The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1882. THE THREE MILLION LOAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1103, 19 June 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1882. THE THREE MILLION LOAN.

Major 'Atkinson,,in his honest and able Financial Statement, referred to many important questions, but the, ore of' greatest interest was undoubtedly . the / declaration of the Government in favor of a now loan. Considerable anxiety in commercial circles has for some time past been manifested as to, the intentions of the Ministry. in this matter,. With . a million and a half leaving the colony annually to pay London bondholders, there is a drain on the local money market which, to make things pleasant, requires to be counteracted. A million a year coming into New Zealand by way of loan tends to solve the difficulty, by making both ends approximate, if they may not actually meet. Out of the million and a half which we have to send home a quarter of a million is, however, devoted to sink : ing fund, so that even if w« borrow, a million annually we shall only be going to the bad at the rate of threequartet's of a million per annum, It is customary to point to our net railway receipts, which now amount to i per cent, on cost of construction, to show that borrowed money, if not reproductive, has the element of reproduction in it j but we fear that our railway revenue eases only to a very moderate extent the burthens of colonists. It will, it is true, pay interest on some seven millions of our debt, or just about one quarter of it. The three quarters unprovided for by railway - returns constitute the mill stone which hangs round the neck of the colony. It is difficult to bring home to one's mind what it really means. The Wairarapa as a district, for exaiiiplelms to contribute about £30,000 per annum towards it, the town of Masterton some £6,000 or £7,000, and the average householder a sum of thirteen or fourteen pounds. All these totals are drawn out of us year by year, not to circulate in the colony and after a while to come round our wav again, but to go to London never toreturn. As far as this colony is con cerned, the money is absolutely dead. We would not object to three millions being borrowed for railways, which would pay interest on the amount borrowed, but neither the Government nor the Parliament pretend ■ that half the lines proposed to be constructed will do this for many years to come. The Ministry, who, as guardians of the public purse, have to be cautious, say the money is required for necessary and reproductive works. The term necessarily means anything in New Zealand, and the phraze .reproductive has, we fear, acquired a colonial signification, which indicates loss rather than profit. The borrowing of the three millions, though surrounded by all the safeguards to which Major Atkinson alludes in his statement, really means staving off an evil day, and paying some years henco; the penalty of a present relief from pecuniary embarrassment; The black days, of 1878-79 are now supposed to be dead and buried, but without a loan. they might have been vividly brought back to our minds in the present year of our Lord. We accept the new loan as inevitable, but while doing-so we sincerely hope that the Ministry will be firm in preventing any unseemly scvamble for it.