Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1209, 29 December 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1871.

Those who profess to approve of the borrowing policy to which the Colony is committed for a series of years to comej are in the habit of asserting that the expenditure will be reproductive. It has, in f-.iet, become almost a stereotyped expression, "The.-e loans are for reproductive purposes," and we suppose there are some who actually believe that they will be a source of profit to the Colony. We are reminded by such of the difference in the value of money in England and in the colonies, and it is argi.ed that if we can procure large sums of money in England at about 4 per cent., which is worth in this colony just double that rate of interest, it must be a good stroke of business to do so. We need not stop to expose the fallacy invoked in this argument.. Our purpose now is to enquire whether any large proportion of the borrowed money is likely to be reprodactively employed. "We mighi, for the purpose of argugument, admit that it is within the

limits of possibility for the Government pf the Colony to borrow funds and expend them in such a way as to be productive of public benefit, but, a priori, it is certainly not within the bounds of probability thai a Government will do so. So far as the test has proceeded in pur own case, it is absolutely certa'n that it has not been done, nor is it more likely to be done in the future. The inflow of capital has little other effept pu the administrative department than to svimulatc extravagance —to enable, in fact, ? the Government to lavishly squander it, rewarding their servants by new and lucrative appointjnen{,s, the screw of additional taxation jaeing at the same time applied to the

long-suffering inhabitants of the Colony. We shall be doubtless told that "public works are progressing," that "lines of railways anil nev roads arc being laid out and are to be pushed on with all convenient speed." We can readily admit all this as one of the necessities of the case. It would never do to go into the market, raise funds, and spend (he whole in a direction the opposite of that for which it was professedly raised. No one can doubt that some portion of the monev will be spent in " developing the resources of the Colony." This must be the case to satisfy, nob only the English capitali.vt, but the Home Government, whose guarantee is lying like a nest to be applied to a portion of the loan as soon as a difficulty shall be felt in inducing capitalists to lend without it. What ! we wish to show is that the money so applied will amount to but a small proportion of the whole, the greater bulk ! of it being applied to meet the detieien- : cies of re\enue, reward subservient supporters of the Government, and gene rally to maintain, in existence a system of extravagance, which, without foreign assistance, must per force, have come to an end from the sheer inability of the Colony to keep it up. Wc have, early as it is, a foretaste of the dire effects of the policy. The in crease in the Stamp Duties, which was not to have taken place for some years, has already been imposed. Next session of the Assembly will in all probability see the infliction of an income tax in addition to all existing burdens; and yet these oppressions will fail to provide sufficient to meet ordinary expenditure. The deficiency will be taken horn the loan just as has already been done. Meanwhile interest is year by year increasing, and when, the loan ceases to yield funds—which will come some day—-we shall find that the enoimous annual interest must, by some means or other be extracted from the pockets of the people. j