INDEBTEDNESS OF THE COLONY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 123, 17 January 1874, Page 2

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE COLONY.

We have been favored with a “ corrected revised copy ” of the Premier’s speech at the late banquet given to him in Dunedin. It occupies many columns of solid nonpareil, and is too long for us even to extract from copiously. The following, although dry, will be interesting : —

“ The amount of our debt on the 3Qth June last (after deducting the amount invested in New Zealand. securities on account of Sinking Fund) was — On colonial account, £6,465,900; on provincial account, £3,156,200; or, together, £9,622,100. As far as the provincial indebtedness is concerned, the amount is, no doubt, ultimately a colonial liability; but, at the same time, it is secured, primarily, upon the land revenue of the colony : and of the nature of that security you may gain an adequate idea, when I tell you that, between the Ist July, 1872, and the 20th December, 1873, the land revenue of the colony, exclusive of receipts on amount of Gold and Native, amounted to £1,370,000. When you know that in a year and a-half the land revenue yielded £1,370,000, you need not, I think, be fearful as to a liability of a little over £3,000,000. (Applause.) There remained on the 30th June, to be negotiated, £2,352,600 of loans already authorised; thus making a total, when all the loans authorised up to June last have been negotiated, of £11,974,000. Beyond that amount, there was required to complete the railways authorised up to the end of the session of 1872, or 767 miles of line in all, £1,886.900; and adding that amount, the total will be £13,860,900. But that is not the of our present indebtedness. It is the amount of the debt . that will exist when 767 miles of railway* Vebeen completed; when £1,000,000 * *been expended on immigration; wheff £200,000 has been spent in acquiring native lands; when £400,000 has been devoted to making roads in the North Island; and when £300,000 has been spent in works upon the goldfields. Then, but not until then, the total indebtedness of the colony may be estimated at £13,860,900. That debt will include £6,000,000.f0r public works, of whi.h, at the date I have mentioned, only some £2,000,000 had been expended.

When the question is raised, What will be our position when all that money is expended ? no one is entitled to take the present position of the colony as the sole test, and to ignore the fact that by the expenditure of £4,000,000 on public w’orks during the time that has to elapse, to say nothing of natural and ordinary progress, the prosperity of the colony must be ‘increased, and a state of things be created different from that which now exists. (Applause.) It is absurd to.suppose, if anybody does suppose, that a trunk railwav - through each island is to be constructed for £2,000,000 or £3,000,000. By the time the trunk line is completed, with'The various branches already commenced, the public debt must be very much increased; but it will be a misfortune to the country, if you fail to see that you will then .have good value for your money, in the immense addition to your population, and the means of traversing .the country from end to end whieh will have been provided. (Applause.) I have obtained a return of the revenue received during a little less than six months — from the-Ist July to the 27th December —together with returns for corresponding half-years. From the Ist July to the 31st, December, 1870, the receipts into the Consolidated Fund were £174,000; 1871, £485,(J00; 1872, £491,000; and for 1873, for a few days less than the half-year, the receipts reached £625,000 ; being an increase over the corresponding period of last year of £131,000, or at the rate of £262,000 a year. I ask you, then, to recollect that if we have to pay additional interest because of an increased amount of borrowed money, We have additional means out of whieh to pay it (Applause.) The Land Revenue returns are yet more remarkable, as an indication of the prosperity of the country. In 1870, the land revenue amounted to £194,000; for 1871, it was £230.000; in 1872, it reached £500,000 ; but for 1873, it was no less than £1,116,000, In fact, the receipts during 1873 exceeded those of the previous three years. (Applause.)