SURPLUS MONEY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 9

SURPLUS MONEY.

i-r'.' ' ' :::::.; . ■ - : >- :! I (Xothe Editor.) . Sir,^—Under the above heading I read in .your contemporary's columns that "this Dominion has now millions of money it is able to lend in London. Why, in the name .of reason,.if this "is the.ease, has Sir. Joseph everlastingly to borrow from the foreign money-lender? As a matter of fact, if not of.figures; I very much doubt, if any large sums of money lie to the. credit of .this country in London. .Figures .are. stubborn things, although sometimes capable of 'manipulation. Take the following trade returns::— Year ended Exports. ," Imports. March 31. "- '"' 1909 17,011,801 ~ 1:6,520,62« ' 1908 17,869,354 18,210,155 To provide for payment of interest on public. and private indebtedness to the external money-lender, a, sum ap-proximating-to is Tequired annually, and this amount must be obtained entirely from produce—La., the exports aroist exceed imports by that sum. It is evident that for the two years 1908-1909 the exports were insufficient to pay for' the imports, leaving . leSs'thah nothrhg".with' which to square the interest due to the"foreigner, viz., £7,000,000. For the year ended 31st iJfareh, 1910, the exports show a large surplus over value of imports, though not suffieieht-to liquidate the deficiency of 190S' and 1609 : ; ihereifore it "requires ah optimistic visionary to discover the New Zealand' milliohs a-wafting investment in London.—-I am, etc, ' " " ' ' ' ' 'H.J. '