The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 972, 12 January 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882.

The following figures, contributed to tho New Zealand Times by a Home correspondent, upon "New Zealand Debts," should prove of interest to our readers, more especially as the question of " further borrowing " is likely soon to be before Parliament. "Taking the colonial debt (including that extravagant and reckless financial operation of changing the five per cent, five millon loan into four per cent, inscribed stock, at a cost of £895,200 added to your permanent debt—all for the sake of a paltry saving of £8,952 in annual interest, and after deducting accrued sinking funds, thus remains according to your Treasurer's last financial statement, a solid permanent ItLqnnn re( l uirin g £i,O4o,UUO sovereigns, or their equivalent, to be sent home every year to pay the interest thereon and sinking fund." Now add to these sums the

Looul 'deiits, a 8 quoted in the London Stock Markets Prices Current of October 29th, 1881, viz,• (grouped oapitdwtioh.) i UOk pT d '"'A: £255,000 New Plymouth 200,000 N<>P ler -. ST? 60000 Wellington ........430000 Ciiristchuroh and Lyttelton.,,. .40o'qoq -■ Danedin ; 83e | 000 SIP 6 1 54,000 Bluff "0,000

ToW £2,650,400 The grand total of debt will be therefore £30,690,400. "The interested sinking funds of the local loan cannot here be correctly given, but takin* I them at the average of six per cent.° mo'ir* b i. fav fram tiie sum °f ±159,000, molting, with the colonial interest and sinking funds, a grand total of say £1,702,000, to be nearly all annually remitted to London, to in , tho pockets of strangers 15,000 miles away," These,, are the figures as given. We have before pointed out the iniquity of changing the five per cent, five million loan into four per cent-, inscribed stock, without tho consent of Parliament, by which the colony lost nearly a million of money. To the'annual interest of £1,702,000 let us add £1,800,000 as the cost of government, and we have a grand total of £4,202,000 rent to pay out of our productions. But this is not. all—we have County debts. Lveasury Debentures, thimble and pea matters of Trust Office, Insurance Office, and other such Funds, together with a few local government debts floated with the Banks, and in Aus tralia, so that our grand total of indebtedness may be nearer £32,000,00 than £30,000,000, and the yearly interest £1,800,000. The question, therefore, our readers and the colony have to face is, shall we borrow more? Would it not be prudent say to make our debt a level £35,000,000, with an interest of say £2,000,000 to be yearly paid away in hard sovereigns I The work of our colonial Treasurer would be so much simplified if we were to make our debt and interest into level figures. We shall refer to this' matter again.