MR PYKE AND THE ARGUS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1722, 10 April 1888, Page 2

MR PYKE AND THE ARGUS.

Mr Vincent Pyke, M.H.R., addressed the following letter to the Melbourne Argus as a correction of a leading article, which appeared in the columns of that newspaper: — Sie, —Permit me, as "a New Zealand legislator on his travels," to thank you for the very fair and generous leader which appeared in your columns to-day, and at the same time suffer me to set you right in respect of one or two particulars. The public debt of New Zealand is not £40,000,000 but £37,000,000 £3,000,000 being covered by acsinking funds, thus reducing the debt to £33,000,000. Of this amount some £6,000,000 at least is due to expenditure on Native wars. We have not yet forgotten how England withdrew her troops, and left us to fight it out for our homes and hearths, in the very middle of a fierce aggressive war, waged by the Maoris, for which desertion of the colonists in (ihe hour of their bitter need we have had to pay dearly. Then with regard to the balance, every shilling has been expended on works directly or indirectly productive, such as railways, roads in the mountainous interior in aid of settlement, harbors on our coasts, and in other ways. Our railways alone have cost some £15,000,000, and from these about 3 per cent net is returned, bo that we are not paying by taxation the total of interest. I quite admit that there has been public extravagance and political mismanagement. Bat our worst trouble has been private extravagance fostered by the public works policy of the past. We are getting over both. For some years all classes have been striving to live within their means, and now the people have demanded that the Government shall do the same. Sir Harry Atkinson and his colleagues are pledged to reduce the public expenditure by £300,000 per annum. So-both privately and publicly we have been and are striving to rehabilitate ourselves, and we shall do it. Tou are quite right in saying that Mr Froude's thoughtless chatter has been a cause of disaster; but nothing seems to me more certain than that the worst is oyer. Already there are symptoms of a turn > in the tide, and the clouds are rolling by. Within a very brief period New Zealand will regain her financial status. Already our bonds have gone up in the London market, and it cannot be but that with bur magnificent agricultural, pastoral, and mining resources, we shall speedily have our season of prosperity. ,New Zealand is sound, and can never be more than temporarily depressed. True it is that foreign capital has not been poured in upon us as it has •been on Victoria; arid what is worse, is that the men who have made fortunes in New Zealand are devoid of the patriotism which so eminently distinguishes the wealthy men of Victoria. We are cursed by absenteeism. Our rich men do not employ their wealth, as Victorians do, for the benefit of the colony. They make their way to England, and live in luxury there, contributing little or nothing to the colony to which they owe all they possess. This is one of the secrets of our depression, whilst the converse adds largely to Victorian prosperity.—lam, &c, . Ywcext .Pyke, M.H.R., New Zealand, and E.C., Victoria. .February 27.