LATE PARLIAMENTARY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8209, 3 August 1905, Page 5

LATE PARLIAMENTARY.

The Financial Debate.

Mr M. M. Kirkbride (Manukau) proceeding, said the Colony was a prosperous Colony, and the Opposition had never belittled the Colony. What it had belittled was the. claim of the Government that the progress was due to its legislation. He argued that the surplus was to an extent made up of loan money, and that the public debt was increasing. The working of the railways was bolstered up by borrowed money. The Opposition had shown that the country was not paying its way by detailing the great number of items shunted on to borrowed millions. We had a surplus that neither reduced our debt nor diminished taxation. The public works expenditure had been a diminishing quantity for the past three years. Was it any wonder, under the circumstances, that the public smiled and joked when it spoke of " Seddon's surplus ?" The cry of the back-blocks had been disregarded, ancl roads and bridges starved.

Mr F. Mander (Marsden), shortly after mid-night, began to speak to a House of fourteen members.

The Leader of the Opposition called attention to the state of the House, and a bare quorum was secured.

Mr Mander said the Colony was paying two millions every year in interest and sinking fund, ancl it seemed to him that it would have been much better for the people to have taxed themselves for the construction of public works, rather than that the Government should have borrowed money every year simply for the purpose of payinginterest. Were it not for the prosperity of the Colony, and the good markets for outproduce, the burden would have been much harder to bear. The end of the borrowingwould have to come before very long.

Mr A. Kidd (City of Auckland) moved the adjournment.

The House rose at 1, a.m