The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1885. WHO OWNS NEW ZEALAND?

Temuka Leader, Issue 1439, 10 December 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1885. WHO OWNS NEW ZEALAND?

The Freeman's Journal asks this question, and answers it as lollows : '• Mainly the banking corporations and the financial companies on the ether side of the globe. The pub'ic creditor owns our railways, lighthouses, and public buildings, having a lien, moreover, on our earnings ; while the private creditor owns and can sell, if he likes, the greater portion of our lands and our stock. Commercially speaking, the foreign creditor’* claims are just. The railways are his, because he found the money to make them—so are the docks, the telegraph lines, and the public buildings; end so even are the greater part of our roads, as they are now being made through private lands at the public expense. The land is his, and the stock, most of both, for the bulk of both are mortgaged up to the hilt: so deeply in fact That the apparent owners cannot pay the interest when it falls Hue, while the mortgagees dare net in many cases sell, because the advance* they have made are larger than the sums the estates would realise if sold.” According to this we have very little belonging to ourselves, and judging from present appearances we will soon have less, as it is evitFnily the intention of the present Government is to increase our liabilities. There can he no doubt hut that there is a good deal of truth in the above. Compared with the other co'onies we are heavily handicapped. We find in the Australian Banking Uecrrd the indebtedness dt local bodies in New Zealand set down as follows : .Annual Loan. interest Auckland £628,300 £36,088 Hluff • 50,000 3,000 Christchurch ... 200,0 f ’o 12,000 Grey mouth .. 100,000 4,000 Lytl'el on 200,0n0 12,000 Dunedin 1,018,900 6*,318 Napier ■ ... ... 145,000 9,450 Taranaki 200,000 12,000 Oatnaru 271,400 18,034 Titnft'ii ... ... 6'VOOO 4,200 Wanganui 90,000 5,400 Wellington ... 430,000 25,800 Westport 150,000 6,000 £2,573,600 £208,290 This return appears to us to be far from correct. Fr* instance, there is no account of *fb»t the Timaru Harbor

Board has borrowed ; neither is there any account of the indebtedness of any of the other Harbor Boards. Notwithstanding this we find that our local bodies owe nearly twice as much as all the local bodies throughout the whole of the Australian Colonies put together. The local body indebtedness of the other Australian Colonies is given by the same authority as follows: Annual Amount, interest. 1. Victoria— Melbourne city 7 loans £1,712,000 £82,700 2. N.S. Wales— Sydney city... 1 loan 258,000 12,900 3. Queensland — Brisbane city 1 loan 84,050 4,202 4. Tasmauia-*-Hobart ... I loan 100,000 5,000 £2,154,050 £104,802 From this it will te seen that in the Australian Colonies no towns outside Ihe capital cities have borrowed money, that our towns owe nearly !■£ millions tm-re than all the towns in the Australian Colonies put together, and that we pay as interest double the amount they pay to the foreign creditor. And still the tendency is to borrow more. There is another interesting matter connected with these statistics. The average rate of interest our local bodies pay is 5.83 per cent, or within a fraction of 6 per cent. Now if it costs local bodies nearly 6 per cent, to borrow money in London bow could it be possible to borrow money at 4 per cent, and lend it at 5 per cent ; The idea is absurd. Looking at the position of affairs, we are not surprised that the question as to “ Who owns New Zealand ?” has been raised and answered as above. The people of this colony own very little of it, and they ought to look to themselves at once before they part with the Ust bit of interest they have in it.