THE BORROWING COLONIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 195, 22 September 1909, Page 2

THE BORROWING COLONIES.

Mr. A. J. Wilson is a writer on financial topics, well known in English literature, to which he has contributed much writing, always of a sensational, not to say screaming, character. Tie has written a book called "Aa Empire in Pawn," in which he undertakes to prove that the British Empire is hopelessly in debt; and is, in fact —without being conscious of the circumstance—in an insolvent condition. Debt, Mr. WilBOn declares, is "a cancerous disease," and "means .moral death" in the course of time, alike for the nation or individual -winch indulges in it. This is a sufficiently strange doctrine for a London financier. But it cannot )k denied that, not only the provinces of the British Empire, but the Motherland itself, have borrowed vast sums. Australia and Xew Zealand, in particular, have, shown a courage alincwt heroic iu temper in the matter of borrowing; aad, as a consequence, Mr. A. J. Wilson reports that "the entire fabric of Australasian civilisation is built upon dcbt. : ' It follows that both New Zealand and the Australian Commonwealth are ta an advanced stage of "cancerous d' - ease," and will soon supply occupation for a coroner's inquest. Mr. A. J. Wilson, it may be added, is quite cheerfully prepared to act as foreman of the jury when this melancholy occurrence arrives, and is already shouting out in stentorian tones what the verdict must be. It will be '■Died of debt"—tlimodern, form, according to .\|r. A. .'). Wilson, of felo de se. The current number of "Life" replies to Mr. Wllsou's statements. It says: "Mr. A. J. Wilson, of course, fails to distinguish betwixt the various kinds of debt. The dot the spendthrift may represent nothing better than the legacy bequeathed by indulgence hi vice; but* there is another kind of debt which represents .1 legitimate and profitable investment. alike for the lender aad the borrower! Interest on borrowed money may be as legitimate as the rent paid for a hired house or for a cultivated farm. If Australasian civilisation is 'built on dent.' it is at least certain that something has been built on that foundation which constitutes a very sufficient and easily liquefied asset, to stand as a per contra against the borrowed capital. Does anv one doubt, for example, that if all tin railways in Xew Zealand and Austral were fanned, say, to a syndicate of don capitalists, they would not pav in terest on all existing loans? Or that, if sold in the open market, the price they would bring would not pay ofV those loans, and leave both Hew' Zealand and the Australian States, with ail the other appliances "of civilisat'on which they possess, free from a pennv of debt!"