NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1605, 9 July 1887, Page 4

NOTES.

" Honest John Bryce " is to be complimented upon the clearness with which he expressed himself m dealing with political questions at Patea the other evening. Although weby nomeansagree with all lhat he said on that occasion, we nevertheless concur m a good deal of it, and think that he has done the electors a service by placing before them m the strongest possible light the extent of the indebtedness of the colony. Not that this has not been done before, but it has never been done more plainly, and it is especially desirable that the public should at this juncture justly appreciate the true position. For until the people of the colony thoroughly apprehend iti exact financial position, and the magnitude of the burden which it has to bear, it is not to be expected that they will be able to make up their minds to those sacrifices of luxuries and conveniences which must be submitted to if our finances are to be placed on a sound footing. >This is what the bon. member for Waitotara had to say upon this point :—" He found the debt of the colony, including the Public debt, the Local Bodies' debt, mortgages, and uncovered debts, amounted to nearly and the interest, taking the Local Bodies at $}£ per cent, mortgages at 7 per cenfc and the uncovered debt at 8 per cent, amounted to Allowing £1,400,000 for money borrowed m the colony, interest had to. be -sent out each year. . . . Would it startle them to be told that the whole of the Customs duty, the beer duty, the Property tax, and three other heads of revenue, were required to pay the interest on the Public debt?" No doubt putting the matter thus plainly will startle those of the" electors who have hitherto given little attention to the subject, and it ought to startle them. Nor only that, but it is high time that strong and determined effoits should be made to prevent the further aggregation of indebtedness by exercising the most rigorous economy and living within our means for the future. We question very much whether the colony, as a whole, has yet seen the worst of the financial crisis through which we have now for some two years been passing. In Canterbury we have, we think, touched bottom, and hope, and believe, that times are on the mend, and that though recovery may be slow, still that it has already began. But we fear that a great part of the North Island — Auckland especially — has yet to experience the worst of the crisis. Information which has recently reached us from a well-informed source gives a very doleful account of the prospects of country settlers both m Auckland and Hawkes Bay (excepting only the large flockowners m the fatter Provincial district), and a still worse of the present condition and immediate prospects of Auckland City. The building mania, which raged two or three years ago, has resulted, it is said, m the city being immensely overbuilt, and the consequence is that the number of unoccupied houses and the amount of unremuneratively invested capital is enormous. Indeed, we are told that the pinch of this state of things is only just beginning to be felt, and that ere long many of those who have thus launched out m advance of the requirements of the times will have to go to the wall. After that happens, with all the suffering which it means, the mending process will begin m their case as it has already, we believe, m our own Provincial district, but until then it is vain to attempt to believe that the clouds have quite rolled by. When the dark days through which we have been and are passing have wholly passed away, it is to be hoped that we shall have learned the lesson of prudence, and not be tempted by the sunshine of returning prosperity to launch out once more with a reckless heedlessness, or an unwisely sanguine estimate of the promises of the future. If so, our time of adver- 1 sity will have brought forth good and useful iruit. In ihe meantime the sooner we set about the process fa/niliarly spoken of as cutting ouf coat according to our cloth the betfer. And m order to this there must be the most ihoroughgotng and uncompromising retrenchment, beginning at the veiy top of the tree and extending almost to the very lowest branch —certainly to every big branch. We concur with the proposal of various Reform Associations that the Governor's salary should itself be reduced, and Minister's salaries, and allowances must follow suit. Were the circumstances of the colony different, we would not touch the honoiarium ol members of the House of Representatives, for the payment of members is one of the soundest planks of a true liberal platform, but as matters stand the exigencies of the case demand that retrenchment should extend m every possible direction, and member? of the Lower House must help to amend the position of the exchequer by reducing their allowances by twentyfive per cent, ; while the nominated House should be called upon to submit to a reduction by one-half, Having thus begun with themselves, our Legislators can, with a good grace, enforce retrenchment m all other directions, and ii this be done the need for further taxation may be almost entirely, if not altogether, obviated. The Piemier is quite right m saying that borrowing must be tapered off — nay, that it must very speedily cease altogether. Some people, we know, insist that it must cease now, and that not another penny should be borrowed for years to come. But, while concurring m the necessity for the exercise of the greatest prudence m the matter, we do not think it would be either prudent or sensible to leave the railway works at present m band m an unfinished state, and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of work lying idle and absolutely unproductive— nay, worse than that, going altogether to rack and ruin. To finish all works m hand , (save the North Island Main Trunk line, for which statutory provision already exists, and the Otago Central), not more than a million and a quarter would be required, and this sum, spread over a period of five years, or even less, if thought desirable might, and should be devoted to the rendering productive the expenditure already incurred ; and at that point the borrowing p . Itcy initiated m 1870 might be

wound upi As to the Otago Central, the carrying on of that line as far as the Taieri Lake may be insured if Parliament accepts Mr Pyke's proposal for a grant of land up to one-third of the cost to a Company or Syndicate, and we are strongly of opinion that that is the wisest course to take, and with this line thus provided for, only a million and a quarter need be borrowed to complete all railway works m hand — Such a sum as that would be readily forthcoming, and on favorable terms too, if only it were seen that the Colony had determined to make an end of the borrowing policy, and henceforth to live within its means— and that we are persuaded is the determination at which the Colony has arrived, and that the result of the impending elections will demonstrate this most emphatically.