The Ellesmere Guardian. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1891. REPUDIATION ? OR JUSTICE ?

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume X, Issue 923, 1 July 1891, Page 2

The Ellesmere Guardian. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1891. REPUDIATION ? OR JUSTICE ?

There is a flutter m the dovecote, and New Zealand is doomed. An iniquitous politician, Mr Rees, hns suggested that absentee bondholders, drawing incomes from funds invested m New Zealand, should be compelled to contribute towards the revenue of the colony. Sin George Grey advocated the same thing lone ago, and does so still, but the proposal coming from him, was held to be one of the fads of the Knight of Kawau, and until now, met with but little support. The House, we learn, is coming round to the opinion that after all there may be reason m the plan, and tbe capitalists are aghast. The proposal is said to be the thin edge of the wedge of .Repudiation, to be immoral, to be impracticable, to be everything that is bad. We confess our inability to see tbe injustice of the scheme. A very large amount of foreign capital is invested m the colony, and the interest thereon, paid with more or less regularity, is spent outside of the country. In certain eyes, this m itself is a sin ot deepest dye ; ever} penny, accordto one school of political economists, drawn from the colony should be spent m it. It is not worth while to combat the reasoning by which such a result is arrived at ; the fallacies are too evident to need argument. Out the other proposal is of a different nature. To maintain investments m security and prosperity, necessitates the annual expenditure of very large sums of money. Why bondholders living m New Zealand should bear their share of this expense, and those living outside of it ahould be exempt, ia on* of those problema which nobody can understand^ If is an inducement to all bondholder* to live anywhere but m the Colony, and discourages the investment by local capitalists, — if there are such beings, — of money m Colonial securities. lb is alleged that such a tax would be difliI cult, if not impossible of co'lection, inasmuch as the Colonial Parliament has no authority outaide of New Zealand . But this difficulty is easily surmountable* Deducting the amount of the tax from the interest would be tbe simplest means, and would surely be a justifiable proceeding ; and deupite the howls of the Press against " repudiation " would not, we opine, plunge the Colony into a slough of disgraceful despond.