Our Position.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3646, 2 September 1880, Page 3

Our Position.

A southern contemporary, the Standard, discussing a letter by a Mr Stead upon the finances of the colony, says:— ■ "Truly does Mr Stead remark' that Parliament is wastiug time and money iv squabbling over the mismanagement of the past, fighting over the very names of the taxes which all political sides admit must absolutely be imposed to meet the demands of the foreign creditor alone, apart from the cost of maintenance of th« official machinery of the colony. And here some of the figures given by the writer are well worth quoting, and it is of the utnios' importance that every bread-winner in the country should take them to mind. The interest on our national debt of £30.000.000 (ten years ago it was bufc £7,000,000!) cannot be reduced, and the staggering fact meets the producer in the face, that about one fourth of our gross exports is required to meet the annual interest upon that debt, which interest amounts to £1,500,000, while N^F Zealand exports only amount to about £6,000,000 a year! That is to say, as clearly pointed out by Mr Stead, talcing our three main articles of. export as examples, with wool say at Is a lb., wheat at 4s a bushel, and gold at £4 an ounce; our wool contributes 3d per lb., our wheat Is per bushel, and our gold £1 per ounce before it leaves our shores, for the bare purpose of providing for the interest of the public debt alone ! Then we have besides the monies payable as interest to absent mortgagees, the profits earned by English proprietary financial institutions and all descriptions of interest payable to non-residents in New Zealand, the total of which is estimated in round numbers at anotfier £1,500,000, which colonists have to provide for. This latter sura absolutely doubles the amount, making one half of our wool, our wheat and onr gold to pay interest on borrowed money. Tho residuum—a paltry £3,000,000, remains for the payment of our imports, which imports, by the bye, are enormous and out of all proportion to what a population of some 450,000 souls should raise towards their own maintenance with natural resources such as New Zealand possesses. And here, en passant, let us remark that with this colonial population of 450,000 people, the amount of money on mortgages registered in the public offices is no less a sum than £12,000,000.