THE COLONIAL TREASURER ON FURTHER BORROWING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1644, 25 February 1886, Page 2

THE COLONIAL TREASURER ON FURTHER BORROWING.

- — : » Sir Julius VosELin Auckland did hot lose the opportunity of impressing upon the public mind how indispensable to the prosperity of the Colony it is to continue borrowing. Here are his remarks on the Subject fr— "If public works were stopped, there would be a great exodus, fie was riot speaking without book. He would take the example of New South Wales. The Colenial Treasurer of New South Wales, m a late Budget, had stated that during the last few years the colonists Had lost gigantically from droughts and from the reduced price of wool. This authority estimated the loss of stook alone at five millions sterling, and other losses at a vast amount ; bufrit was nevertheless tihe case that, notwithstanding -these disasters, ;the ■ Colony had , greatly progressed and its population increased. The reason was to' be found m! this ; that instead of allowing. the Colony 10 suffer by dearth of emploj'ment ' they set themselves to construct railways from the end of 1880 until the 11th December, 1885. They had the authority : of .'Sir Patrick Jennings, who. was forming; a Government, for saying that from the" end of 1880 tothe 15th December, 1885, l!he Colony had .borrowed .£20,700,000, orin five years what New Zealand had borrowed m fifteen.: Besides that, they had during the five years ten millions of land revenue, enormous Customs revenue, ijtnd one million and a quarter deficit. In the latest Sydney Financial Statement it was stated that they Were spending borrowed money at the rate, of four hun-, dredand sixty thousand pounds a month,' and intended to borrow again m June or July. New South Wales had now more population th o n Victoria. The increase during the last few years was more than double that of the previous five years." These are very specious arguments no doubt. But do tliey apply to New Zealand ? New Zealand has not,. nor never .under, the present regime, as attractive a field for_ emigration as New South Wales. The latter is -part of Australia, a vast ' continent,* compared to which the islands of- New Zealand are a mere speck on the map. For five emigrants who come to New Zealand we suppose not Jgss than fifty conic to differ ent parts qf Australia. ' \i they do pot succeed In Victoria, or South Australia, or Western Australia, they try New South Wales. But no inducements are held opt at Home to obtain emigrants of the right sort to come to New Zealand. The consequence is that the tide of emigration sets m the direction of Canada, the United States, or Australia. Arid is New South Wales so very prosperous for all this public works expenditure? We fancy not. The effect has been to advance the capital of Sydney by leaps and bounds. But is the Colony generally prosperous ? We doubt it. If the prosperity of a Colony has to be' maintained by borrowed money, and its population retained by the^ construction of public works on a lavish scale, the inevitable reaction mugt come sooner or later,, when: the exodus will set m ; those who can clear out will do so, leaving the heavier burden of debt for the unfortunate few to stagger under who cannot depart, but must struggle under a crushing load of taxation. Borrowing cannot go on ad infinitum. Some day there will be no more money forthcoming ' ; the public creditor; will pooh pooh further appeals and will wish he had not . invested so deeply m bonds which are likely to"' prove very indifferent security. Sir Julius j Yogel did not allude, to this phase of the subject. His policy appears to be to go on borrowing as long as we can, and let posterity or those of us who survive arrange for payment All men who have oonsiderpd tlje subject are convinced that the day that New Zealand goes m for another borrowing scheme will be an evil day for this Colony. Probably history would repeat itself. Sir Julius would go Home to float the loans, or act as Agentr(Jeneral, arid we should probably see Ills face again no more, at any rale tor a season. When our population shall have doubled will be time enough to talk of further borrbyring'on a large scale. Meantime let us try and develop our vast natural resources, and learn to become self reliant to some extent. Let us open our waste lands to ' those who will bring capital to reclaim them, and make them productive. Let there be an end to the demoralising demand for. bor-

wwtfcl juoftevi fof which i« tin yssfc th« coiiiitry has {wid so (leat'i aud which httS bronglit About so much that is Utdesir* able m tlic aduiinist ration of our affairs, and retarded thd d«veldpirient df a sound and beneficial YJdlicy;