THE NATIONAL DEBT.

Evening Star, Issue 14187, 12 October 1909, Page 8

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

[Feom Our Parliamehtary Retorter.]

, ..WEIAINGTON, October 12. The paragraph in the Governor's Speech mentioning that the Prime Minister had obtained £1,000,000 in London, and had made arrangements bv whichi with a necessary alteration of the law, moneys for local bodies, etc., could be obtained, is understood to mean more than might be apparent at a casual dance. The paragraph states that " t£e legislation proposed will extend the scope of the Advances to Settlers Department, and make it a medium for obtaiaing in England moneys for the use of local public bodies, and for the purchase of lands for settlement." This proposed legislation is regarded as a step towards the differentiation of directly reproductive ■ loans from moneys that have been borrowed for purposes that are not usually regarded as immediately reproductive. The firsts mentioned class of loan may be regarded almost purely as an investment, and if, during the last eighteen years, all moneys raised for such purposes had beon dobited to a separate account, the dimensions of what is known as our National Debt would thereby have been greatly diminished. Had this distinction been applied during the past seventeen or eighteen years, such items as Native Land Purchase, Land Settlement, Loans to Local Bodies. Advances to Settlers and Workers, State Coal Mines, and State Fire Insurance would have come under the category of the Trading or Investment Departments account, and some £13.000,000 or £14,000,000 borrowed on their behalf would have to be deducted from the £70,938,534 constituting our National Debt.