MR MEREDITH, M.H.R.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9433, 3 June 1896, Page 3

MR MEREDITH, M.H.R.

TO THE BDXTOB OTS TUB PBESS. Sib,—The letter of Mr Meredith which you. published on Saturday, May 30th, interests mc so far that under the one man one vote system I have one vote; and that vote ie in the Ashley District. I was not at Mr Meredith's Sefton meeting, and, there* fore, know nothiog of some of the subjects he deals with in bis letter, and Ishall only touch on one question, and that) ie the measure of our liabilities as compared with our assets; except, in passing, to point out that if the late Sir Harry Atkinson, as Mr' Meredith asserts, "had recommended that Ministers should address the people on pabJic questions in different parts of the colony," Sir H. Atkinson himself only followed the recommendation to a very small extent, and did not neglect his duties, as onr present wandering Ministers are doing. What 1, as an elector of the district. Mr Meredith represents, am concerned with, is that Mr Meredith should apparently hold oat encouragement to further borrowing, for thia, I fear, is the object of bis remarks on the assets and liabilities of the colony. Mr Meredith says, <*I stated the publio and private wealth of the colony, in round numbers, amounted to £200,000,000 sterling, and the liabilities, inclnding the public debr. private debt and loans of local bodier, amounted to £75,000,000, no that out of every £ of debt, if we paid oar debts, we I would have five half-crowns to the good. , ' Mr Meredith, perhaps, has the right to nay that the public aad private wealth of the colony is £200.000,000. for he finds in the official Year Book that the united publio and private wealth comes to about that figure. But is that Sgure in any way ewreeti Wβ shall Mβ presently. Then aa

to our public and private liabilities, which Mr Meredith states bo be £75,000,000. I will dispose of this question at once to cle»r the w&v. Our liabilities in round numbers are as 'follows:—Public debt £42,000,000, mortgages uuder the Land Transfer Act £30,000,000, mortgages under Crown grants £10,000,000 (estimated), loans to Local Bodies £7,000.000, Bank advances ivnd

discounts £15,000,000. Total, £104,000,000. There are ulso advances by private fir mc and Companies, but f these probably do not increase the total greatly.

Now for the public and private assets which Mr Meredith states to be worth £200,000,000. Private property in 1892 was estimated &t £154,917,000, and public property in 1895 at about £45,000,000; total, aay £200,000,000, and no iuoreaso of value can have occurred since, but rather the other way. The chief asset included iv public property is the rail trays, earning a net revenue of a little more than £400,000 a year; but many of the other assets are such that a Jew would not advance a copper on. The private assets, too, are plainly over-estimated, and from what one oau see of the estimated values of public and private assets, they should be reduced on au average 25 per cent., eveu according to our rough and ready way of arriving at values. This would reduce the £200,000,000 to £150,000,000. But to get at anything like a true value of our assets we muse endeavour to find out whats they earn. Their earning ability is the true test of value. The exports for the two years 1893----94 were, according to returns, respectively £8,557,443 and £9,085.148, and imports £6,494,279 and £5,990,177, and the value of the exports of 1894 was exaggerated by at least £1,500,000, but wo will take the values as we find them in the returns. The net income, therefore, was £2,063,164 in 1893, and £3,094,971 in 1894, or an average of about £2,500,000 a year, and that average is what we have to pay the interest on our debts with ; so that if we reckon our

iudebtednesa as charged with an average of 5 per cent., our net income is not enough to pay 2£ per cent, on the debt. That debt of course is not all foreign, but it is mostly so. The fact is, the colony sends away to meet

interest charges, a large amount of oapital yearly, and instead of our assets being worth £200,000,000, they do not in reality cover our liabilities. To continue borrowing in such circumstances is to courb ruin and add to its ultimate magnitude.—Yours, &c.,

H. F. Gray,