ON BORROWING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3089, 3 May 1892, Page 2

ON BORROWING.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGUAIMI. —COPYRIGHT.) London, April 30. Mil Wilson, financial editor of tho Standard, in an articlo in the Investors' Review, declares that the entire fabric of Australian civilisation is built upon debt, and that tho spectacle is not equalled anywhere. Tlio dangers of the near future are not so much as to what has been borrowed as what they may licreattcr borrow. The London market, he states, will only help tho colonies in fair weather, and the banks arc regarding the situation from a selfish point of view, and not in the colonial interests. 110 admits tho colonies have not made a bad use of their money, but ho thinks they had more than they wore able to use advantageously. Ho severely censures the loan-mongcring syndicates which influenced the unscrupulous lust for sudden gain, and he considers it doubtful if one in ten of the colonial farmers or merchants would bo unencumbered if loans stopped. Ho asserts that nil the colonies find the railway capital unbearable, and the loan position, ho says, is a grave peril. The colonies must introduce borrowing for increased production under the pain of curly bankruptcy. They must, however, borrow only a moderate amount, bocause they are unable to pull up in mid career, and pay very different terms than formerly. _llc concludes by expressing tho opinion that if tho colonies all adopt protection soon they will be unable to borrow or pay.