SUGARING THE PILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2499, 12 May 1909, Page 2

SUGARING THE PILL.

W l XJL Ji JU XJU.U • At Invercargill, last Saturday week, Sir .Joseph Ward applied some thirty thousand words to the decoration of un&PPF&BHV& facts. The performance, from ah' artistic point of view, was badly overdone, for the determination to paint an attractive picture was too obvious altogether. No one except the Opposition Press, expects a Treasurer to present the finances of the country in the worst possible light; but a democracy has the right to expect candid and unvarnished statements .from thejmen -who have been given the stewardship of its affairs. Sir Joseph Ward’s speech w r as not' such a statement. It does not tell us in a nutshell the things that: are necessary for us to know as citizens of New Zealand. To read it is to embark on a< misty ocean' of words, and even afterwards to feel quite uncertain -what the position of affairs really is. In the financial part Ox the speech there were two outstanding points, Here they are from the Ward point of view, No. L—“I am not umiatujT.”-; more than ordinarily gratified,” said Sir Joseph, “to be able to tell you that an analysis of the figures show the surplus for the year to be £184,321, that is £109,118 more than I estimated in the Budget.” No. 2.—“lt will doubtless afford immense pleasure, and indeed to many surprise, to find out that there is only a decrease of £54,761 on the total receipts,”—“Tho Citizen.”