The Press THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5. 1880.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7415, 5 December 1889, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5. 1880.

The other day wo referre i brietiy to; tho speed >t, which some of the iieigh-f boring colonies &t;e adding to their ih-J debtedness. We pointed out that at; tbe rate at which- liabilities were;! being tKbsei neighbors were, iojlo-jring. the, bad example at om> time! act tby<thk eolonyYy JSveni- as, matters' stand, New Zealand does not even novrl occupy the first position as an in-f debted country. Taking the public; debt ' per. head of find that on December 31st last thej position,.was.asJoJlq-vj.;--.,.. _..., >a | Queensland, per head ... £66 13 10 ! New Zealand ... ... 00 17 6 : South Australia ... ... 60 3 1 ) New South Wales ... 40 12 4 i Victoria 31 13 5 Tasmania 29 8 10 Western Australia ... 28 14 0 . Other tests can also be applied, such,; for example, as the proportion which; the. pTebtlbears ftp" thi Ofeas'a re!_uue.j But such a test is on the face of itj by no __, means an accurate iusexj of the fpbsitkm. A, colony * speflati-; ine largely of borrowed money! may be expected, to. have for tbe) time being a nourishing Treasury, for' the obvious reason that when lavish borrowing is gbingYon '• theimports are; necessarily large* .and the Customs duties proportionately increased. Nor; is thraAll; Some of our Australian; neighbours depend to a very consider-! able extent ujjon land revenue; to Traasuryv-^ln 1888,. ;for; example T :-3SiaW • South Wales \ Ctown lands, or 2J543 per cent of the total revenue of tha yea*. Queensland ";receiVedtf\l;B-44 : pe?c cent, from, tbe iSftirae Ysoiircei' South Austria \ 12,81 per cent, while-in the <)aae of \ New Zealand the income frOm lands was only 7.-5,. It will thus be 1 seen that the -revenue test is not! fairly Applicable, apart altogether from; tbe fact that iC places in an inferior posi-; • tion those colonies wliich are striving' to put their affairs in order by limiting; the ordinary expenditure by every] means in their power. , The total debt of the colonies'of; Australasia on December 311 st last wis; £157,816,401^and it,will be interest-; ing) to give a short analysisYof tho manner in which the borrowed money; was expended. On railways and tram- ! ways the expenditure was £99,277, 153;; ou telegraphs, £3,141,664; oil wattjrj supply and sistwerajge, ; on J roads and bridges, £6,337,517; on} harbors, and docks* '4sOj,\ £7^814,529 '; *on school buildings, \ £1,939,985 rran>defa«ce, £1,672,166 ; on other public' works', £6,443,104; on immigration, £5i446,537. The figures only rfcprsseht the principali items of expenditure, and ace, moreover, in many respect**, incompieto. The"~: figure* with reference to Zealand in the table before us deal, only with the/ expenditure t)tti:of loaiv siiieelß7o,.aod.take\»p account of the war expenditure or the provincial debts, it is : *6i?tay of no tioe, however, that out o£ a debt of £34,627,382 Victoria has spent £26,575,706 ways and tramwajs, and £5,845,150 on waterworks. Out, of a debt of; £4.4,100,149, New South Wales has:epent £30,990,579 on railways ml trarawaya. > 'New Zealand, on the spread ditiMre over a muoh wider area,* J>ealing only-with%hafc iB called the pub-i lip works that is to say, tha debt incurred since 1370, amount ing t& over £27,000,000,j our expendittupeou railways has been? £13,634,500 f on roads £3,469,989 j on immigration, -£2,142,460 j ©a land g*irchases t £1,150,359; on public bi_lijii^s,,£i^72a,|9^; <m harbo* defences, £869,718; while the cfiargiM and' expenses of raising loans have cost us £1,021,472. It would appear from the above figures;' that, apart from our provincial andj war debts, the loan expenditure of this]

colony has not been co t exclusively devoted .to schemes whioh give a direct pecuniary return as in the case of Victoria and "New South Wales. The consequence is that we have to find a larger proportionate sum out of taxation for interest than our neighbors result being that ©ur debt appears ;t<|" press }® ot ? heavily upon the taxpayers than is' the case elsewhere. A3 against this, however, must be put the admittedly greater productiveness of the colony. Our loan et- , petiditure has been waStefuLaiid criminally lavish in the past» but it has at any rate fitted the colony id deceive a large addition to the population- without even the excuse for fresh expenditure. The new policy wb'ich. has "now been so generally accepted simply amounts to this :—Our aim for many to come muet be to use the couutry and its numerous conveniences X 6 the very beet advantage. We r*aut to largely increase our rural population. We require to de' velope our agricultural, pastoral, and mineral resources to the utmost. We want to see our railways used to the fullest extent of their capacity ; to see bur numerous and costlyjiarbours tilled with ships taking away the produce of our farms, our forests, and our mines. Wβ need to inorease our population by making New Zealand attractive, by keeping our taxation down, and by abstaining from eutering upon any schemes of an .adveuturous nature, fa a,-word, We must have nothing whatever to do with borrowing, nothing to do with theoretical taxation, and nothing to do with socialistic schemes, in connection with land settlement. If attention is given to these matters the colony can be trusted to progress at a rate which will satisfy the moat sanguine amongeb us. And this briugfc US to one view of the federation scheme proposed by Sir Henry Parses which deserves atteu tion. New Zealand is the only colony of the Australian group that has apparently made up its mind on the subject of borrowings Any practical scheme of federation would probably iuvolve the hauding over of the borrowing question to the Federal -Parliament. it would be pointed out that United Australia would be able to borrow at a lower rate than the individual colonies. The Dominion Parliament would, in all probability, take upou itself the duty of raisiug loans aud distributing the proceVddi Is it desirable that New Zealand should join the uniou on such conditions? We do not need fresh loans bore. We find we are better without them, and this is the view whichy.would probably be taken by the majority in the Dominion Parliament. But whether we received our share or not we would have to share the responsibility ot the new debts. Up to the present the borrowings of our Australian neighbors have not been characterised by rashness.- But we are by no. means Certain that this will be the case in the future. As wo,- pointed out the other day, Victoria is' absorbing loan money at the rate of £4,000,000 or £5,000,000 a year; and the financial arrangements of New South Wales have also been somewhat reckless. These, two colonies could rule the Dominion Parliament, which might, before it Was niany yean inexistence, have incurred a d6bt, compared to which that of New Zealand is unimportant. -Would it be wise on our part, in such circumstances, and situated as rtve are at such a distance, to mix ourselves up in this federal! movement , ? We do not thiuk it would be at all desirable. Without wishing in any degree to underrate the great resources of the Continental'colonies, there is a danger it appears to we of these colonies, J at an early date, seriously overstraining their credit, and of saddling their taxpayers with heavy responsibilities.