Colonial Borrowing. DEBATE AT THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE. London, March 26.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 355, 30 March 1889, Page 5

Colonial Borrowing. DEBATE AT THE COLONIAL INSTITUTE. London, March 26.

In the discussion on Mr Westgarth's paper on colonial loans at the meeting of the Colonial Institute, Sir G. Berry, referring to the outlay on defence by the colonies, said Melbourne was now one of the strongest cities in the Empire against an open foe. Sir (Jr. Baden - Powell showed that British investors now greatly preferred colonial to foreign securities. He considered it was imperative that trustees should be permitted to invest in colonial Government securities. Sir F. Dillon Bell said that money invested in railways in the colonies ought to be regarded as British investments as much as though it were but to Yorkshire. He denied that discount loans were preferable. Mr G-. W. Hawker said that South Australia had borrowed too fast. The Trans-Continental Railway was not reproductive, and passed chiefly through a barren and waterless country. Facility for borrowing encouraged the existence of the unemployed, and a system of paternal government. Mr Speight, Victorian Railway Commissioner, denied that Australia possessed a national debt in the European sensse. He censured Mr Hawker for fouling his own nest. The Trans-Con-tinental line was directly profitable, and opened up a valuable country in South Australia. Despite the existing depression, it easily paid interest on cost of construction. He added that a syndicate could be formed to purchase the Victorian railways for the sum they had cost to build to-morrow. Mr Dangar said a syndicate could also be formed to purchase the railways of New South Wales on similar terms.