DEBT v. POPULATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1519, 28 December 1872, Page 2

DEBT v. POPULATION.

A correspondent of the Otago Daily Times puts the matter in the following forcible light : If there were any probability of population increasing in the same ratio as our indebtedness, there might be some s?how of plausibility in the argument, although other countries repudiate the idea of allowing debt to increase; at all, but generally insist npon itsbeing gradually paid off. As compared with population, the national debt of Great Britain has greatly diminished within the last fifty years. That of the United States, since the close of the war, has been enormously reduced, not merely in proportion to the population, but in actual amount; whilst Northern Germany has practically no debt at all. If, then, we made up our minds to look on contentedly, whilst debt and population advanced with equal stepSj, we should still be adopting a course which the foremost nations of the world reject as fraught with peril. But even these conditions do not apply to the case as it affects us. Our population does not grow at the same rate as debt, but, on the contrary, <he latter increases in a ratio three or four times as fast~indeed, latterly it has increased five times as rapidly, as will be seen from, tljte lowing table:—

But whilst up to 1863 ibe increase of population went on at a higher rate than the debt, since then the conditions hare been reversed; and whilst popiu hition has not doubled nor nearly doubled, the debt has increased eight fold. In 1863 the percentage of debt; chargeable to every man, woman, anti child, was a little over seven guineas j now it is more than thirty-six pounds,. In view of these facts it is nonsense to plead the increase of population as a setoff against the accumulation of debt. Such an argument can only be put forward by those who are ignorant of the truth or by those who for purposes of their own, wish to conceal it. But not content with assuming that popula-. tion and indebtedness have and will continue doing so with equal strides, the advocates of our policy of waste endeavor to impose upon the public by another assumption equally at variance wiiU fectsu They talk asi if an increase of population necessarily implied increased revenue : and if one believed their representations, it would only be requisite to double the population in order to get double the amount of taxes; but this wild assumption .i& no less opposed to common sense than to ascertained facts, as shown below: — :

Thus we see that for four consecutive years the population increased, and the revenue with equal regularity fell off, If there existed such an intimate cor-, respondeuce between population anc| revenue as is pretended, the revenue for 1870 would have been four hundred thousand pounds higher.

Population Total Debt Total Debt at end of at end of at middle. year. year. of year. 1857 49,802 £ 501,516 1858 ... ... ... ... 1859 ... ... ... ... ... ... 1860 ... ... 1861 99,021 ,.. ... 1862 125,812 758,806 1863 164,048 1,219,059 * 1864 172,158 2,129,725 1865 190,607 4,232,484 1866 204,114 5,218,784 ... ... 1867 218,668 5,482,202 ... ... 1868 226,018 6,797,888 1869 237,249 6,889,968 1870 248,400 7,786,244* £7,268,469; 1871 256,167 8,855,256* 8,304,020 1872 27O.00Q* 9,957,728* 9,406,492 ♦Estimated only.

1867 . 1868 . 1869 1870 Population. ,.. 218,668 ., ,.. 226,018 .. ,.. 237,249 „ ,., 248,400 „ Revenue. , £1,225,584 1,195,512 1,025,516 960,368