The Westport Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1109, 23 September 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1873.

Telegraphic news having reference to the Provincial Loans Bill confirms the opinion held by very many that the passage of the bill would be troublous, and that however compliant the members of the Lower House might be found in giving support, the Lords would place their veto upon a measure that aiming at the subversion of the original Public Works scheme of 1870, ushered into being upou the expressly defined basis of undivided control by the Colony over all public works, would shift the responsibility to a great extent upon the provinces. Ostensibly the power of raising loans sought to be given to the provinces is defined as being only for certain specific purposes affecting provincial interests more than the general interests of the Colony, but in reality it would throw upon the provinces the whole responsibility of all public works and improvements, except the construction of main trunk lines of railway and certain works for the expansion of native industries. In return the provinces would have power to borrow, to a limited extent, and in markets limited to the Australian colonies, upon terms and with powers than are now given to ordinary Municipalities. The main provisions of the bill which the Upper House has rejected are these. The Superintendent of any province, on petition of res : dents therein, may, prior to the meeting of his Council, issue a notification of intention to raise a loan, setting forth the amount, interest, object, and purposed rate, to be levied on property in security, and the defined limits of the district wherein such rateable property is situated. The petitioners must be in majority, and represent, as holders, at least half the value of the property to be rated. On the meeting of the Council an ordinance may be passed validating the raising of the loan, making provision also for the annual levying of rates until the loan is repaid, and also giving power to mortgage tolls and dues arising from the works executed with the borrowed money. The bill further provides that with the consent of the General Assembly the Provincial Councils may set aside certain blocks of land as security for any special Provincial loan and also set aside a per centage of the land sales and land rents as a fund for the security of money borrowed by the province. The Upper House has objected to such powers being given the provinces, and many provincial members deem such powers utterly insufficient for any practical good, although provincial representatives, whose only idea of legislative functions is the advancement of interests affecting their own little constituencies, have been found ready to vote in favor of the measure. A modification of the scheme has followed the rejection of the bill by the Upper House. Separate Loan Bills are to be brought in for each province but abolishing the rating clauses and giving as security liens upon the provincial estates. But in effect this indicates a merely temporisii:g policy, an attempt to gain in rou-id about fashion a point which the Upper House would not concede, and which it is not likely to, even when presented in a new guise. The real questiou at issue is not so much whether the Colony shall continue to borrow, as whether the constituent parts of the Colony shall be each permitted to borrow for its own n-al or faucied requirements, and, from present indications, it is evident the Upper House is opposed to any division of responsibility or shifting of the burthen from the Colony to the provinces. Upon the questiou of either the advisability or necessity of further borrowing, the House seems well agreed that more money must be obtained if the Public Works Scheme of tho Colony is to be saved from failure. The borrowing power of the Colony has not yet been drained out, and both within and without the House the remarks of the Honorable Mr Fox, as one among the many speakers on the subject, will meet with approval. Speaking ou the Provincial Loans Bill, he said :—" I do not know of one single instance in the history of the world in which any country which borrowed largely for the carrying out of reproductive works, and honestly expended this borrowed money on such works, has ever outrun its borrowing power, and I do not think such a contingency can possibly occur, because a country so borrowing increases the amount of the security by the expenditure of the amount which it borrows, and is thuß able to go into the market and borrow so much more. If we spend ten millions in making railways, we are in a position to borrow ten millions more upon the strength of those works. I will go further, and say that it is almost imnossible to exceed our borrowing powers at all. Look at the instance of France, which borrowed, not for the purpose of entering upon reproductive works, but to pay off her war penalties, at a time, too, when she was almost destroyed by her enemies, when she was torn asunder by internal turmoils, her atmosphere thick with

petroleum smoke, and fetid with the breath of Communism. Yet »he had only to ask for an enormous loan, and the capitalists of Europe were ready to pour their wealth into her lap. If" we borrow money for wise purposes, and invest it honestly and prudently, there is no fear of our borrowing powers being exhausted."