COLONIAL FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 211, 5 September 1900, Page 2

COLONIAL FINANCE.

(To the Editor.)

S)r,—The admirable letter in last Thursday's "Star" over the signature of A. Y. Ross will, I am sure, be read with great pleasure by many of your large circle of readers. I'confess to receiving a nasty jar on reading the words "We owe nothing to posterity," and I. thank Mr Ross for placing our true position before the public, nnd that the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon may have the pleasure the perusal has given me, I have caifc it out for enclosure to him. But what I wish to draw pspecial attention to is the last paragraph ot Mr Ross' letter, in which ho risks for a State Bank. This is a question which is rapidly coming to the front, and as it is one of« vital importance, one that will permeate every branch of commerce and industry, I trust you will give this matter d full and Impartial hearing. The question which naturally comes first Is: Do the needs of commerce demand a change, or is the present system of specie payment the Ufcst and most reliable the ingenuity of man can devise? Well, sir, I for on'o think it 5s not. First, the fact that g-old Is not being- produced in anything like sufficient quantities to supply the needs of commerce; and second, that reliable authorities estimate that over 90 per cent, of the world's business is now dona with the various forms of paper money makes the tsrm specie payment ,a misnomer; third, if we can do ,over 90 as we do all out a, small fraction, per cent, of our business without gold, what do we want to pro to the English money-lender for? It is no use anyone saying1 because tho paper is backed by gold. Only.one in ten could get gold for his paper if all should require their paper cashed at the same time. After all, sir, we have the real wealth here at our feet, in our lands, and the produce thereof, in our labour; all we get from the English money-lender is a medium of exchange (and a clumsy one at that); and, great heavens, at what a cost—7oo,ooo people (tho population of my native city), forming a community hardly 50 years old, in debt to the English bond-holder fifty millions, going into debt at the rate of one million a year—and the whole city gone cranky over a dirty football match.' Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome was burning; Nero takes a back seat, sir, very much back. Many years ago, in the Lome-street Hall, I heard the venerable Sir George Grey tell'tho people of Auckland -that they were like whipped hounds. At that time I tTTought the old gentleman too severe, but, seeing how they are talcIng the Hon. R. J. Seddon's dictum re the North Island Main Trunk Railway, I think now Sir George was not far out; and yet the Premier has the cheek to expect the Auckland member^ to vote for another loan for railway construction. Shades of the Hon. John Ballance, what has become of his non-borrowing1 policy? Don't we all remember how devoutly our present Premier promised to faithfully carry out his late chief's policy to the letter? Very many are now convinced that, with an improved system of finance (or medium of exchange), every ■public work required by the necessities of trade and commerce can be carried out without any more. If such a thing is "possible, and I claim it is, then the tremendous Importance of the subject U> ourselves and posterity must be my only apology for trespassing in your valuable space. As Mr Aitken has promised, in a previous letter, to show us how these things can be done without further borrowing, I will, with your kind permission, let him have his say first.—l am, etc..

JAMES BOYLE,

Union-street.