practical and comprehensive scheme will be arrived at, and that prompt action will follow. Already the Avon Road Board, in which district road-making work can be readily arranged, has voted £100; and a movement has been started fox securing voluntary contributions from the general public. The Duuedin people up to laat night had subscribed £800 for the benefit of their unemployed^ and this morning thirty men were to be set to work — the most necessitous oases being selected —another thirty to be picked out later in the week. We commend to the workers of this community the strong desirability there is, in a crisis such as the present, for quick, generous, practical sympathy. Let all who are in receipt of wages, resolve that some email sum shall be spared for those who are perforce idle. If every male worker in the community will at once give a shilling, and every woman worker sixpence, a goodly sum can be placed in the hands of the Mayor, so that he may claim a Government subsidy thereon and superintend the jodicions disbursement of the money. We shall be glad to receive any. sums so contributed. '

Details of the address delivered by the Hon Ji Q-. Ward before the London Chamber of Commerce, demonstrate what splendid work was done by the Colonial Treasurer in refuting the injurious statements that had been so industriously circulated with regard to New. Zealand finance. Dealing with newspaper criticism that had been based on " information " sent from this country, Mr Ward demonstrated that some of the criticisms, being erroneously: based, .were self - condemnatory. He pointed out- that when in 1887 the colony borrowed two millions of money for public work 3, half of that sum had been anticipated by expenditure on the North Island Trunk railway ; that since 1887 the colony had 41,000,000 available for public works, whilst between 1888 and 1894 there had been spent £3,226,192 in this direction, the balance having come out of Consolidated Bevenue in sums of .£200,000 to £260,000. This, the Colonial Treasurer triumphantly pointed out, effeotually disposed of, the argument that New. Zealand had continually borrowed to carry out its publio works, and proved that the colony had relied in a large meaaura upon its own

resources.

In grasping the financial stability of a country, said Mr Ward, it was fair to compare the indebtedness per head with the wealth per head. In New, Zealand the public indebtedness per head had fallen from £60 16a 2d in 1889, to £57 8a lOd in 1894; the taxation per head had fallen from £3 14s in 1880, to .£3 lls in 1893; while the wealth per head had increased from £214 in 1882, to £232 in 1893. It was a bold idea to compare this young country with England from the financial standpoint, but it was done, and done sac- ; oesofully, the conclusion being arrived at I that the only country in the world that exceeded New Zealand in the amount of wealth per head was England. And here the Colonial Treasurer made a good point by stating that in the accomplishment of so gratifying a result he did not claim special credit for { the people of New Zealand : the credit belonged to the people who left Great Britain in past years to bnild up a new country in the South Pacific. After such cheery utterances as these, it must have been easy for the audience to appreciate Mr Ward's assurance that adverse Press critimsm neither disturbed his sleep nor spoiled his digestion. .

Having dealt with the manner in which the public. accounts of the colony are kept, in order to show how the financial policy of a country might be and had been misrepresented, Mr Ward went on to repudiate the charge that the acquisition of private property by the Government was a method of confiscation, and showed that the valuations were always fixed by wholly nonpolitical Boards. Then came the clenching fact that the majority of the Government supporters were farmers and land owners. Was it likely, the speaker asked, that these men would sympathise with a Ministry that ran riot and upset nil precautions with regard to private property P And answering applause told of further scoring. Nor was the explanation of the working of the Advances to Settlers Act, for which a special loan of a million and a half was wanted, les3 favourably received. Hers, again, the controlling Boards were absolutely non-political. The object of the Government, said Mr Ward, would be achieved if its policy resulted in reducing interest on mortgages to a fair rate ; for ninety-nine out of every hundred business men in the colony believed that a lower rate of interest was necessary— the natural sequence of a decline in the ' formerly inflated land values. Bat obviously some powerful influence was needed to take the initiative, and this step had been takeu by the Government.

Wk need not 'follow the Colonial Treasurer through all the phaßea of his masterly address, wherein he outlined

not only the policy of New Zealand, but its condition and prospects, and presented a perfectly fair idea of the advantages afforded amid the freshness and newness of a young country. He showed that, amid the crash of financial institutions. Now Zealand had passed triumphantly through periods of trial, and that now there were many men — hardheaded men of business, men politically opposed to the present Government •—who were compelled to ndmit that so long as the colony did not advance money on inflated land values, there was no country in the world that offered a i better field for investment. Not ia vain was the claim advanced that the people in the Mother land cannot bnt admire the spirit of economy and perseverance exhibited by the settlers of New Zealand, and their thrift and industry in expanding their products and exports so as to meet their liabilities.