The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1913. THE FINANCIAL POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 253, 15 March 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1913. THE FINANCIAL POSITION.

That particular present loan of ours is the subject of a j-ootl .leal of heart-burn-ing, anil some very invidiou- distinctions. But these sort of things do not really belong to party polities. They are pure commercialism, and the English investor at Home does not really care one "Continental hang" whether the Prime Minister of Xew Zealand is a Conservative or a Zulu or a Hindu, so long as he is satislied that his security is good. This liiu hardly been properly impressed upon the Trade Commission, but being level-headed men they are hardly likely to attach too much importance to the fulminations of Mr. Mabin. who pictured to them the country as rapidly galloping to the "demnition bow-wows." Singularly enough, the man to come to the rescue before the Commission was Mr. John Duthie. a commercial man of high standing j n Wellington, who lias always been regarded hi the House of Representatives as third only to Mr. \Y. Eraser,

and Mr. Jas. Allen us a iiniincial expert,

Circumstances alter eases, and we all ' known that "when the devil is sick the devil a monk would be," but that "when the devil was well, the devil a monk was he."' When Mr. Dnthie was in Opposition his criticism of the Government's financing and the, State of the public debt was vehemently caustic and pessimistic. Now that his party is in power Ihis attitude has changed, and he lias suddenly discovered that a whole lot of good things can come out of Nazareth. . (iiving evidence before the Commission, he is reported to have said that an estimate by a recent Government was that there was wealth to the extent of ;C4S(k----000,000 which had been created in this Dominion by private individuals. The present Government did not take the responsibility of endorsing that statement, hut there was no doubt that for a small country enormous wealth had been created, and to assist in the creation of that wealth they had had to import. That importation had enabled them to achieve the great development he had referred to. and he held -that it was justifiable at this stage of our advancement, because we were not dependent on the. balance of exports over imports. He instanced the case "of a farmer who took up 1000 acres of bush land. "He hews the forest down." said Mr. Dnthie, "hums it off, grasses the land and fences it. all of which expenditure brings him in large returns. Our country is exporting these G21.000.00n worth of goods per annum, and maintaining a population of one million, and "therefore the mere fact that the one item overlaps the other in a slight degree proves nothing, I think, and is not an element by which we can judge the financial position of the country. My friend, Mr. Mabin,'' continued Mr. Dnthie, "suggested that the balI since is so close and that as we have £3,0()0.fi(!0 of interest to pay, we are liable at any time to meet disaster. That docs not at all follow, if we arc I opening up the country and filling it 3 with a still larger population. In assessing the position of our debt, you have to recognise that the Government owns the whole of the railways of the Dominion, for instance, as well as other public services. Tf the railways of Great Britain were added to the national debt of England, it would be an appalling amount. In a small degree that applies to the telegraphs, which the State owns here. In New Zealand the Government owns the railways, telegraphs and other public works, all of which yield revenue and which cost , il?,l,2~><.\ flGO. Such works in other lands would not appear as an item of the public debt, being privately owned. They are part of the public debt of New Zealand." This is a very fair and legitimate statement of the position, and it must carry weight as coming from one who speaks with recognised authority. But it is a little bit surprising that Mr. Dnthie and some of his other friends have been >o late in discovering that so large a proportion of our public debt is self-supporting. There was a time when they ignored this fact. Still, a tardy repentence. even if it is a death-bed one. is better than none at all, and we are glad to know that Mr. Dnthie has discovered that the financial administration of the Liberal Government was not the driv.ilful venal ism he bus been wont to char;jclivi-e it as.