PUBLIC LOANS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2026, 2 July 1875, Page 2

PUBLIC LOANS.

The Times, in an article upon the contracting of public loans, says: ."The j real question is the rate at which money can be borrowed for publicpurposes upon the security of the property. If there were the least likelihood that this property —■ that is, the land, houses; shops, warehouse*, factories, -and other buildings—rwould become depreciated, or' cease'to become more valuable, 1 then a]l classes of lenders would narrowly watch the operations and prospects of the borrower, and insist on higher interest, a .shorter term of repayment, or a more form, . On the contrary, it is found that the public are every year L easier oh these'points. They-now lend for very long terms on almost any conditions of repayment, and at an interest far below what the most substantial local borrowers had to pay for forty years ago. It is necessary that public attention should be drawn to-the facts of the case,, because there is a tendency to exaggeration in some quarters. Whether in towns or in countries, people are told that the rates are so high as to be a real burden on industry, and so far destructive of the security on which they are raised, and consequently of the very purpose for which they' were raised.; That a man may often find it inconvenient to have to pay a rate is' likely enough, and the same may often be said of 1 a rent very far below the value of the houso it is charged for. Of course, too, when the rent represents any special and exceptional value, the rate levied on it may seem the feather that breaks /the camel's back. What we have to do "with is the proportion of the debts contracted on the security of rates for purposes which in the judgment of the nation are salutary and necessary. There can be no-doubt that the rates as a whole, and we believe in, an immense majority of instances, will bear large additions to the debt. Of course, we are no advocates of extravagance; but we cannot be blind to _the fact that everywhere much remains to be done, and it is hard to say-whether the arrears to be made up are heavier in the crowded town than in the neglected village. la the one case the accumulation of human beings in one mass of dirt and misery is a calamity of the time; in the other case,? it is the long neglect of ages. : In n«ither case.can ahything;effectual be done without a large expenditure, far beyond the limits of a yearly ratel To repair' the errors of-the past we have to borrow from the future, which will have the full benefit of the work; and as we doit within just bounds the future will not complain,"