NEW ZEALAND INDEBTEDNESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 5, 17 September 1880, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND INDEBTEDNESS.

(From the Pall Mull Gazette,) The total debt of New Zealand now amounts to 28 millions, imposing an annual charge of £1,400,000 for mii teiest, and £116,000 for sinking fund— together, £1,516,000, or £3 8s per heari per unnum on the small population of 400,000 persons. The railways built l>y the i^tate may be ■worth 12 millions, but they are worked at a considerable loss. About twentyfive new lines of railway are in course of cons'ruction ; but the time of opening and the financial results when op< ned are both uncertain ; and in the meantime, and until the earnings of the open and unopen lines fully cover the working expenses and the interest and sinking fund on the money borrowed to build them, the deficit must be supplied by heavier and heavier taxes. ' The taxes in New Zealand are al ready much heavier than in ihe neighboring colonies, to the manifest discouragement of the influx into it of capital and labor. The land sales have fallen off" rapidly, and the last Budget disclosed a deficit of not less than one million. To meet this in some degree the ad valorem duties on imported goods were raised 5 per cent., or to 15 per cent , and several specific duties were advanced The severe measure in a new colony of a property tax of ote penny in the pound on the value of " all property" was also adopted, the tax to be assessed in localities by three " reviewers." The mania for buying and specu* lating in land came to a sudden stoppage on the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in the autumn of 1878. The banks had as usual made considerable advances to borrowers supposed to be solvent, and taken as security a lien on thelandspurchased. These advances are now being i apidly recalled ; and there is good reason to believe that the recent activity in the fdrmation in and out of « he colony of mortgage nnd investment companies is closely connected with ihe desire of the banks to get back their advances on one side, and the desire of the borrowers to pay back the banks with the money of the proposed and projected companies. "When the lean of five millions was afloat a few months ago with great success, by virtue of the novel agency of the Bank of England— for ■we aro not aware that the Bank of Kngland had previously appeared in the same capacity— an undertaking was given that New Zealand would not appear again as a borrower for at lease thiee years. It is certain beyond all cavil that during these three years the colony must encounter great financial difficulties. Fortunate leasons may ptwibly c*rry it through the peril, but candor compels the admission that,, according to present facts and appearances, collapse is quite as •possible bb success. At all events it is high tine that there should be a

cessation of the i voluminous, pei sisient, and barefaced puffing of the " Britain of the Antipodes," not only here it London but up and down the whole country, not omitting the remotest corners ot it. The Government ano people of New Zealand have had fai more of English money than is goor for them or for us, and they must now prove by actual remittances that thej can pay the interest and sinking fund on the old loans by other means than contacting new ones.