The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. Saturday, July 28, 1894. THE FARCE ENDED.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 3105, 28 July 1894, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. Saturday, July 28, 1894. THE FARCE ENDED.

The admission by the Government that they cannot pay their way has come a little more quickly than was expected. For three years the people have been tickled with all kinds of grotesque misrepresentions on financial matters. Side by side with an alarming increase in the public debt (made nobody knows how, because instead of direct borrowing sly methods have been adopted), has progressed the farce of pretended surpluses. Even on the verge of forcing through a measure of spoliation such as the Land Tax Act, by which taxation not due till the end of this year is to be compulsorily collected in August to save the colony from repudiation of its liabilities, the party of incapables now at the head of affairs were not ashamed to make more pretence of surpluses. Unless shame is dead, unless prevarication is a virtue, unless to knowingly deceive is praiseworthy, then the Government deserve the condemnation of all honest men, and to be driven ignominiously from office. On their own showing the Treasury was bankrupt when they forced through the Act named above, for as a reason for compelling the premature collection of the tax they stated that if the measure did not pass both Houses they could not pay interest on loans due in London in September next. Plainly put, the declaration by the Government was one of national insolvency. And this has come about in spite of the fact that during the last three years they have had to squander, in addition to the ordinary revenue, nearly three millions of money borrowed slily in various underhand methods. Funds belonging to the Post Office Savings Bank, to the Public Trust Office, and to the Government Insurance Department have been diverted for spending. Treasury bills to the amount of a million and a half are outstanding. The legislation by which the taxpayers were pledged for two millions for the benefit of the Bank of New Zealand shows pretty conclusively to all not sunk in the slough of partisanship that the Government were in the power of the bank. What indebtedness is to be inferred from that can only be guessed, but every circumstance indicates that it is large. The colony, in other words, is face to face with disaster of the most portentous kind. We asserted this some six months ago, giving as proofs in support of our contention the very facts the Government now grudgingly admit. We then stated that it was impossible for the Government much longer to pay their way without bringing for-

ward loan proposals and getting them adopted, and we fixed the amount that the Government would have to ask for at £5,000,000 at the lowest. What they have really done is to ask for £7,000,000 if the loan to the Bank of New Zealand is included. And that it ought to be included is certain, first because the bank only gets one million of the money in any case, the other moiety” remaining in the hands of the Government as a “liquid investment,” and secondly because there are the gravest grounds for concluding that the other million represents money duo to the bank by the Government. Indeed, there are strong reasons for fearing that the Bank of New Zealand business conceals something even much worse than sly borrowing on the part of the Government. Exactly what that worse thing is cannot yet be discovered. The Government refuse to give the slightest information, and are supported in that refusal by the slavish majority of so-called “Liberals” who are at this moment, by conniving at the suppression of important facts, the enemies of their country. Public opinion, groping in the dark, begins to fear that when the truth is made known it will reveal something infinitely worse than a mistake. However, leaving the two millions to the Bank out of the calculation, the proposals in the Financial Statement ask the House to sanction the raising of a loan of five million pounds in round numbers during this year. And with respect to this large sum even the Government have not the hardihood to suggest that the major portion will be devoted to reproductive works. All that they say is that £1,500,000 of it willjbe lent out to settlers, and that £750,000 will be devoted to native land purchases, roading in the North Island (this is to buy the Auckland members), and purchasing estates. Under each head they propose to spend £250,000. So that, even on their own showing, the Government propose to divert £2,750,000 to general finance. The worst feature of the case, bearing in mind the absurd statements that have been made about surpluses, is that nearly that sum is required to put their finances straight. If the true facts in connection with the catastrophe they have led us to the verge of could be fully made known, even their blindest supporters would revolt and demand that they should be hurled from power. But that will not happen. Incapable themselves, they at the same time possess the largest majority of incapable members i of the House since the colony has had representative Government. It is a fair thing to say that a visit to the House will convince any person that its intellectual level is not so high as that of an average County or Municipal Council. Twelve men on the Opposition benches and eight on the Government side constitute the brains of the House. Of the rest it may be said as of the flies in the block of amber—

The things themselves are neither rich nor rare, The only wonder is how they got there. These stopgaps will do exactly what the Government ask them. Hence the Government have been able to set up such a state of terrorism with regard to the Civil Service that it is impossible for the Opposition to get even the information that it is within the right of every member of the House to demand, for no Civil Servant will be seen in communication with an Opposition member if he can help it, for fear of the tender mercies of a Government that love the people. Consequently it is not only impossible to fully expose the devious finance of the Government, but the latter have even refused to lay upon the table financial and other iuformation that the law demands shall be placed before members of the House. The Government will therefore be able to force their loan proposals through the House, and the colony as a result will be committed to the payment annually of at least another quarter of a million in interest. That will involve further taxation. But the present Government will in all probability not impose it. They will have their fling on the borrowed money till it is all exhausted. They and their friends will have a good time for a couple of years, and there will be pleasant lines for all of the “right color.” Then will come the end—an empty Treasury, no further borrowing possible, all public works stopped, and another quarter of a million in taxes to be imposed. The friends of the people will then discover that they have business elsewhere, and all the disagreeable work of putting things straight, and if possible averting a financial collapse, will fall upon those who are now vainly striving to keep a check upon the most reckless and spendthrift Government the colony has ever been cursed with. But what the taxpayers need to remember is that we are already within measurable reach of widespread disaster.