TRADE AND DEBT

Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1928, Page 4

TRADE AND DEBT

A USTRA UA'S POSITION*. SIR ROBERT HORNE’S ADVICE. SYDNEY, Feb. 23. Sir Robert Horne, a former Chancellor of tho Exchequer in Britain, who is now visiting Australia, lias proved himself a keen observer, and bis remarks on .Australia’s economic' position leave aroused considerable interest. Ilis latest, remarks on this subject seem to be as apnlieable. to New Zealand as they are to the Commonwealth. *‘l hope you will forgive me if f venture to direct attention to one or two things I Imyg, noticed,’’ he said in Alclouburne the other day. ‘‘When I place the adverse balance of trade against, the fact that Australia has a public debt, of Ct.OOIXO'IO.CGO. of which ■£442, OOO.OUO is owed outside Australia, even an adverse balance of only i’ll ,(’30,003 is something that you should take notice of. Although it does not embarrass you now, it might do so in an awl;ward situation. The accounts of some of the Australian •States reveal some very . awkward figures of losses on State ventures, and many things the Stales have done on borrowed money have not fructified. Indeed, there; arc large sums of , capital expenditure standing on the books whicji in an ordinary business would have been written off long ago. I do not 'suggest, that this should cause you any pessimism, but it. should induce your financial loaders to consider where they are going, and what is the tendency of the country. In England our own record ot expenditure has caused us the greatest eiuharrassment. When a State enters aventure with borrowed money it can never repudiate its debt, which becomes a millstone around the neck, and can be met only out of the earnings of the ocople. Our embarrassment in England Ims obstructed our merchants in their attempt to compete and sell goods in foreign markets. “Australia’s wealth is indefinite, and there is no burden it cannot ultimately carry, but you should not place yourselves in a position in which you would not he aide to use your bestassets. You have great lands which yield you grain and sheep which yield you fleece. Do not place too great a burden on these great industries. T hope in your development you will be carefill to "preserve the balance between primary and secondary Indus- j trios. 1 hope also that in your de- j velopment you will never lose sight of the Old Country from which we. have all sprung, and that your good fortune and our good fortune will go forward together.”