FINANCES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1280, 8 November 1911, Page 8

FINANCES OF NEW ZEALAND.

DANGERS OF PROHIBITION. A CHECK TO INVESTMENTS. New Zealand owes about. X 50,000,000 by way of public debt. Tho revenue from direct taxation upon liquor aud paid in the consumption thereof is a[>proximately .£1,000,000 sterling per annum. If prohibition is carried, this amount must be made up; and as the valuo of property will be lowered, general taxation will have to be more heavily increased to make good the loss. Business men, property-owners, merchants, traders, everyone with a stake in tho country is concerned, and our creditora abroad are watching what the levelheaded business man in New Zealand will do in the. settlement of this groat question. Tie cannot afl'ord to dally with 60 important a matter. It concerns the credit and business interests of tho whola Dominion, livery man should read tho subjoined extract from tho "Financial News," London, of date September nth, 1911, to lmow what high financial authorities say and think, and wo give tlia extract without comment; it speaks for itself, and suggests moro than it says. 1

FINANCES OF NEW ZEALAND.

HOPES THAT PROHIBITION WILL NOT SUCCEED IN CHECKING INVESTMENT. ("Financial News," September 14th, 1911.) The collapse of Prohibition in tha American Slate of Maine, nfler a careor of something like sixty years, will doubtless bo a very useful object-lesson at the coining elections ill New Zealand. Advocates of Prohibition in New Zealand havo invariably used (lie S(a(o of Mnino as a bright aud shining example to tho Antipodean colony; and as there are signs that Prohibition may bo an issue, if not (he principal issue, at tho November elections in New Zealand, tho Maine collapse is a very timely incident. Thero is no need, at this time of day, to rehearse any of the arguments for or against Prohibition. Wo aro only concerned with the consideration (hat tho success of the Prohibition programmo iu Kcw Zealand would infallibly havo tho efi'ect of cutting off, to a largo extent, tho supply of Urilish capital lo tha colony. As we havo over ami over aga'n urged the claims of New Zealand upon Urilish investors, such an episode would (o us be an occasion of more than ordinarily deep regret, and we certainly trust for the sako of Now Zealand herself that the contingency will not nriso. No doubt it would l>o going 100 far lo suggest that the success of a Prohibition campaign might in any way endnnger Iho inlcre.st. on the New Zealand debt. Put it would certainly render essential tho adoption of fresh methods of taxation in order lo supply' the deficiency created by Prohibition, and those expedients would of necessity tend to emphasise tho disquietude already created (ex hypotlwsi) by Prohibition itself. Jt must not Ixs overlooked, either, that ono of tho primary necessities of New Zealand is the in 11 tlx of population, and flat population would not bo likely to l>o strongly attracted to a country where it was impossible for a man lo enjoy tho ordinary liberty of obtaining reasonable liquid refreshment if ho wanlod it.*