FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 7

FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.

• ° THE ."PUBLIC DEBT. : (BX,. .'smauApaf-mM ABSOOUTIOK.) ' J.-::.; . ChristchUKiH, -August'2B. 1 At tho nnnual'nieetingof'tlia Canterbury Chamber' of ■> Commerce 'to-day,, tho retiring president (Mr.--Albert" Kaye); in the course . of a his'"presidential: address," 'quoted figures which, he. said,: showed that during tho past ■twenty'years : great progress "had been made ;by tlio Dominion, but it was all too true r i.that iii tho .same period tho'public debt bad '/ •grovm':". from.: e gross" indebtednessof ' ' to £66,453,897) or an average of one i million' and -5 naif yearly. .The itotal. 'was' startling, yet while • there might have been some wasto and'extravaganco almost incidental tip the hardline of such vast ' sums,i.in' the. main the loans bad been well arranged ;, at::W rates- of .interest, and tho bulk of tho money had been expended in reworks. ■; The'present tightening .of: the. financial reins' heed not he viewed : with distrust or special uneasiness, incon.veuient'and'disturbing as it might seem to , .some,-- lor .--the' reason; that tho new policy ' Was not because of extravagant advances to .uufmancinl residents,- or on doubtful securities, but rather •that'the investments of the well-to-do had been too fully and rigidly .placed,, so-that-w.ith'tlio Somewhat unlooked'fcJriand sudden depreciated values of some bf; 'the Dominion commodities, notably wool, flax, and pelts (which, ho hoped, had only temporarily' ceased to leave handsome IJirbfits over working- expenses), the ordinary 'inflow had becomo a lessened quantity, insufii'cient to provide for customary demands !on such funds. Much as one' might vioir frjth ■ some trepidation tho increasing public indebtedness, of.the Dominion, he thought ho •was expressing the ■•' general opinion of bankers, JmerchantSj and . others that the placing ,of. tho one. million and a quarter loan . 'Already authorised would, do much to relieve ■ 'tie present, tension; Should a more pronounced' movement .in tho already improved : 't'one in American monetary circles bo coincident .therewith, then, they might hope to ~ 'S6e .the existing financial cloud entirely disappear,, having served the useful purpose, of checking speculation" and' heedless trading : ' -i-beyoid leeitimato'lihes.