THE DESIRABLENESS OF A NEW LOAN.

Kumara Times, Issue 812, 8 May 1879, Page 4

THE DESIRABLENESS OF A NEW LOAN.

The Otago Daily Times in an article strongly urging that Parliament should be convened early in June, puts forward as a special reason the desirableness of a new loan. The Time says :

“It is now certain the Land Fund must full short by at least L 400,000 of the estimate, and although the increased receipts from the railways and other sources are expected to go a good way towards making up the deficiency up to the end of June, the real significance of the falling off is that we can have no reliance on our Land Fund for the next 12 months ; probably the receipts, if we are to take the December and March quarters as an index, will not be more than L 400,000 in all next year, instead of L 1,200,000, and thus the foundation of the Public Works policy of last session partly breaks down. It is evident that we cannot construct railways out of the Land Fund until there are more buyers in the field, and it is manifestly wiser to resort to the London money market than to attempt to force off land when the demand has slackened, and the money to purchase it is not forthcoming. Of course a few months may see a revival of the demand, which will necessarily follow when money becomes more plentiful; but in the meantime we could scarcely have a more favorable opportunity for resorting to the expedient of further borrowing. The extremely favorable result of both the Victorian and the Queensland loans recently raised in London justifies us in believing that we could just now raise several millions on very satisfactory terms, especially as we can point to the eminently reproductive character of the expenditure we have already incurred for our railways, and the doubly good security afforded for any further expenditure in the way of railway extension, inasmuch as very large areas of valuable land, still in possession of the Crown, will be opened up by them, as pointed out by Mr Macandrew in his last Public Works Statement. Although this land may not sell next year, or the year after, it will most certainly sell at high prices eventually, as the railways advance, and it is a most valuable asset to set against the expenditure. If to the consideration that we can get money easily now, we add another—namely, that at any moment the state of Europe may become such as to utterly disorganise the money market, we are convinced that every mercantile man must see, and the Govenment will surely not be blind to the fact that now is the time for action, and that even the delay of one or two months is dangerous. We have always regarded it as extremely unfortunate that the Opposition, in the session before last, cut down the borrowing powers asked for by the Government to an unsafe minimum, and we trust that no party in the House will be so unpatriotic as again to make that mistake.”