PUBLIC WORKS, PUBLIC WEALTH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 26, 22 July 1871, Page 11

PUBLIC WORKS, PUBLIC WEALTH.

The " Times" and the " Economist" have been discussing, with their usual ability, the subject of the new French loan required to pay the indemnity to Prussia. The one takes up the question with reference to the security France has to offer; and the other the effects which so large and sudden a foreign demand for money will have on the English money market. Both branches of the subject are of more or less interest to the people of New Zealand. First, as regards its bearings on our proposed loans; and second, with regard to opinion in England relative to loans for public works, and the security such works afford to the public creditor. In the opinion of the "Economist," the first effect of the negotiation of the French loan will be a disturbance of the bullion market, and. a consequent tendency to rise in the value of money ; bujt it thinks that this effect and tendency will be only temporary. For though a quantity of bullion, cooped up in Berlin, will raise the value of money, other bullion will be attracted to J3ng-

land and France by the high rate of interest, which will furnish sufficient for their requirements. The uses of the indemnity, in the repayment of German loans, to which object a considerable portion of it will be devoted, and the consequent purchase of foreign securities by those who will be thus paid off, will only be ways of scattering through the money markets of the world money which the collection of the indemnity drew together. Substantially its effect will be to send back the money to the place from which it came. This, in brief, is the argument of the " Economist." On the whole, therefore, it thinks that the effect of the indemnity will be much less than was thought, and even in that degree will be temporary only. Mr Vogel's successful negotiation of a portion of the public works loan, before this temporary effect on the London money market was anticipated and felt, was quite as fortunate for the colony as ii; has been represented ; and it explains the grounds for the assertion made in London that Mr Vogel had effected his object not only with con sum ate prudence and skill, but at the very moment when it could alone have been accomplished on such favorable terms. He " hit the iron while it was hot," and when only it could have been hit with effect. There was in this stroke, at this moment, quite as much judgment as luck. To seize the opportunity "just in the nick of time" it presents itself, is less a mark of good fortune than of good sense. It is the very mark which distinguishes the wise man from the fool, which explains the cause of failure and success, and which shows that there are rational grounds for the world's judgment in condemning the one, and honoring the other. Not that the best laid plans are always successful ; nor because it is denied that events are uninfluenced by good or evil fortune ; but because it is felt that the true man will prove himself equal to either, and, like Frederick the Great, make our present defeats the means of securing future victories. This seizing opportunity at the right moment is, in truth, the grand secret of success in all the great occurrences of life. It is the hitting of the iron, not only when it is hot, but when it is at the proper heat to hit it; it is taking the tide at its flood, with the knowledge that that is its then condition ; and hence what is ascribed to good luck is more frequently the result of superior knowledge, quickness, and sagacity. If Mr Vogel had waited until the new French loan had been placed in the market, he might have waited some time, even if the sanguine anticipations of the "Economist" are well founded, before he could have borrowed a million and a quarter sterling on the terms at which he obtained that amount.

Leaving the arguments of the "Economist," and turning to those of " The Times," it will be at once seen that the latter are by far the most interesting, at the present moment, to the people of New Zealand. From these we shall discover the nature of the security which France has to offer for the enormous loan she requires, and of the opinions entertained regarding this security by the leading journal of Europe. It appears that M. Boiteau recently had compiled an inventory of the public wealth of France. This included cathedrals, palaces, and museum?, domains, establishments, monuments, roads, docks, arsenals, harbors, ramparts, and stores. " The Times" asks, will these unproductive possessions give Frenchmen the £200,000,000 now required ? Will property which yields no revenue, and which can neither be alienated or mortgaged, help France to raise money ? To these questions "The Times" replies, by referring to Mr Grant Duff's India Budget, from which, it says, the reader may recognise in this inventory of French possessions the very constituents of that wealth which England is now endeavoring to create in British India. " The truth is," says " The Times," and it is a truth which ought to have so keen an edge as would enable it to penetrate the thick craniums of those who croak in this colony over loans for public works—"a country rich in woods, and provided liberally with public works, possesses in reality a public fortune." " It is this fortune," it adds, «' which by slow and not ungenerous investments we are endeavoring to

accumulate for the people of India. It is this fortune which will enable the people of France to sustain the burdens now cast upon them." Why is India, it asks, one of the poorest countries in the world? The reply is, in many points, as applicable to New Zealand as to India. " Because it is in want of highways, ports, navigable rivers, systems of irrigation, and arrangements for developing its agricultural and mineral wealth." There are other sources of wealth besides those material ones here enumerated that may be in* eluded amongst the available resources of a country. Educational institutions, museums, and industrial exhibitions are of this character. They are the surest methods of introducing excellence in mechanism, agriculture, the arts, and manufactures ; and such excellence, when created and diffused, means productive industry and national wealth. But the leading journal does not confine itself to the consideration of the circumstances of India or France. It maintains that with good communications, easy means of transport, a fertile soil, accumulated materials, and an industrious population, a country is necessarily wealthy. '' Look," it says, "at our colonies—the regions most favored in soil, climate, and all that constitutes a land a promise-—what are the objects constantly kept in view by their legislatures ? For what purposes are the people of Australia and New Zealand voting sums after sums of money every year ? For the very purposes and the very objects which in France are already realised." In this extract we have a confirmation of the truth which is conveyed in the heading to this article. Though it may already be indebted to the extent of £6oo,ooo,ooo—though ii may be disorganised and without a" Government —though it may have fearful losses to repair, the whole fabric of s;s industry to reconstruct, an \ half ii:; territory to redeem from desolation—still, with valuable public .;'■ .a industrious population, ample Q ,/hy is afforded the public creditor iferihe repayment of an additional loan loathe extent of two hundred millions sterling. Public works, in the opinion of the leading journal of Europe, affords the best possible security to the public creditor, because they afford the best possible means and facilities for the acquisition of public wealth. Money, therefore, borrowed for the prosecution of such works has a double merit, and " is blessed in what it takes., and what it gives." When thus applied, like seed-wheat under good management, though temporarily buried, it will yield in good season a golden harvest. A Public "Works loan will not only supply us with future means of public enrichment, but it will furnish us at once with what we also stand so much in need of—capital and labor. It is true the public debt will be augmented, but it will be felt much less burdensome than at present; not only because there will be more shoulders to bear the burden, but because a load which would crush a weak and sickly youth could be carried with cheerfulness and ease by a strong man in good health. Just as it would be a greater hardship to an individual to pay the state £lO out of an income of £IOO, than it would be for him to pay £2O if his income was doubled ; so it will be with the colony. Its additional outlay will be as nothing compared with its additional income. Macauley considered that the enormous public debt of England was felt less as a burden in his day than was the few millions which it owed in the clays of his grandfather. If this is the case, with a burden stupidly contracted and occasioned by war, it must necessarily be the case with a debt like ours, contracted for prosecution of public works, and other purposes of productive industry and public wealth.