Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1874.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 321, 14 January 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1874.

"MEASURES. NOT MEN."

Referring back to 1870, when the Public Works and Immigration policy was first mooted by Mr. Yogel, great was the diversity of sentiment on its merits. Few indeed gave him credit for political sagacity. The majority (involving as the measure did a burden of ten millions sterling on a population of about 270,000) regarded the scheme as the wild device of a desperate gambler to restore his fortunes, equally desperate. At the time our squatters were but few removes from beggary. Firms that had been strong had collapsed. The customs and other sources of revenue had fallen off to an alarming extent. The exchequer was empty. The unemployed were clamerous for bread. Not to go beyond our own province, they held meeting after meeting and pressed their suit to the very doors of the Provincial Chambers, headed by their redoubtable champion J. G. S. Grant. As was foreseen, the first instalment of the borrowed capital, instead of being devoted to public work, was taken to pay current expenses and accumulated deficiencies. No wonder that the instinct of self-preservation caused the public some uneasiness, and that many, like rats in a doomed ship, swam away to some other supposed terra formq. But now all this is changed ; success lias apparently crowned the measure, smd Mr. Yogel is regarded as a prodigy oi political sagacity. Tf all the issues that hare turned out to -bivo- «.clv«.nt«,g© of the colony were foreseen by the Premier, he doubtless deserves credit for a large amount of foresight ; and there is no question that, having committed himself to a very bold if not daring policy, he has leen sleeplessly energetic in forwarding it To a student of history, and an observer of the times passing over us, much migit be calculated on. There are ebbs in lhe fortunes of communities as well as fL.ws ; and the Premier's merit seems tt be that he watchod the ebb to the tun , and laid his plans for the rising tide ; and we fancy th.it rise h.is been higher :han even he anticipated, while id has brought to Jight important facts that must prove reassuring to those who, like ourselves, are not much in love with either pvivnte or public debts. The Premier, in his Dunedin speech, makes the debt of New Zealand a some wh.it trifling matter. We were reminded by it of one of those sallies by which Mr. Disraeli used to entertain the Ducks farmers and lauded gentry at rheir grand annual agricultural meetings. Speaking of the eight hundred millions of the English national debt, he said, to a nation like England, it was no more than a flea bite. The effect of the Premier's exposition of our indebtedness is almost tantamount to the above. He makes out such a hopeful case from our increased customs and land revenue — the latter rising last year in all to £1,116,000, and the increase of the former was for the year at the rate of £260,000— that we cannot be otherwise than satibfied. He shows, moreover, that, with the average means of our population, New Zealand in her public burdens compares favorably with other colonies, and even with older countries. Our public debt, exclusive of the money borrowed on Public Works only, amounts to l # 2ofthe average income of the people ; taken along with obligations on the Public Works and provincial debts it is 24 : whereas in the United- Kingdom it is 2'B ; United States, 27 ; Russia, 25 ; France, 2 -3 ; Austria, 22 ; German Empire, 1. If it is any consolation to us that we are less burdened with debt in proportion to our population than the nation whose national debt was pronounced a flea bite, we have that consolation. There is one thing, however, in the Premier's statement to which we take exception, and it is this, that onr debt on Public Works ought npt to be included in our estimate, because in these older countries corresponding works are not included in the national burdens, and they are likely with us to prove remunerative, Well, so far as paying any interest on borrowed capital is concerned, we have no hope for many years to come of this being realised. So far as our acquaintance with railways in similar circumstances is concerned, few of them are remunerative. They do well if they pay their own working expenses ; for this very reason, such works are undertaken by Government. No private company would be found to do it. At the, same time, we do not regard the obligations for such works as materially affectiug our burdens. If they do not recoup the Government, they recoup the people. They are a cheap investment no g withstanding increased taxation,. By railways the rising towns along the line and every homestead will be materially benefitted>- The saving in other respects to Government will be immense. Some years ago we s;iw a statement in the report of the liahia and San Francisco line, tbe interest on the construction of which was wholly borne by the Brazilian Government, that the Government was recouped by the saving in other items that could be fairly traceable to the opening of the line.

A New York editor says sugar has gone up so high as to produce a slight increase in the price of sand.