Population and Debt

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 221, 24 September 1887, Page 1

Population and Debt

In a recent speech to the Caversham electors, Mr Barron made the following pertinent remarks on the above subject : — To enable his audience to judge for themsolves whether our large and rapidly increasing public debt had been wisely incurred, he invited them to compare the years 1870, 1879, 1834, and 1887. In 187O.the population of the colony was 248,400 ; its debt, provincial and colonial, was 1\ millions, and the annual inteiest charge £474,000. In 1879 the population was 463,729, the debt 23£ millions, and the annual interest charge about 1J millions. In 1884 the population was 564,304, the debt over 29£ millions, and the annual interest charge over 1£ millions. This year (1887) the population was, according to the last census, 578,482, the net debt nearly 34-j; millions, and the annual interest charge 1 \ millions. The payment of sinking fund on the system followed in they ears previously mentioned havingmeantime been discontinued. Thus it would be seen that in 1879 the population was less than double that of 1870, but the debt and interest charge was more than three times greater. In 1884 the population had increased about one-fifth over that of 1879, ' while the debt and interest had increased by one-fourth over that year. In 1887 we had increased our population by only about on-e-fortiefch beyond that of 1884, while our ' diebt and 1 interest charge had' increased, by

ono-sixth in the three years. Tlie increase of public debt siueo 1884 was £4,617,436, of which there had been spent on railways (including liabilities and authorities on contracts) only £1,773,961 the balance of £2,843,474 having been spent in three years for other purposes by a Government that frequently declared its policy to be to restrict borrowing except for reproductive works such as desirable railways. Quoting the Premier's often -repeated * statment that every million borrowed meant £40,000 additional taxation, j\lr Barron said that under the administration of the past that was evidently correct ; but that every million borrowed, if only borrowed for and judiciously spent on reproductive works, should mean not only no additional taxation, but an appreciable dccieaso of our burdens. To show to how much better advantage neighbouring colonies had used the money they had borrowed, Mr Barron instanced the colony of New South Wales, which, with a total debt outstanding on tho Ist January, 1889, of 354 millions, was able to meet moro than half its annual interest of under 1^ millions with the net earnings of its railways, which were tin ee-quarters of a million, leaving after other specific provisions, really only £564 000 a year to be pro\ ided from general taxation towards the j jay men t of interest. Tho colony of Victoria, with an outstanding debt in June, 1886, of £30,111,000, and an annual inture&t charge of £1,280,597, had so piudently managed the expenditure of borrowed money as to be able to meet nearly all the inteiest out of the net earnings of the railways, only some £300,000 a year having to bo found from general taxation. The colonies of Queensland and South Australia also contrasted favourably with New Zealand in this >-espect. New Zealand railways only contiibuted £300,000 a-year towards our annual charge of If millions for interest, leaving nearly 1^ millions to be pi o\ ided by the genera] taxpayer this year, or about £200,000 a-year more than in 1884— the discontinuance of payment of sinking fimd notwithstanding. These figures, Mr Ban on said, would show that our burdens were growing far out of proportion to our population, and that to impose increased taxation would only tend further to check the progress of the colony. If we continued to counteract the many natural inducements New Zealand could offer to those who might be inclined to come and settle in the colony, by increasing our debt and increasing taxation, and further tinkering with our land laws in the direction of substituting a lease- J hold for a freehold tenure, we would not only be likely to deter the most desirablo class of settlers from coming to make their homes amongst us, but an uneasy feeling would spread amongst tho.so who aic alx*eacly here, and we might chive away much of the population we now lnv\ c.