Sir Francis Bell on Colonial Finance.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4395, 3 February 1883, Page 4

Sir Francis Bell on Colonial Finance.

At a meeting of the Eoyal Colonial Society, held recently at the Groavenor Gallery Library, London, Sir. F. D. Beli, Agent-General for Now Zealand, read a paper, on "The Indebtedness of Australian. Colonies in Relation to their Kesources." The Dnke of Manchester, Chairman of the Council, who presided over a large meeting, said that the present 'gathering marked a great epoch in the history' of their society in that it was the first that had been held since Her Majesty granted a royal charter to the institution. It was interesting to know that while in 1870 the institute had only 297 fellows it had at the, present time 1789. Sir Francis Bell in the course of his paper said there had been an increase in the debt of the colonies for the last 20 years, but. the progress of Australasia had been in many ways more than equal' to"-th> growth: of" her debt. Of the £96,000,000 borrowed by the colonies, more than £86,000,000 had been spent on railways, telegraphs, .and other public works, and immigration. Of this the railways were now yielding. a net return all but equal to the interest on the money they borrowed for them. The telegraph yielded more than the interest, and. the same remark applied to immigration, so that there was not much more than £26,000,000 left as the debt on which the interest was not actually earned. The revenues of the colonies had increased in the last 20 years twice as fast as their commerce or population. It had more than doubled itself since 1870. and trebled itself since 1860. If in England^ the same sum could be raised per bead as in . Australia, Mr Gladstone would at the present time be dealing with a revenue of £245,000,000. It was important further to remember that the revenue did not mean taxation to, the same amount. Figures showed that more than one~third of the whole revenue was raised by taxation, while the colonies derived four times as much revenue from Cur toms per head as was raised in England, six times as much as in France, ten times as much as in Germany, and nearly three times as much as in the United States. The annual charge of their debt in proportion to the revenue was much lighter than in most of the great countries in Europe. Comparing the volume of trade with population, the author of the paper said that statistics showed that one Australasian colonist did as much trade as two Englishmen,, four Frenchmen, five Germans, six Americans, or eight Italians. Australasia was worth more to the English manufacturers than America, France, or Germany. Having pointed to the most satisfactory way in which the railways are progressing, Sir Francis - Bell alluded to the great importance of Australasia as offering an almost inexhanstible source of meat supply for this country. As a fact, Australia and New Zealand oould export 2000 tons of meat a day, and they could do this without reducing the number of cattle owned by the colonists. Sir Francis Sell next claimed for the colonists that they had so munificent a pro* vision for the education of their children, -that if the. expenditure in England were on the same level, the mother country would have to devote £25,000,000 a year to it. The colonists were most tenacious of their union with the fatherland, and he hoped the existing sympathies would ever flourish. If this was so, the colonies would join hands with the mother country across the sea and cherish the remembrance that they were all citizens of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen. Sir John Pope Hennessy,. GovernorGeneral of Hongkong,' in the course of the discussion, gave, as the result of his personal experience, figures to show the great security which wag offered investors by the financial securities of the Australian colonies.