The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1903 ATTACKING THE CREDIT OF THE COLONIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 79, 1 April 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1903 ATTACKING THE CREDIT OF THE COLONIES.

Copies cf the Daily Mail to haDd by the last English mail contain the articles by Mr H. W, Wilson, attacking the credit of the Australian colonics. It certainly seams stracgp, aft?r the evidence of the elasticity of colonial and the support afforded lo the Empire by the colonial troops, that 6uch a bitter attack should be upon the colonies, and such attacks are not calculated to promote good-feeling. Published, &s thesearticlfß wtre, on the eve of the issue of the New Zealand lo*d, they naturally caused a feeliog of ; uneasiness, and had, it is claimed an injurious effect on the successful fotation of the loan. The following extracts from one of the series entitled, "Is Australia Bankrupt," gives a fair idea |of the erroneous nature of the information supplied to the British reader, and the distorted views Mr Wilson . holds on matters affecting the Australian co'onies, Unfortunately, as we 1 previously pointed the people at Home confuse New Zealand and AuS' tralia, and tbink the same conditions apply there as here. " To what extent," asks Str Wilson, " are the Australian colonies retrenching in their Budgets, and are they taking any steps to meet the storm which is rising fast over the horizon ? The answer is that they are doing nothing at all. They have, it is l true, as an expedient jettisoned some | P a rt of 'heir outlay on national d -fenca, j and have theieby left their country ; open to _ attack by any of the Great Powers in the not impossible contingency of disaster to the Navy which at P'Bsent protects them, and to which they contribute practically no'hing; but as their total outlay on defence was ntver more than £700,000, the whitfcliog away of £237,000 is but of email

account—a drop in the ocean—eapecii ally as against it has to be set a smill , increase in the contribution to the . Imperial squadron on the statioD, And : this brings us to an important point. , Australian indebtedness, unlike the debts of Europe, ha* not bcou incurred in the international struggle for existjecce, or in the provision of an army and navy. It has been incurred in maintaining tke Australian worker in a condition of

comfort and tfflunnce to which Europe I is a stranger. It is, therefore, not in : the least surprising that Mr Reeves, in | his recent and most valuable study of Australian politic?, should be able to inform us that " there? is nothiDg like the same large stratum of workers ju-t not starving in the workhouse (in Australia), as the class revealed in England by the investigations of Mr Charks Booth, Rnd Mr Saebohm Kountreo. In England every inhabitant—man, womon, and child has to pay 31s or more annually national defence. In Australia each man, woman, and child pays only 3s 1 6:1, not because the danger of Aus- | tralia is less, for she has Germany at her doors in the Bismark Archipelago, France, in New Caledonia, aid the immense naval andmiytary suangth of Russia and Japan across the Ohina sea; but because the Britisher not

only lands Australia money at low interest, but also defends her practically | without charge. Australia, in fact, like tbe pauper in our modern palatial j workhouse, has everything done for her by someone else, But she lives -on sufferance - on the patience of the British taxpiyer and lender, Sbe maintiirs and has to pay for cone of the machinery of an independent State, and that is 'i sufficient answi r to the politicians who from time to time sugges" ;hat the has everything to gain by ■wc-ssi.in. I', also shows the danger of iiar position all the mora clearly. Wore he independent, she could not borrow in London, and not many weeks would paas before the Armed Michael dug his cl ,wa into some of her most eligible lots, whi'e the Armed Eagle, or whatever the patron deity of France may be, wuuld certainly follow suit, and the Yellow Augel would want to know why Japmeae were debarred free adrausion to ber ports. Australia is no long r isolated, except in the imagination of her statesmen. Sbe lies in he very wh i\ *nJ centre of the path of tbe Far Eastern political cyc'one, while day by day the world is narrow- j in?, and Europe is drawing nearer to her gate.'. Instead of diminishing ex- j p -nditure, and applying the saving* to obviate further borrowing, follies of th- j wildest kind are being indulged in by Australian financiers. List year no fewer than five of thesis States showed I deficits, and the total amount of the iebit balance was over X 1,000,000. The yew before that the. deficit was .£600,000. It may be predicted—with the certainty that the prediction will be fulfilled —that th* present fhancial year will show results worse than ever. Ye l :,' in face of this ominous phenomenon, the policy of prodigal relief works and old age penmo s is being adopted, as though the 1 country hid a surplus of billions to play with, The time is fast approaching when every ona in Australia will be livi tig upon the State, o: to put itin blnnter and more uoplnasant words', upon the British investor. The New Z taland old-age pension law has already been copied by the two chief States in Am- 1 tralia, notwithstanding drought and deficit. In New South Wales, in th« very throes of the drought, with revenue drying up and the State tottering on th-j edge of bankruptcy, in September 1900 the following measure waß pissed: Every person of either s-y, aged sixty-five or ov?r, or wbo, being l3ss than sixty-five but not less than sixty, cannot earn a living by reason of sickness or accident, is to have a psnsion of X 26 a year, provided he or she does-not possess more than X 26 a year of independent me ins. In Victoiii every Victorian of sixiy-fiva md uowards can have a pension of a shil ing a.day, and persons of less than sixty-five can have the same pension if they have lost their health by working at some unhealthy trade, with certain tot vary stringent restrictions, which are likely to be swept away at the first appearance of even temporary prosperity in the State. The measure was originally introduced—>-uch ia the recklessness of Colonial fi ianci ■ by Sir G. Turner, wfih thi assurance that it would cos 1 ; only X 75,000 for tbe first half-year. The couu'ry was stattlcd t.i learn that the actual c.st would b) nearer X 700.000 per annual thin £150,000 when a little experience had been obtained. Ia bith Victoria and New Houth Wales old-age pensions threaten to increase ind-finitely as an item in t'ce outky of ihj Sttto. Already there are storus —which seem, too, to rest upon excellent foundation —ef persons divesting themselves of property by artificial me-ns, so as to live upon the St ;te; aire dy a clatter is being raised for the age at which pensions are awarded to be lowered to sixty.