THE DOMINION'S FINANCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 213, 29 August 1908, Page 2

THE DOMINION'S FINANCES.

an optimistic opinion. By Telegraph.—-Press Association. Cliristchurch, Last Night. At the annual meeting of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce to-day, the retiring president, Mr Albert Kaye, in the course of his presidential address, quoted figures which, Jie said, showed that during the past 20 years great progress had been made by tne Dominion, but it was ail too true that in the same period the public debt had grown from a gross indebtedness of £3U,j»8,437 to £00,453,807, or an average of about one million and a-halt yearly. Tihe toial was startling, yet while there might have been some waste and extravagance almost incidental to the handling of such vast sums, in the main the loans lind been, well arranged at low rates of interest, and the bulk of the money had b«ejj ■expended in reproductive works. The present tightening of the financial reins need not by viewed with distrust or special uneasiness, inconvenient and disturbing as it might seem to some, for the reason that the new policy was not because of extravagant advances to unfinnneial residents or on doubtful securities, but rather that Jlie investments of the well-to-do had been too fully and rightly placed, s«j that with somewhat unlooked-for and sudden depreciated values of some of the Dominion's commodities—notably wool, llax, and pelts, which he hoped had only temporarily eased to leave handsome profits over working ex-p.-nScs. The ordinary inflow had become a lessened quantity insufficient, to provide tor customary demands oa such funds. Much as one might view with some trepidation the increasing public indebtedness of the Dominion, lie thought he was expressing the general opinion of bankers, merchants,and ethers, that the placing of the one million and a-quarter loan already authorised would do much to relieve the present tension. Should a more pronounced movement in the already iin- , proved tone in American monetary . circles be coincident therewith, then , Uiey might hope to see the existing financial cloud entirely disappear, hav- ! ing served the useful purpose of check- . ing speculation and heedless trading . beyond legitimate lines.