The National Debt.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 698, 20 October 1909, Page 6

The National Debt.

The paragraph in the Governor's speech mentioning that " the Prime Minister had obtained £1,000,000 in London, and had made arrangements by which, with a necessary alteration of the law, moneys for local bodies, etc, could be obtained, is understood to mean more than might be apparent at a casual glance. The paragraph states that " the legislation proposed, will extend the scope of the Advances to Settlers Department, and make it a medium for obtaining in England moneys for the use of iocal public bodies, and for the purchase of lands for settlement." This proposed legis lation is regarded as a step towards the differentiation of directly reproductive loans from moneys that have beeu borrowed for purposes that are not usually regarded as immediately reproductive; The 4rst-mentioned class of loan may be regarded almost purely as an investment, and if ? during the last eighteen years, all moneys raised for such purposes had been debited \s a separate account, the dimensions of what is known as our National Debt would thereby have bssn greatly diminished. Had this distinction beei applied d'uing the last seventeen or eighteen years, su3h items as Native Land Puiehase, Loans to Locil Bodies, Advances to Settlers and Workers, State Coil Mines, State Fiie Insurance would have come under the category of 1 the Trading or Investment Department I account, and some £13,000 000 or ] £11,000,000 borrowed on their behalf I would have to be deducted from the I £70,938,534 constituting our National I Debt.