The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3328, 21 September 1911, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911

What it was all mo about. cer of

It wo'uld appear that the Prime Minisis becoming re and more contied on account the criticisms which are being levelled against the Adminstration of which he is the head. He has, in particular, been exceedingly “touchy” on the subject since he returned from his recent visit to England. On Tuesday last, it will be recalled, a large deputation waited upon him with reference to the prosecution of the Gisborne-Napier section of the East Coast railway. The project is of such importance that Sir Joseph Ward could not, of course, find any fault with the request which was made to the Government: To his way of thinking, however, the occasion was an appropriate one upon which to make a spirited outburst in respect to the latest criticism which had appeared as regards the results of his adimiiiistration.. That morning the “Dominion,” it seems, had commented rather severely on the

views expressed by the “Sydney Morning Herald” in connection with the Budget. Here, for instance, are some extracts from the Herald”: “Not only is the financial position of .the country impregnable, but it becomes stronger every year. . He (Sir Joseph/ Ward) provides sinking funds tor all loans, and he is in the course of extinguishing

the public debt, which was piled up so enormously in the bad old days. In . spite of a spirited policy of development, including some large undertakings, the railways pay over 4 per cent, —and, what is better, hardly anyone grumbles at the fact that they do so. . . The Administration which has controlled New Zealand affairs; for so many decades’has of late thrown itself more and more into the actual work of developing the assets of the State. The primary industries have found themselves in a rising tide, and the ■confidence which springs from general prosperity had carried through some of the more doubtful expedients to success. . . t The really grave feature of the future, however, is the disappearance of the Crown lands. There are about 80,000 Crown tenants or freeholders, hut more than half their holdings are under a hundred acres;? The large holding, however, hts not quite disappeared in spite of various “scientific” taxes it has to bear. No doubt such holdings, which now run into about 30,000,000 acres, will have to succumb to the earth-hunger; but when they are swallowed up it looks as though the rate of progress must begin to diminish. With all its attractions, New Zealand is not a country of magnificent distances. The “Dominion,” it appears, expressed itself as astounded that such an important journal as the “Sydney Morning Herald” should have neglected to verify its statements. “It is,” it said, “somewhat disappointing to find that the ‘Herald’ has not troubled to inform itself of the facts, and that its conclusions are in almost every case based on an almost ludicrous misapprehension of the real position. One of the errors into which the Sydney journal has fallen in its desire to say something pleasant of the Dominion' is in regard to its finances. No one can deny that the revenue last year was enormous, and that the productiveness of the country is very great. But when a newspaper of the standing of the ‘Herald’ bases its opinion that the financial position of the country is ‘impregnable’ and ‘becomes stronger every year’ on its notion that the Government ‘provides sinking funds for all loans, and is in course of extinguishing the public debt, which was piled up so enormously in the bad old days,’ it is obvious that it has not really troubled to inquire into the position at all.” Proceeding to deal with the “facts,” this it what the “Dominion” then saii actual amount of real effort at debt extinction during the past year under the new Act was the provision of between £12,000 and £13,000; but during the same year between, £6,000,000 and £7,000,000 of fresh money was borrowed. . . And what of ‘the bad old days’ whose evil legacy our thrifty and self-reliant Government is manfully shouldering."' ‘The bad old days’ ended, we suppose, in 1891, when BalLance t-ook office. The net debt was then £37,343,308, or £59 11s lOd per head. Then the good days of self-reliance set in, with this result: Net debt. Per head. Year. £ £ s. d. 1596 42,271,889 60 2 4 1901 48,i557,751 62 16 10 1906 59,670,471 67 0 11 1911 79,837,35 S 79 0 0

(Approx.) The net debt for 1911 was rather less than is stated, but we have taken the Budget figures. It will be seen that when the ‘enormous borrowing’ of ‘the bad old days’ ceased, and the new era began, five years saw six millions added to the debt. In the next five years eleven millions were piled up. Then Sir Joseph Ward became Prime Minister, and the bad old days were pnt to shame by the addition of another twenty millions to the debt in his five years. We can put the position in another way:

Debt left by “bad old days” 37,343,308 Added to debt by Ballance (2 years) 800,778 Seddon’saddition (13years)' 21,526,401 Sir J. G. Ward’s addition in 5 years .... ... 20,166,917 ‘The bad old days’! The ‘Herald’ is no less ’unfortunate in its reference to the railways. These, it says, pay 4 per cent, and it adds that nobcdy grumbles, a fact it considers l rather strange and pleasant. This is really very surprising in a journal of the ‘Herald’s’ standing. It has never even been claimed that the railways have ever paid 4 per cent on the gross capital sunk in them. . .

Another remarkable idea of the ‘Herald s is that the ‘large holdings,’ despite the ‘scientific’ taxes applied to them, aggregate ‘about 30,000,000 acres’! We really do not know where our contemporary gets its figures from. The official statistics published by the Government show that the whole area of the Dominion is only 66,014,776 acres, and that the holdings in private hands, big and .little, aggregate only 16,762,402 acres between them. It is a pity that the. ‘Herald’ should be so ill-informed concerning New Zealand affairs.” Such, then, was the origin of the heated outburst by the Prime Minister on: Tuesday.