The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 13. NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 71, 13 March 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 13. NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION.

"-it the wealth of Now Zealand were] equally divided amount its inhabit- , ants," said &ir .10-cph Ward. when ' *>peakiu<j nt OnohunjM the other ni»ht. : "every man. and cliild in the ■ Dominion would he worth .CJI47, the highest average of any people on tho fare i>) the globe." It, is a proud boast tor a Premier to be abJo to make, and there can be no doubt Sir Joseph spoite , well within the mark. There i<. course, on the other <ide tiie country's heavy but. as Sir Joseph was careful to |x>iiu <>nt, a very great deal 100 much h made of this by the pessimists and burn gnunblers whieli every community i» constrained to tolerate. Taken in the aggregate, the debt does seem large, but every man in the least degree acquainted with public aJfair* is aware that the Stale ha- invested large sum* in the pureha»e o' Native lands, every acre of which h worth at least double what was paid for it. In order to forward the settlement and progress of the country it, was necessary to acquire large estate* and throw them open to would-be farmers on easy terms. .Millions have gone in this way, but the hnds are stiil the property of the people and are well worth all that was paid for them. '

The payment of the interest ol the money invested in this way does not fail upon the community as a whole, but upon (hose who are using the lands so acquired. Again, six millions oi the debt is money borrowed and lent to settlers, and it doe» not cost the community as a whole a single penny, the interest lieing paid by the borrowing settlers, who, by their labour and the natural increase of their stock, are every year adding to the value of tin; security. In a very lew years more the railways now working will be paying the whole amount of the interest on the cost of their construction: but the difference in the cost of railway construction and maintenance from other State investments consists in the fact that year by year the (lovernnient is pushing forward with the building of new lines upon which large sums are being expended, and. of course, a railway gives no return until trains are miming. Even then a railway can scarcely be expected to pay the fnT amount of interest upon the money spent in its construction from the day of its opening.

The chief value of a railway to a young country consist in the very powerful agency it exerts iu helping forward the work of settlement; a railway, in fact, has to make its future business in the first instance by helping the producers of ihe future to get upon tlv land, it is the users of the railwaythat pay the great bulk of the interest on the money spent in constructing then], and the general community is only called upon to pay whatever shortage there may result in the money collected. The difference subsisting in the State's investments in railway construction and laud buying and leasing anil advance., to settlers "is that under the two latter every penny of the interest bus been paid, and the work of seeking to cover the land with prosperous anil happy settlers has gone on without costing the people as a whole the value of one shilling. The millions borrowed and invested in this exceedingly profitable way must iu fairness be deducted from the total of our indebtedness, which will then not loom so large as to "fright the souls of bearded men.''

Hut Sir Joseph might have gone even further. A population not yet numbering one million souls is able to export uliout t:>I.MMM),(HKJ of the produce of its soil. This must h c regarded as a truiy marvellous record. Hut its full significance consists in the fact that, in a comparative sense, it is but yesterday that the great bulk of our producers went upon the land. The State is doing iis best to cover the land with producers, anil day liy day sees large additions being made to the number of our farmers. About three years mu-t lie allowed to the men who go upon the land to-day .before they can" be expected to add to the volume of our export-, and many now on the hind have nut h-en at work for more than a year or two. It is the ..xtenl of it- exports (hat makes a country wealthy, and our export trade -if the present policv i- suffered to yj without a check- will'double long before the population docs. Sir Joseph Wa-d may well felicitate the country upon its throbbing prosperity: he may refer with pardonable feelings of exultation to the reductions effected in railway carriage, in postage, and telegraph rate-, in the removal of taxation from lb" necessaries of life, in the granting of old-age pensions, in the giving of a rebate to the leasehold farmer, and then, without being guilty of the least extravagance, lip may prophetically point his finger to an era of still greater prosperity, a time when the wealth llowing into the country in exchange for its products will swell beyond the dreams of the most sanguine. Happy is Xew Zealand to-day: still happier in the bright and golden vista that opens ont before it. If tlie people prove but true to themselves—if they do not suffer themselves to be led away by idle cries from the practical work that lies before them —there can lie no doubt of the unique and glorious future awaiting the country.