HITTING THE NAIL ON THE HEAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1663, 20 March 1886, Page 2

HITTING THE NAIL ON THE HEAD.

A correspondent of the New Zealand Herald makes some ratker pertinent suggestions on the question of how loans should be spent. He . considers that if tliey were only properly spent on productive works, they must prove of immense value to the country; and thoso who benefit by them should pay for them, and ftaye them, and welcpma'; .bat- he. objects to tho principle of :raising millions merely to occupy the great unoin ployed, whose drinking and improvidence have caused directly or indirectly so much distress throughout the landi He proceeds ag follows : — " They deserve their full share of it, and I hope they may get it They care little how the loans are to be repaid— their one hope is for a share iv the spoil while it lasts. If the futuie loanß are to be spent m the same reckless manner as others liave b«en heretofore nothing but increased taxation yrill :be the result. Of our thirty millions of debt one might fairly estimate as ' follows 5 » — One-third spent m bribery, i.e., useless works done to buy supports ; one-third m mistakes, i.e., engineering blunders and experimonts ; and about one-third m works of a productive nature. Many' of our works are unproductive, and shonld npver have been touched— othbrs had better have been left fp our children to undertake; while many of our. public works have cost three times their value, through the gross ignorance, and incompetence of our engineers,, and are little more than expensive mementoes'of their incapacity. Everything must be done over and over again, before it assumes iis proper shapb.'- /There is really much truth, and much, snbjecti for sober reflection, thought, and comparison m this 'above |entjiiienjs) somewhat crudely ; a9dhar9i|jy though th.«y may be expressed, ; '■. : '