NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2346, 23 September 1880, Page 2

NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

INVESTMENT IN COLONIAL SECURITIES. (“ Home News,” July 30.) There is in some quarters a considerable feeling of distrust of New Zealand, which, if it be not checked, may have disastrous results upon the credit of British colonics generally. There cannot be much question that New Zealand has been mortgaging its credit a little too rapidly, not to say' recklessly'. A weekly'paper called “Truth” reproduces the figures as to the debt of the colony and its proportion to the population—figures that were long notorious, and have been over and over again published —and founds on them a dismal forecast as to the future. According to this journal, if Englishmen only know the real indebtedness of New Zealand, they would decline to lend her any more money' ; and once that were the case, the colony, we are told, would have to suspend payment. We do not think this gloomy vaticination is at ;ill warranted. New Zealand has certainly' been borrowing with great freedom—probably too groat. Her financial obligations are very' heavy, and the proportion of debt to population is startling'. On the other hand, however, it must bo borne in mind that the population of a colony' like Now Zealand is amost exclusively composed of producers. There are few, if any, drones in the industrial hive, and the analogy' with an old country in which the non-producers form a very large or even a preponderating element, is therefore misleading. If Now Zealand has had exceptional borrowing facilities, the reason is that she is possessed of exceptional resources ; and the idea of suspending payment is a gross and unjustifiable slander. But when this has been said it ought to he added that New Zealand has been mortgaging her future too rapidly, and them is a danger of the coulideuce of investors, being seriously' impaired. Such u result is to be greatly deprecated, particularly' at a time like the present. Population and capital are the two great wants of all new and growing communities ; and in the present abundance of capital in search of profitable employment there is no dilliculty in any' colony' obtaining quite as much money as is justified by its resources and prospects. But New Zealand and some other colonies will expose themselves to suspicions they' ought sedulously to avoid if they persist, in making too frequent applications fornew loans. New Zealand ought now to. desist. She ought to set to work to develop her resources. If she docs sho will soon reap the reward, and will find that her credit is abundantly* stimulated iu consequence.