Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1885. BORROWING FOR PUBLIC WORKS.

Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 July 1885, Page 2

Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1885. BORROWING FOR PUBLIC WORKS.

4 One of the essential features of tho financial proposals of the present Government ia tho authorisation of a frush loan of ono million to be raised early next year, to carry on public works during 1886. This proposal, it is understood, .will bo very strenuously resisted by n considerable portion of the House. We cannot doubt, however, that it ¦will bo carriod ; any more than we can doubt that a similar proposal would have to bo made by any Government which might chauco to be in power. Tho means at present availablo for public works, with tho exception of the North Island trunk line loan not yet raised, will not onablo Government to carry on public works beyond the close of the present year. It is preposterous to suppose that at the end of March next the colony can afford to discontinue all public works, leaving many of the most important in an incomplete state, and therefore necessarily unprofitable It would be still more absurd to suppose that wo can, by taxation, or any other means than borrowing, raise the money necessary to prosecute aud complete these works. In 1881 tho Colonial Treasurer, the Hon. Major Atkinson, in his Financial Statement, Baid : — " The Government, after the past year's study of the condition of tho country under circumstances of exceptional depression, havo docided to assume that tho Legislature will require tho finance to be shaped in tho senso of continuing its great undertakings. . . Whilst avoiding what I call high pressure finance, we should arrange for the construction of all tho defective links in the trunk lines of railway necessarily at a reduced speed but without intermission." Again, in 1882, the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. Waiter Johnston, estimated the Co6t of completing the arterial lines of railway at £6,125,000, and, after alluding to several other works required, added: — "It will be seen that a loan of ten millions, to provide for all these objects, would not have been excessive, " Tho then Government, however, only asked fora loan of £3,000,000, to be raised at the rate of one million a year. How they spent it at a far more rapid rate, in anticipation of its being raised, is now a matter of history. Tho policy which the Atkinson Govornment, in 1881 and in 1882, so clearly recognised, that of completing the main system of public works at a steady rate of progress is the policy which the House and the country wiU undoubtedly demand from any Government whioh may hold office. It is this policy which the present Government proposes to carry out, and tho carrying out of which renders further borrowing unavoidable. The colony, having committed itself to a great scheme of public works, must persevere until that scheme is complete. The trunk lines from Invercargill to Picton, from Wellington to Kawakawa, from Dunedin to the grand central plains of Otago, must be completed, and as well as several other works to which the colony has already committed itself, must bo steadjly carried on. To stop now would be suicidal. Our hand is to the plough, and wo must not look back. The only question really open appears to us to be whether this authorisation of loans by driblets is desirable, or whether it would not be preferable to at once estimate the total cost of completing absolutely necessary arterial works (there should be ample material now available for doing this), and boldly ask Parliament to sanction a loan for the total sum once for all, with whatever limitation might be deemed desirable as to the rate at which tho money should be raised. We confess we think this latter course would be preferablo to the system of annual Loan Bills. It would bo decidedly fairer towards the lendors, and it would give some finality to our borrowing policy. As long as annual Loan Bills for small amounts are brought down, timo will be lost in debating them, the old arguments pro and con. will be diched up every session, and the cokm.y will be exposed at any time, through somechanco combination of political circumstances, to have its public works suddenly suspended, tho labour market disorganised, large numbers of men thrown out of employment, and a good deal of the money already spent rendered useless. There is always this danger also in annual Loanßills, that there isaconstantlyrccurring temptation to, and opportunity for, placing new works on the loan schedule and so rendering the end moro and more distant. If the Government and tho Houso would but boldly face the question, —say these works must be completed, their completion will cost so much, they will occupy so many years to complete, and we will authorise the raising of the required sum within that period, this colony would at last have arrived at some finality in its borrowing policy, and as nearly as possible have arrived at an assured finance, as further borrowing for other purposes would be practically impossible within tho period covered by such a measure. In no other way are we likely to arrive at any finality, or give either the colony or the English money lender any guarantee that tho works now in progress will be steadily prosecuted to completion, so as to afford them a fair chance of becoming really and fully reproductive. If once wo were in the manner advocated committed on the English money market, wo should perforce havo to regulate our domestic finance, so as to keep ordinary expenditure within revenue, or, in other words, we should havo to live within our means. This would not be ono of the least advantages of the policy in question.