Not Mr. Balllance's Policy.

Continuing, Sir Robert said some people said they supported the present Government because they were carrying on Mr. Ballance's policy. (Applause.) He (the speaker) was in favour of the policy Mr. Ballance laid down when he took office, and he would prove, in several instances, that the present Ministry had departed from that policy. Indeed, they had reversed it. They had done things with regard to that policy that were simply disgraceful, considering the relations they stood in in regard to Mr. Ballance. What had been the key note of his first and second Budget? It had been a policy of self-reliance; that New Zealand was not to be dependent upon the foreign capitalist; that there was not to be a borrewing Government; that the New Zealand Government was not to be a mere agent, as it had now become, of what some Socialist friends called the 'fat man.' Mr. Ballance's policy had been self-reliance and non borrowing. (Hear, hear,) What had happened? Since the 31st March, 1891, the colony's borrowing—without including the guarantees given to the Bank of New Zealand, which means nearly £5,000,000 more—New Zualand's borrowings had amounted to £4,928,581, and the interest to be paid was gradually going up.' The colony's interest this year would be £81,000 more than last year. Up! Up! Up it was going. The colony now owed foreign capitalists something like £42,000,000. What was the use of denouncing foreign capitalists, the 'fat man,' the absentee money lender, when year by year the colony was getting more and moro in his grip? The whole principle of Mr. Ballance's policy had been destroyed. He would give an illustration of what had been done. There was the seizure of the sinking funds. He mentioned this because it was a technical subject, and because it had been so misrepresented by Ministerial advocates. In 1886 an Act had been passed to aid local bodies by loans which would be paid off and the debta extinguished In 26 years, a page 3 percentage being put by as a sinking fund. Mr, Ballance in his Financial Statement in 1891 said he considered it his first duty to create a sinking fund. It was wrong finance, it was not honest to future poeterity, that when the 20 years came to an end that the burden of the loans should be cast on the colony. Mr. Ballance held that when an interest-paying asset ceased to pay interest, at the end of 26 years the loans should be paid off. To carry this out, Mr. Ballance brought in a Bill in 1892. Now there were £800,000 that had been borrowed under this Act, and £64,000 sinking fund had accrued. What did the present Government do? They seized the sinking fund; they issued debentures against it, and then refused to give information about it at all. They also seized the current sinking fund amounting to £20,000 and wiped out the whole sinking fund, carrying £85,000 to revenue account. This year they have proposed to seize £20,000 in the same way, so that the result would be heaped up at the end of 26 years. When that time came the entire burden of these loans would be cast upon the colony.