Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9442, 12 May 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

DURING the financial year just closed the public debt has increased by £4,664,019, and £150,000 has been paid ell from the floating liabilities. The fear »ivl, a half rail ions actual increase hi’.!; been spent as follows :~ Pahlio works ami Mans'.vatu railway loan, £2,2,10,000; loans to local bodies, £250,000; lands for settlement, £872,000 ; advances to settlers and workers. £1,792,019.' This is a very large sum to pledge for the development of the country. No one can complain of tbs purchase of the Manawatu railway, and the greater part of the expenditure on public works and loans tu local bodies has probably be spent ,cn useful works. The money used for .the purchase of estates for closer settlement and that used for advances to settlers and workers will also pay interest on the money borrowed. Some people will say that all is well if the country is borrowing money for such purposes as those mentioafld above, but it is evident that we cannot go on borrowing to an unlimited extent even for the most excellent objects. This fact is quite understood in the case of private persons, but there seems to he an impression that what would be bad finance for individuals is quite correct for the State. A settlor may borrow foretelling bush, fencing, stumping, and ploughing, but though each and all of these improvements will probably, in the long run, prove profitable, and in the meantime provide fair security for the money borrowed, the wouldbe progressive man will soon .find that his credit Is exhausted, and tha he most make some attempt to lessen his liability, while if had;times arrive he will probably have to dispose of his property to the highest bidder. Everyone must have often been struck by the apparent lack of enterprise shown by successful men in improving their properties, and the explanation is not always apparent that these men are successful just because they have been • very cautious about undertaking even socalled reproductive expenditure. A similar tendency in Ministers would do much to place tha finances of the countrymen a sounder basis.

THE leaders of the Labour Party in "Victoria, who waited on the. Premier, and suggested|that the price of flour and bread should be settled by the Governor a year in advance, seem " quite incapable of understanding the most elementary facts of economics. They urged in defence of the proposal that it was not the farmers v»ho made the profits resulting from high prices, but those who hold the grain and forced up prices. The theory that holding wheat is an infallible method of making a profit la quite childish as the man who holds wheat is just as likely to lose as to gain. No doubt (those who bought wheat a month or two ago can sell it now at a profit, but whether by holding it any longer they will secure a greater profit is a matter on which most of the holders would ho very glad' to have accurate information. The fixing of the price of flour twelve months in advance would deprive the public of any possible benefit from a fall in price, an evil which would he quite as great as the advantage reaped from preventing a rise. In any case if millers and bakers were required by the Government regulation of price to work at a loss they would simply stop business. So also if it was attempted to settle the price farmers might ask for wheat they would use their land for another crop. The only solution of the problem would be for the State to take over wheat growing, milling and baking for the whole of Australia. Bach year it would he decided what area should be sown in wheat and State servants would plough and sow and map the crops. State mills and bakeries would do the rest. That’bread under these conditions wofild he far dearer than at present Is absolutely certain. The advent of a drought when all the labour was spent in vain would probably burst the bubble and compel a return to individual enterprise as a means of providing food for the people.