The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8177, 18 March 1905, Page 2

The Star.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'olook la Hawwrti lUnmU, Kormaaby, Okaiaw*. XlUmub, Hn» toU, JupoßM, Awatana. Opuake, -Otaktbo, lfumtahl Alton, . BatfeyrluV, Patoavaad Wavarlev.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1905.

FINANCE AND RAILWAYS.

In a recent, financial and commercial supplement of' the 3JomUra Times there, appears a letter from Wellington which it is predicted willTiavo the effect of provok- ■ ing a "ood d.?at of acrimonious correspondence. The Times' cotmpondent points out that tho gross public debt amounted, on March '.3lst last, to : that, tho increase in.ien years lias been nq less v tuan iJiß,692,obo;'that borrowitfjj^is stjjlif being indnlgejl'in to tQe extent of over i Biillion a year, and that during. t he "4ix; loans to the amount of over tin, jnjjUpnfl, .will- have ( to , be|renewed. ty is -not, hipwevcr, \ill 1929 that tbe bilk s f)f debt/naraely, stout* 4s nullioqe^ wjll v h»^ tf.blft^ealt with,.^Conv ; menting on these thlftg!.^ Jbje 'city' editor of the? Pall Mall Gaeette r«i»^fk» that tnougtt 1929 may I ' be far enough, af&atf <to heiignoisgi by tbe market^ "the jiff- 1 sent j^oaition. is ' s&fficfentily ft/midable, and oiV worfders what^th^' effect on fifew Zealand owdit will be of renewing ten nnllioD* w&ife t\» i&4 five /caw, Tho

usual apology for the colony's extravagance is that the bulk of the money has been spent on railways and other reproductive works. Even so, the total debt would be a heavy load for a population oi 888,000 all told; but it is much to be feared that many of these works are reproductive only of losses." The correspondent referred to hints that profits are concocted by the simple method of changing certain items to capital which should come out of revenue, but Mr Samuel Vaile, writing from Auckland to the Investor's Ik view, goes much farther. He roundly asserts that calculations based on official records chow that during the past nine years there has been an average loss of £564,000 per annum on the working of the railway taking interest on the capital expended at 44 per cent., and ho declares that it cannot be less. The total loss for tho nine years he puts at £5,076,000, and he enallengcs anyone to dispute the accuracy of his figures.