South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1893.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7079, 27 February 1893, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1893.

It appears that some people at Home are trying to create a scare in the public mind about colonial stocks. A message of the 21st inst. says, “ Bears have depressed all colonial stocks, except those of New Zealand. A Mr Wilson, “ of the Standard,” seems to have been frightened—whether financially, or merely editorially, we cannot say—and he has been writing shrewishly, especially regarding New South Wales. What he put forward we have not been informed, bat we received a cable of the 21st inst. stating that Sir Saul Samuel had replied to him, and characterised his strictures as a “gross and malicious misrepresentation.” Sir Saul Samuel went on to say that New South Wales has 151 million acres of land unsold, of which 148 millions are leased, and worth 100 millions sterling; and that the revenue from lands and public works leaves a surplus of £679,000 after paying interest. To-day we publish a cable stating that Mr Wilson has replied, “contemptuously adhering to everything he had previously written.” We should understand the dispute better if we knew what he had previously written ; but as to-day’s message mentions that he “ ridicules the value of land rearing only one aheap to ten acres,” and alludes to the necessity for farther borrowing, we may infer that he drew attention to the insufficiency of the public revenues of New South Wales to meet the expenses of Government and of interest payments, and perhaps to the fundamental fact that the surplus production of New South Wales is not equal to the payment for her imports and the payment of the interest on foreign debts. Sir Saul Samuel’s statement that New South Wales possesses so many million acres of land is an interesting fact geographically, but it has no real importance financially ; his statement that the land is worth a hundred millions sterling has a meaning in the colony, but practically none in London. Mr Wilson and those he writes for, require so much cash, delivered yearly or half-yearly iu London ; and a hundred million pounds worth of land in New South Wales meets nojcheques on London banks.

A PARLIAMENTARY RETURN, just published by the Government printer, is one of the shortest we have seen. It is a return of the total of the assessed values of all lands in the colony not specially exempted from Land Tax by the nature of their ownership. The order for the return makes some show of printers’ ink. The return itself is simply this : “ £63,723,895. ” These figures might form the text for long political-economical discourses. Just now we use them to illustrate the discussion regarding New South Wales. What do those figures represent to the holders of New Zealand stocks at Horae 1 By themselves, absolutely nothing. We might multiply them by ten, declare all our lands worth 637 millions, and it would not increase the surplus production available to pay our foreign defats by a farthing. We might reduce the assessment by nine-tenths, declare all our lands worth only 3 millions, and our surplus products would be worth just as much in Loudon. The great difference between New South Wales aud New Zealand in the estimation in which their securities are respectively held at Home just now, is duo to the fact that New Zealand is producing a surplus of exportable and marketable wealth sufficient to pay all current demands, while New South Wales is not.