The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, JULY 30, 1894. THE BUDGET PROPOSALS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 25, 30 July 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, JULY 30, 1894. THE BUDGET PROPOSALS.

The Financial Statement furnishes ample food for consideration and discussion, and the debate upon it which begins to morrow, should prove of more than ordinary interest. The proposals to be considered will certainly attract world-wide attention, and it would appear that our Government is determined New Zealand shall keep the van of experimental (and let us hope that it will prove also in the main) progressive legislation. The new financial schemes outlined in the statement, especially the cheap money and creation of Consols proposals, are altogether unique. Nothing approaching them for coldness of departure from the beaten track of Government finance has ever been proposed by any Governmeut. With regard to the cheap money for farmers proposal, the aim is a highly laudable one, but the proposed details as to the mode of carrying it out, are open to criticism and amendment. A general cheapening of interest rates all round which would be a natural result of the scheme if adopted, would beaninestim able boon not only to the farmers, but the country generally. Finance companies and private lenders would of necessity be prejudicially affected, but the partial sacrifice of these would not be two big a price to pay for such an undoul'ted natural gain. Cheaj> money is the crying need of the colony. Dear money and low prices are a bad combination, and this has been the coluny's handicap during the pust few years. When New Zealand's isolation from the world's markets, and the fact that the rate of interest is almost double that in the old lands^s taken iuto account, it is no wonder that our farmer's profits of late have decliued almost to the vanishing point. The necessity for cheap money must be admitted, and the manner in which it ia proposed to obtain it is probably as good a way as could be devised, but with re gard to the most important detail of the investment proposals the Treasurer will find, we think", that it will not have the general approval and support neither in or out of the House that he hopes for. His belief that land values have reached ' bed rock " is a gigantic fallacy in view of the present condition of things. Wheat has fallen from fifty to sixty per cent in price since the last assessment was made, and that fact alone has had the effect of sending land values down to a lower strata than the Treasurer's so-called " bed rock " figures. In the older districts of the colony, where few properties change hands, values at the present time are most fictitious. If it was wise for the Government in the past to safeguard their insurance funds by lending only on half-margin securities, it is much more a necessity now in these days of unprofitable husbandry. The proposal to depart from the pre sent prudent law and lend up to two thirds of the assessed value involves an element of hazard in the new proposal that takes away from its unJoubted advantages. The lending ttosird proposed to be set up would not >c infallible, nor always perfectly free i-om various influences and, perhaps, >olitical corruption. It has to be remembered that the colony would, in urse of time, pile up an enormous liability for herself through these loans, no one can tell what the future has m store. With regard to the proposed issue of colonial consols, and the suppression of private savings banks, we believe the advantages would not compensate for the disturbance of circulation that must follow, and the distrust that would be occasioned in other departments of private finance.