, 1889-12-25

4 of. the expenditure Rlde of the present
budget, the Committees proposal demands
that the whole debt be RENTED without
any such condition. 1t follows that
even if the Commute e'S proposal could
take effect there wO uld he no qua
rantee that futurs large deficits might
not occur, for the Commit is suffer
ing under another very great mistake when
it thinks that the Home Government
will agree to more than a balanced bud
get, w have the Minister Of Finances
word for it, and there can be no doubt
that he is serious. Therefore, even it
the Minister should abandon his own
plan in favour of the Committees
proposal, it could only be in that way,
that the budget will be barely balanced.
1t follows whether the island gets a small
Municipal budget or q large Colonial
budget, that the budget will i'll both cases
be barely balanced, and the island will
have to cover future deficits from its own
revenues, and if necessary by increased
taxation. 1t follows further that if the Com
mittee's proposal were carried out in tbs
way mentioned above, the island might even.
tually have to cover large deficits if the
bill emanates as law it may only have to-
cover small deficits. How large the
deficit on the large budget evcntu-
ally may happen to be can be seen
Approximately from the fact that the reve-
nues in 1851 have been so low as
1921 900, while the expenses after the
eventual reduction has beer made
will be from s 15I 900 upward.
When it is remembered that the Sugar
prices ih1S76.77 were considerably higher
than the low prices of later years, it is even
likely that the revenues may go lower than
S121, 600 and the deficit can therefore
very well be 800, OOO-$4O,0O0 or even per-
haps more. When the Committee despairs
of the islands ability to cover the deficit on
the small budget, how will it then be with
the much larger deficits Onthe large budgets
1t is Il matter of necessity that u propOs.
al based upon such grave mistakes is
fraught will dangers. Those dangers are
not difficult to point out. If the Council
should adopt the Committed proposal
and refuse the bin, such refusal can
only be understood in that way, that
the Council is unwilling that the
island should make any sacrifice whaUso-
ever, either for the sake of fulfilling present
obligations or for the sake of covering
public deficits, and the Home Government
and the Diet will naturally be entitled to
insert III the eventual new law q stipulation
similar to that in the bill OF 1885, in con-
sequence whereof it will not be the Colonial
Council but the Diet which eventually will
nave w UcCUsIo WudG new UdAcS arc W U6
raised. On the contrary, ifthe bill is accepted,
he could declare positively that the power
to decide in what way u deficit on the
Municipal Budget is to be covered will
rest with the Colonial Council itself and
the legislature of the Mother Country will
only have to act in case of absolute ne
ceSsity. Mex the Committee's advice to the
Council is the same as to advise an entire
~ bankrupt debtor to refuse an offer from
his creditor of having his whole debt
RENTED on very moderate terms. If
that imprudent advice should be fol-
lowed. it is not difficult to see that it is not
very likely that the offer will be repeated
on equally favourable terms. The
Island therefore runs the risk of re.
naming in its embarrassed financial position
and Of having one day to make heavier sa-
critices than now proposed to come out OF it.
This is not meant to be a threat we
know how lenient the Home Government
has always been, and he hoped that the
Colonies will also in future be treated leni.
emily, but the very simplest prudence ad-
vises the island to avail itself of the pre-
sent opportunity to be cleared of it's debt.
In conclusion he would express the hope
that his words had not been spoken in, vain,
and that the Council would not follow the
proposal of the Committee, which he had
shOwn-was such that the Minister of Fl
nance had beforehand declared that he