The Hastings Standard PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1896. BORROWED MONEY.

Hastings Standard, Issue 32, 3 June 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard PUBLISHED DAILY.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1896. BORROWED MONEY.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistanc#, For the future in the distance, And the aood that we can do.

It is interesting to glance through the figures of our past loans—interesting from the fact that we have had to pay very dearly in the past. Taking the eight loans issued in the London money market since 1883, and aggregating £12,207,200, only about £11,788,382 has reached the coffers of the State; the money-lender has sucked in the balance. The loans floated during the period named, together with the average price obtained is as under : Year. Amount. Av, Price. Int'st. £ £ s. d. 1883 1,000,000 98 12 5 4 % 1884 1,000.000 100 6 6 4 % 1885 1,000,000 99 10 1 4 % 1885 1.500,000 100 6 2 4 % 1886 1.567.800 97 5 0 4 % 1888 2,000.000 97 15 7 4 % 1889 2.700.000 95 16 8 1893 1.500.000 94 8 9 3 % £12,267,800

At the average prices, the amount realised for the various loans is as under:— Year. Amount Realised. £ s. d. 1883 986,208 6 8 1884 1,003,250 0 0 1885 995,041 13 4 1885 1,504,625 0 0 1886 1,524,685 10 0 1888 1,960,083 6 8 1889 2,587,000 0 0 1895 1,416,562 10 0

£11,907,456 6 8 Deducting the amount realised from the nominal amount of the loans there is a difference of £860,343 13s 4d which we have not received. But to this must be added brokers' charges and expenses of loan, which, at 1 per cent—a moderate estimate —makes an additional £119,075 that has not reached us, or a total of £479,418. We have, however, to pay interest on this money, and that amounts to a very tidy sum—something like £15,686. That is to say, we pay away annually by way of interest £15,636 on money that we never received. The tax thus paid is equivalent to about 6d per head of the entire population of the colony. "What an immense saving there would be if wo could raise this huge sum now at the present cheap rate of money. We could probably get the whole twelve millions now at slightly over par at 8 per cent interest. On these loans we are now paying annually £-162,212, but at present rates of interest we should have to pay £368,031, a saving of £91,178. But this is idle speculation, for most of our loan money we hold at 4 per cent, and the principal is not payable until 1929 ; conversion at present high market values is out of the question so that we must content ourselves by paying up promptly and wait.