The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. Thursday, July 26, 1894. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 3104, 26 July 1894, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. Thursday, July 26, 1894. THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

With this issue we present our readers with a full summary of what it pleases the Government to describe as a Financial Statement. It will be seen that it is everything but what it purports to be. Instead of giving a clear idea of the finances of the colony it is little else than a collection of schoolboyish essays on a variety of general subjects. Hence, where the taxpayer looks for real information on “ how the money goes,” lie runs up against a mass of twaddle on the woes of fruit growers, the delights of sugar made from beet, the capacity of dairy cows, aud so on. All of these are no doubt pretty little subjects in their way, but why they were packed into a so-called “ Financial Statement ” is explicable in one way only. They constitute padding of the most obtrusive description. The Colonial Treasurer knew that he was expected to produce a given number of words, and he produced them, with the aid of heads of departments and private secretaries. He also knew that at least some people in the colony expected his production to reveal truthfully and plainly the financial condition of the colony, but he has so managed it that for such a purpose the Statement is practically useless. The principal fact the colony desired to be informed about is so overlaid with inaccuracies and surplusage of words that only careful scrutiny can reveal it. In other words, the Statement is apparently so designed and con* structed as to deceive all who arc content with a merely casual reading, and to lead them to believe that the colony can once more boast of a surplus. But tlioso who are not satisfied with a superficial glance will soon discover that this is a misrepresentation so gross and so difficult of concealment, that it is almost impossible not to believe that the author of it is either densely ignorant of the subject upon which he effects to enlighten others, or else that he is grinning behind his hand as he displays the distortions and inaccuracies that constitute the major portion of the arithmetical section of the Statement. Our readers will see, by referring to the Statement, that as the final outcome of a mass of awkwardly stated figures the Colonial Treasurer claims a surplus on the year’s working amounting to £290,238 on the 31st of March last. That statement, apart from such book keeping juggles as enable insolvent

bauks and swindling companies to issue balance-sheets justifying them in paying dividends when on the eve ot closing their doors, is not true. We use that form of words advisedly, meaning by them that the assertion contradicted is opposed to facts within the knowledge of those who make the assertion. And our proof is found in the Financial Statement itself, for after claimiug the small surplus given above the Statement goes on to admit that during the year the net debt has increased by £730,421. In the face of that complete proof of the inaccuracy of the Government’s assertions, one can only wonder at the frame of mind which is not ashamed to make them. To put it as briefly an it can be put, we assort, on the strength of official accounts, that the statements made to the effect that the colony has not been borrowing, and that there have been surpluses each year for the past three years, are as untrue as any statements can possibly be, and that all the data by which they can be shown to be untrue are in the possession of the Government. If any of our readers should think that this assertion might be put in a more direct manner, wo agree with them, but must plead that the canons of discussion do not regard such an abrupt method of stating the case as polite. With a reservation, therefore, in favor of that conventional politeness, wo wish to bo understood as asserting that the Financial Statement, where it purports to give financial information, is as inaccurate and misleading as it is possible for any such production to be. Each year since the Government assumed office there has been a deficit. Each year they have added to the public debt. Each year they have bad to'admit as much, and although their admissions have been wrapped up and disguised as much as possible, from tho nature of the facts they could not be concealed from those who desired to know the truth. And the test of the truth is so simple that, as we have Raid, we can only wonder at the ignorance or daring, whichever it is, that prompts Ministers to put on record so many transparent assertions of the things that are not. Space will not admit of a full illustration of this in to-day’s issue, but we will return to the subject. In the meanwhile we may state what the test is and our readers can apply it. It consists in bringing all the assertions of Ministers on money matters to this touchstone — what increases have they made in the public debt ? We undertake to show in our next article that they have added at least £3,000,000 since 1892, and in this article wo will show by their own admissions, culled from their Financial Statements, that they have spent over two millions of borrowed money since the 31st of March of that year. Between that time and the 31st of March last year, according to Mr WAim’s *• Budget ” for 1893—94, the actual net addition to the debt was £468,804. The gross addition was much more, but as Ministers find some charm in the word “ net ” we will let them have it that way. Then, in order to obtain possession of £450,000 of sinking fund accumulating by law to pay off a debt of £500,000 borrowed by the colony some years ago for war purposes, they raised a loan to purchase the debentures of the half-million at £ll7 per £IOO debenture thus saddling tlie country with £620,000 of additional indebtedness. We will however, only credit them with the sinking fund obtained in this disgraceful manner. This brings their sly borrowing during the year under review to a million sterling in round numbers. In 1893 they obtained leave from the House to borrow £476,000 on Treasury bills that were given currency till 1899, and we now have the admission in the Financial Statement that from March 31st, 1893, till the same date this year, a net addition of £730,421 has been made to the public debt, or a total of £1,206,421 borrowed since the 'aff Financial Statement was published, or a grand total of two and a quarter millions since the 31st of March, 1892. In the face of this, that is shown by official papers, and that understates the actual fact by close upon a million of money, the Colonial Treasurer has the effrontery to talk of “ surpluses.” It is a grisly farce. Turning to the financial proposals for the future, they all spell “ borrowing.” In the first place, it is proposed to raise a million and a half per annum in London to lend to settlers. The one thing certain about this is that the Government will get the money. Whether they will lend it to settlers afterwards is a horse of another color. And in any case, as the Statement also foreshadows another form of borrowing within the colony by the creation of a million pounds worth of colonial consols at 4 per cent. —only to encourage thrift among tho people, of course—it is easy to see how tho million and a half loan to be authorised can be gaily spent and yet a pretence made of lending money to landholders at 5 por cent. Tho consols proposal is the most transparent device for borrowing that even Mr W aud has dared to make. We all know how the funds of the post office savings bank are dealt with, and what is the fate of moneys that get into the hands of the Public Trustee. The recent issue of irredeemable postal notes also has its meaning to those who are not so credulous as to take upon trust any daring inaccuracy told to thorn by professional “ friends of the people,” but to use the rules of the post office savings bank —those relating to the limit of accounts—to “ persuade” the thrifty to buy Government stock at 4 por cent., is such charmingly open borrowing that even the blindest Government supporter cannot miss it. Aud as it is to be accompanied by a measure for “ inducing” private savings banks to submit to “ absorption ” by the Government, it is very evident that tho colony is in for a season of loan financing of a marked kind. However, if tho country chooses to endorse that policy, and to pay the piper, there need bo no more said against it. What must be complained of, though, is the persistent attempt to obtain an endorsement of the policy by trying to conceal that it is a borrowing one, and that form of bookkeeping deceit and jugglery which talks of surpluses when truth demands an admission of deficits, and that

boasts of a non-borrowing policy while really spending at the rate of over a million a year of borrowed money.