SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, MAY 14, 1894. A FIVE MILLION LOAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4718, 14 May 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, MAY 14, 1894. A FIVE MILLION LOAN.

TnE Post says tbat Mr Seddon contemplates a lire oiillion loan next year. We presume out Wellington contera • poi'xry has someautliority for making so importunt an onnounotmenfc, The proposal will be a BUrpvistog one, not only on account of its magnitude, but

also because thePremieris pledged toa v non-borrowing polioy, and such a huge loan at his instigation would be im< r moral. That the drift of public opinion \ is in the direotion of a loan is un- i doubted, but it has remained for Mr ( Seddon to conceive the idea of five millions. It is moro than doubtful I

whether so large a sum could be H invested in reproductive public works, ' and it is also pretty certain that if the ! money were spent on the co-operative , principle, at least two millions of it | would be wasted. If Mr Seddon has > discussed with his colleagues the expediency of a big loan a year henco he has crossed the Rubicon by surrendering the principle upon which his party took place and power, He has virtually broken the pledge whioh he and his colleagues took and we may oxpeot to seo the Cabinet go to the opposite extreme and over-borrow. If the nop-borrowing policy be doomed, if it be a thing of the past, the absurdity of waiting till next year for a loan is fairly evident. When Parliament meets there will be some .pressure brought to bear for an immediate loan to oomplete necessary works and to absorb the unemployed. If Minsters do not give way to tbis it may be expected that an opposition will be formed amongst members of their own party, and that they will bo unseated, Mr Beddon virtually has either to" borrow or burst," and he may be expected to prove equal to the occasion, and to propose an im- ' mediate loan. We believe that in the best interests of the colony a reasonable Bum should be borrowed pro* vided that it be not mis-spent on cooperative labour and unproductive undertakings, If there bo a- new loan each Provincial district of the colony will want a slice of it, and from this point of view five millions can be easily spent. •. We doubt very much, however, whether more than a million can be judiciously expended; A live million loan means political railways and increased taxation. We trust New Zealand will be spared these misfortunes, and that a moderate loan, honestly expended, will be the solution of the diifioulty,