Nelson EVening Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1881,

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 137, 10 June 1881, Page 2

Nelson EVening Mail. FRI D AY, JUNE 10, 1881,

Our readers will have perused with a considerable amount of interest the letter from Sir Julins Yogel to Mr Curtis which we published yesterday. Whether or not they will agree with all it contains is another matter. Some will probably be convinced by the specious arguments adduced, while others will recognise in them theold gambling spirit to which the public works policy of 1870 was largely owing. Having speculated upon the possible grounds for the rumor which appeared in the Christchurch Frtsi to ihe effect that he was about to form a company in London for the purpose of purchasing the New Zealand railways, Sir Julius proceeds to open fire upon the present Government for allowing "pusillanimous fears" to weigh with them to such an extent as to induce them to apply the brake last year and to check the headlong speed with which the colony was approaching ruin. In a ligbt and airy way he says that there was no occasion for alarm, or at least none for Betraying it; that all that was necessary was to "reinstate the tea and sugar duties and some other taxes of the same character such as beer," keep up a smiling face, go on spending money as freely as ever on public works, and trust to chnuce and half a dozen shiploads of farmer immigrants to do the rest. This is Sir Julius Vogel'a prescription for the treatment of the colony Ia a crisis thus described by Sir William Fox in a speech delivered last week to his constituents :— " The colony was on the verge of bankruptcy. For example, a large sum of interest was falling due, which, if not paid on a certain day would ruin the credit of the colony, yet they would hardly believe that up to ten houri of the day in question the late Government had made absolutely no provision to meet this sum, and it had to be financed in London by Sir J. Yogel, who induced the Bank of England and other bodies to come to the rescue, and save the credit of tbfe colony. The colony was actually as near ruin as that, but the greatest and most fearful fact was the deficit of a million necessary to pay the liabilities " The fact was that such a sharp lesson as that administered by Major Atkinson was just what New Zealand wanted Up to that time it bad suffered itself to be led blindfold whithersoever its leaders might choose, and bad even submitted with almost equanimity to such treatment as a session without a fioancial statement of any kind whatever. It was no time for fooling, and the present Treasurer saw it. He took a powerful pull at the reins, And the effect baa been most salutary. The colony has had time to think, and after eighteen months' reflection and severe discipline will not again be easily tempted by a golden bait, knowing as it now does from experience bow sharp ia the hcok that lies concealed beneath. It was praiee worthy courage, not pusillanimous fear, that wns displayed by the Government. Sir Julius Vogel'a proposals for railway extension are not to be disposed of hurriedly or in a few lines. He is acquainted, perhapi better than any one in New Zealand, witb the temper of tho London market and with all its intricacies, and therefore must b« regarded as speaking with authority when ho says th«t it would be no breach of faith for the Government to endeavor to raise another loan within the term (three years), during: which it promised to refrain from borrowing. It is only necessary, it appears, that the money should be raised for railway construction, and that the nominal borrowers should be certain Commissioners to be appointed in the manner recommended in his letter. Seeing, however, that the colonial guarantee must be given, it requires the delicate perception of a skilled financier like Sir Julius Yogel to detect the difference between borrowing for a specific purp >se by Commissioners appoiuted by the colony, and applying for a loan in the ordinary way. It is difficult, too, to appreciate the practical difference, so far as the burden to the colony is concerned — beyond, as Sir Julius says, its not being quoted as part of the public debt of the colony — between a loan raised under the colonial guarantee for railway construction only, and one contracted, as former ones have been, for general purposes. We can scarcely think that the sophistical arguments in favor of borrowing more, and almost unlimited, millions will produce their desired effect on the colony. We have not all of us the sanguine, some might call it the reckless, disposition of Sir Julius Yogel, and well, perhaps, it is for the country that it should be so. On one point we are quite at one with him. " The railway policy," he says, " was based on a bargain which should be held sacred that there should be two trunk lines, bringing into inter-communication Wellington > Napier, Wanganui, New Plymouth, and Auckland in the North ; and Nelson, Hokitika, Blei heim, Ficton, Chnstcburcb, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Milton, a'jd Invercargill in the South Island. To ignore this compact is to make a united community impossible." This latter assertion has beeci abundant'y proved to be true. Nothing has given riae to more bitter feelings than the repudiation of the bargain entered into by the representatives of the various districts of the country in 1870, and every branch line that has been constructed since then is a standing testimony to the readiness of the colony to back out of a solemn agreement when one of the contracting parties is not sufficiently strong to enforce its claim. Sir Julius is quits right ; there can be no united community in New until the original compact is carried out. We shall watch with a good deal of curioßity the comments of the press on the letter, and shall publish extracts from the articles as they appear.