The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1886. BORROWING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2224, 19 February 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1886. BORROWING.

" He who goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing," is not exactly a new idea, though it is perhaps only now beginning to come home to us in New Zealand, There are, however, still people to tell us to "take a hair of the dog that has bit us," and no doubt Sir Julius would advise us candidly that a hair would not do the trick, and that we must go in "bald-headed" if we mean to win. When our rulers go to that poor sucked orange, " the country," more borrowing is sure to be an election cry, and happy shall we be if it is nothing more than a cry, Between the years 1870 and 1880, we set afloat twenty millions of debt, and if in this decade we do not heat the former record, it will be Vogel's misfortune, not his fault. It may be thought that we condemn borrowing, but such is not the case, There are two kinds of borrowing, one of which is profitable and the other unprofitable, Unfortunately it is the "other" which we patronise in this colony. At the present time we are an admirable example of the losing game of borrowing. It takes just half

our income to pay our losses. If we go ahead us we have been going, it possibly may .take all our income. One thing is certain, and that is, when half our income goes to meet losses, our nose is very near the proverbial grindstone, and every addition to our list of unprofitable borrowing brings the nasal organ still nearer. Last session the House was full of proposals for such additions, and when the elections come round the country will be flooded with them, We would not object to a thousand more miles of railway being constructed if it could be demonstrated that they would pay interest on their cost, but we are absolutely certain that each mile of unprofitable railway, which may be made, is a curse to New Zealand, W,e should be sorry to in any way limit profitable borrowing. A man who borrows twenty thousand pounds, and makes a profit out of his venture does . better than if he borrow one; but woe to him if he loses on the larger amount. The difficulty we have to face in this colony is that no honest test is applied to the reproductive character of any pioposed undertaking, Ministers, who are buying votes, don't tell the truth, and members who desire to please their constituents are equally unreliable on points of profit and loss. Once upon a time a Ministry in a rash moment did appoint shewd men, who were in no sense of the word tools of any political party, to report, upon railway lines in ■ existence then and on others which ' were contemplated, but the repot ts of 1 the commission blurted out so many ', disagreeable truths that neither the ; Ministry, nor the, House, nor the [ public dip face tlmm. Qf la> years , we have, not attempted to realize our i position, but we do feel the increased : prcsßure.of taxation, and that is the : signal which revo/i)s tho fact that in '■[ 'the.pasfc we have borrowed unwisely.