The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1888. BORROWING A NECESSITY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1705, 1 March 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1888. BORROWING A NECESSITY.

In a comic opera, the name of which we now forget, one of the performers hands another a ridiculously large telescope to enable him to see the point of a joke. We have been reminded of this bit of buffoonery by an article that appeared in Tuesday's Otago Daily Times, in which th« writer has made the wonderful discovery that Sir Harry Atkinson " coveted the loan more for the sake of facilitating his London payments and avoiding disturbances in our own labor market, than for the value to the colony of the public works that were to be carried out by the expenditure." The obtuseness of the brain of the actor who could not see the point of a joke without the aid of a telescope was not greater than that of the Otago Daily Times in not having seen long ago that the colony cannot easily pay interest without borrowing the money. We hare for years pointed this out, and it seems that it is only now that the truth has begun to dawn upon the editorial intellect of our contemporary. It is well, however, that the Times sees it, and it would be well, too, if others saw it before it is too late. The whole popu • latian of this colony will yefc awaken to it; a day of reckoning must come some time or anther, and when it does those who haw fa/sated with scorn and contempt the warnipgs they have rfleeirad from us will yet realise the folly which prompted jbhem to do so. It need* but lijctte reflection to enable any one to realise the serious? ness of the situation at present. In the month of April next the Government of this colony must pay away in interest over £1,300,000, and in next

October very close on £1,000,000 more. This is made up as follows : The annual charge for interest is now over £1,750,000 per annum, and to this must be added the £500,000 which have been borrowed from the Bank of New Zealand to tide over the difficulty. The Government must pay off the Bank of New Zealand, and the ordinary interest, and thus it will have to find over £2,200,000 this year. People have been astonished at the mercilessness of the Bank of New Zealand for some time past. This quite explains it. In order to keep the Government going the Bank lent it half a million of money, and this has had the result of considerably curtailing its power to lend to its ordinary customers. It had therefore to deal in an unusually harsh manner with many of them, but this wiil only be temporary, as the £500,000 will be lepaid to it as soon as the Government can raise a loan. The fact that this £500,000 has caused a disturbance in the affairs of the Bank shows that if the Government had ceased to borrow matters would be much worse; but this is a contingency which must be faced, and the sooner the befcteir, for the more wo borrow the deeper we sink into the mire. The Times further on in the same article says:— •, It is a lino of policy which, bad at all times, would perhaps pass master in prosperous years, £ but with failing revenues, depressed trade, and increasing financial difficultioß, onythine: approaching to a policy of borrowing for the mere purpose of purchasing temporary relief or for staving off for the time troubles attendant upon a prudent coarse is simply, intolerable.

We know it is " intolerable," but we are afraid it is unavoidable, and; the Times has bad as much to do with bringing about this state ofc things as any paper in New Zealand. It shamelessly invented lies to bring discredit on a Ministry which had done its best to follow " a prudent course." The late Government made every effort to keep the money in the colony by fostering local industries, and to increase production by settling the people on the land, which are the only means by which the condition of the colony can be improved. The Otago Daily Times shamelessly, and maliciously, and deliberately invented lies, and distorted and misrepresented facts to bring that administration into disrepute, and what has it gained by it ? It has gained this: The land has been opened to speculators, and no encouragement is to be given to local industries, and there is no better way of hastening ruin. It will all come out yet, and then the stupid party will find that in pursuing a selfish policy they have destroyed the goose that laid the golden eggs.