The Borrowing Policy and the Constituencies.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 3107, 2 August 1894, Page 4

The Borrowing Policy and the Constituencies.

(Evr.unet Press ) It is notorious that at the last election the public sentiment was altogether hostile to a borrowing policy. Almost every candidate, especially on the Ministerial side, took credit to the Government for having, as alleged, pursued a self-reliant non-borrowing policy, and a great proportion of them expressed the determination that, so far as their votes could influence matters, a similar policy should be pursued in the future. We have looked over such of the old files as we could get hold of containing reports of election speeches. The following are some specimens. No doubt a number of others equally telling could be turn shed .-— b', i . liner at Ph l ] pstow.i (Civ c.t'ircii •P.Nore :.be.‘ t'ii) : The p ?3eut Gove nment had liet '* ra’sed a loan, me. he hoped tnat tje days of hoirow’ng we_e over. (Applause.) We know very well that Mr Tanner has no intention or going back on the policy thus announced. Indeed, we may say that it is not with the notion of Hansarding members and catching them out in inconsistencies that we make the subjoined quotations, hut with the view of showing what was the sentiment of the constituencies generally in regard to borrowing at the time of the elections. For this reason we may point out what Mr Earnßhaw, who was successful in winning one of the Dunedin seats, had to say : Mr Earnshaw, City Hall ( Dunedin Star, November 21) : One of the questions to be decided at the ballot-bos was whether they would go in for a loan or not. For his part he was opposed to a loan in any shape or form. (Applause.) In a great many cases we do not notice in the condensed reports any explicit expression of opinion in regard to the policy of the future. There is almost always, however, the manifest implication of hostility to borrowing in the future contained in the warm laudation of the alleged non-borrow-ing policy of the past. Under this head come the following expressions of opinion:— Mai or Steward {Lyttelton Times, Wednesday, November 15th) : The Liberal Admin istration had reformed the incidence of taxation by substituting the land and income tax for the property tax, aod provided for carrying ont Public Works without having recource to the London market, thus practically carrying out a policy of selfreliance. Mr Collins ( Lyttelton Times, Saturday November 26th): He pointed out that population under the present Government was increasing ; onr present prosperity was real and natural and not due to borrowing.

Mi- H? 1 1-Jones, Tima: a {Lyttelton Tims?.. Monday, ISorember 13bh): The enrol os showed that toe public debt; had only ncreabet since 1891 by less than half a rn ilion, mu til’s mainly by conye’ sioas whici reduced the interest change* by £27,*06 a yea:. leading figu.es were someth'jg for the Liberal Party to ba prond of. Mr Maslin, at T'nwald {A Ear, Not. 16): —Instead of the .Liberal Government having a deficit in their revenue, and trade being paralysed, what do we find? Why, that they had a large surplus withont add t'onal taxa lon, and the revenue of this country has become more buoyant. Besides this, the G overnment have been able to rote a large sum of money out of revenue to carry ou public works without farther borrowing, a lining which no other Government in New Zealand have done “a respect cf sheir financial arrangements, their whole coure3 has been one of success. It has been one triumphant success all along the line ! Mr Lachlan, at South bridge {Ellesmere C.ardiah, Nov, 16) :—There was no other colony as financially sound and where the working man \/as paid higher wages. This was mainly due to the wise legislation of the present Government. . . . Government had. not borrowed any money to carry on public works ; but on the other hand, bad a very large surplus out of revenue with which to undertake new roads, railways, etc. Mr Hogg, at Masterton {Scar, Nov. 22): — It had been argued by many that the present Government had indulged in borrowing. He maintained, however, that not a single peQDy had been borrowed. Several other members made a great point in their speeches of showing, or endeavouring to show, that any apparent increase in the debt, caused by the present Government, was due to conversion operations. Among these were Mr Meredith, at Ashley (see JCdSc.ra Sc.-, November • 2d). He added ‘ Carefulness and economy 1) d marked the financial administration of the last three ye..rs.” Mr Drnean, at Oamaru (Mail, November 2:./, who contended that the increase in the public debt, under the Dallance M'nistrv, had been only one fourth of its increase under the prev'ous adm'n istratioDS. Mr Graham, at Nelson {Colo 'st, November 13), Mr Flatman, at Temuka, and Mr A. J. Mill?.:’ among others, defended the Government agaiDst the accusation of being a borrowing Government. Mr PinkertoD, while contending that if they were to borrow they should borrow in the best market, wished it to be understood that he did not defend borrowing. Mr W- H. Montgomery was very explicit in his hostility to it. He strongly objected to raising a.i ti . ■ loans. Borrowing money, he said, always had a demoralising effect on the country, as the Government spent the money lavishly. Mr C. If. Mills was, if possible, Btill more explicit. The following is from his speech at Waiiti, reported in the Colonist, November 27. On finance generally he said :

Their fiieuds of the Opposition said the public debt had been increased. He ad* mitted that it had, bat went on to say that the telling of half a truth was sometimes worse than telling a fib. He explained that the debt baa been increased by converting these loans The colony was actually paying £60,000 a year less now. In regard to the future, he remarked—The question then came, what were they to do in the future ? Were they to continue the selfieliant policy—we e they to resort to borrowing or not ? He believed their desire was to go on as they were going. Is Mr Mills, in the face of an expression of opinion like this, going to whip up the party and bring them together to carry the wildest project of gambling and plunging that any Treasurer iu New Zealand has ever bad the audacity to introduce, and tbat the present Treasurer would probably not have thought of introducing if he had not had the daughter of the horseleech behind him for ever crying, “ give, give ?”