Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JAN. 11, 1902. Borrowing.

Manawatu Herald, 11 January 1902, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JAN. 11, 1902. Borrowing.

We promised to review the position of borrowers as there has been a suggestion that in this colony we should act differently from the rest of the world and pay off our debts and cease from further borrowing. At the start we will view borrowing from a public point of view and, at another time, from the private person borrowing view. Borrowing by nations from its inhabitants is world wide, the Funded Debt of Great Britain being over 552 - million pounds; that of France as much as 1,197 million pounds; and the debt of Germany over 115 millions, these debts being in most cases for unproductive expenditure. Yet the Public Debt of a country is popular with its people, as it assures a safe investment for their capital and is easily bought and sold. If the government of the country did not take charge of the savings of the people much of it would lie dormant, the owners having little. faith in companies or commercial undertakings. The immense amount of money seeking a sound investment is shown by the large loans so easily floated at small interest. Borrowers therefore, to many thousands of people, are blessings which are duly appreciated. Australasia to-day is likewise a standing object lesson of the value of judicious borrowing, and though faint-hearted people dread the utterance of the amount these colonies have collectively borrowed and spent, amounting to over 243 million of pounds, yet the use of that sum has enabled the countries to be developed and populated so that the total exports exceed 89 millions pounds worth and have thus developed a trade with Great Britain and other countries of over seventy-two millions of imports. Thus the borrowing policy, condemned on some sides, let 1 ose the activity of the population to the grand sum of 161 million pounds. Coming nearer home we And the public debt of New Zealand, standing at the apparently high figure of over 49£ millions, and those who neglect to scrutinise by what expenditure this amount has fyeen made up, get flurried and make such assertions equivalent to the colony running headlong to destruction and bankruptcy. No captain of a vessel is so easily alarmed as some of the critics of the colonial finance, or otherwise there would be many ships lost at sea which now come safely to port. When a gale arises and the weather is thick, the seamen simply bolds his course, keeping a sharp look-out, ready to reef if the weather demands. We find no letting go of every rope and orders given to chop away the masts because, to an uneducated mind, the weather appears worse than it is, and thus in like manner the captain of New Zealand holds on to his work though a regular gale of blowhards announce the ship cannot stand the strain she is put to. The present Government may not be perfect, but their opponents make a great mistake in assailing their finance. The debt of the colony has only been increased since the 81st March, 1891, by £10,760,895 yet during the years since then to 1901 there has been spent £12,487,574. Part of this expenditure was for ■Land Purchases £649,700, Land Settlement £2,075,566, Loans to Local Bodies £1,205,900, Advances to Settlers £2,380,000, and Public Works £2,535,000. The idea of paying off, as proposed, all the loans in twenty years, would not be pleasing to those who have not as yet had an expenditure in their district for Public Works, as the effort to pay off the 49| millions, if possible, would paralise future developement. It would not please the Local Bodies who are borrowing all the money

they •■1 from the Government 0 »

on the terms to repay in 42 years, to be forced to pay back the sums any sooner. It would be exceedingly harassing to the Settlers, who after getting clear from the legal moneylender and safe, as they supposed, in the arms of a fatherly government, to be compelled to borrow once more to repay the two and a quarter millions lent them at easy interest. Before the next general election which is to be held at the end of the year, the Oppositionists will have plenty of opportunities of detailing this famous scheme of paying off the loans of the colony within twenty years. It will be something fresh and interesting for the outside party to take up, and they will have to be credited with wonderful powers if they can induce the electors to place the Government in their bands to do such work. Posterity may bless them and erect a monument to those who so Quixotically paid their debts and made their roads for them, but how the present men, who will have to suffer th- stagnation and the expense of such marvellous works during the period the scheme takes in working out, will look upon it remains yet to be reported.