The Wiakato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, NOV. 20, 1892.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3188, 29 November 1892, Page 2

The Wiakato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, NOV. 20, 1892.

Mr Perceval, our Agent General has displayed great willingness to break a lance with any and every man with pretensions to speak with authority, who has attacked the colony he represents since he took office. He is perhaps right in considering this one of his official functions, and it must be admitted that he has proved a fairly good champion. Our contemporary, in Thursday's issue, gives a digest of his reply to the attack made on the colony in the A ugust number of the Investors' Review, under the heading of "Heavy-laden New Zealand." In reference to the first count in the indictment that she had in the past borrowed money which she did not want, and could not profitably use, he pleads " not guilty." It may he perfectly true, as he urges, that it is impossible to predict what the position of the colony would have been if she had not borrowed, no but that the whole of the money has been judiciously spent, and points out that out of a total debo of £37,077,619, no less than £15,086,-17!) had been expended on railways, and that native wars had cost her ten millions of the total. No good purpose can be served by discussing this question at the pre- j sent moment, but we wish we could I contradict our critic as confidently j as Mr Perceval, as could wo do so, \

wu should bo able to point to greater material progress than it is now in our powur to do, great as that has been. It is futile, however, to write about what might have been, unless a useful lesson is to be derived from the retrospect. As the same circumstances cannot possibly recur the lesson would be useless, except in an academic sense, and wc can afford to allow the historian to deal with it from this aspect. In regard to the assertion, however, that this borrowing is still going on, and is supplemented by a system of robbery, some notice is called for. As to borrowing, of course the application to current revenue of the sums which have accrued from time to time, consequent on the conversion of loans is in a sense equivalent to borrowing, that sum is added to the gross debt, but the fact

must not be overlooked that the annual liability for interest is curtailed. The charge of the writer is therefore unjustifiable on this account. As to the charge of robbery the writer must have either overlooked the fact, or purposely avoided to note it, that the robbery features in the Government policy haive been removed in obedience to the agitation of the right-minded of the population. It is unfortunate that the proposal to tax bondholders was ever made. It has also no doubt not escaped the notice of the writer that Sir George Grey and lesser lights who are always ready to dance to any tunc he m°y think tit to play, seriously proposed that we should deduct New Zealand Income-tax from the interest on our debt which we are under contract to pay in full in London. The Premier very properly repudiated the idea. If there is any robbery in the business it is the imposition of exceptional taxation on a portion of our own population. Fart of the indictment was that many companies have gone wrong in New Zealand and lost money. Mr Perceval with, we believe, perfect truth points out that the proportion of losses in .New Zealand by Home capalists is far below the average on investments in other countries. Allowing that the case were otherwise, only incapacity on the part of the managers of companies would be established. Neither New Zealand nor her people could be held responsible. As to the charges that a rosy tint has been given to the position of the colony by the over valuation of land and the working of the railways for the sake of present revenue regardless of the future they are too large questions to enter upon now. The allegation " that the debt of New Zealand is more thanit can carry and that it could not pay its way a week without borrowing " is answered by facts which Mr Perceval puts forth. He points out that as regards the Customs revenue it depends upon imports and the imports upon the purchasing of the people and that the latter depends upon the value of the exports. As regards the Land and Income-tax the return is governed by the value of property, and the railway receipts depend upon the carrying trades of the colony and this largely on the productiveness of the soil. That this is great is established by the fact that the exports for the year 1891 reached in round numbers ten millions, and the value consumed by the people he estimates at a similar sum, this was accomplished without any exterior financial aid of importance to give artificial purchasing power. Surely these faets should silence croakers within and without the colony. We should not have thought it worth while to notice either the attack of the financial paper or the defence of the AgentGeneral, had we not in view the education of a section of our own population who have enlisted in the ranks of the croakers.