BORROWING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10105, 2 August 1893, Page 2

BORROWING.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —“ Shorter Hours ” thinks that the only way to get local industries established is to put on heavier protective duties. I think there are four things which tend to prevent that desirable end. Tho first is that there are too many big capitalists in tho country, the second that commerce is hampered by heavy import duties. Land monopoly is the third, and the policy of borrowing money from England, either publicly or privately, is the fourth and veky much, the worst of the four. The reason why the full extent of the evil of a borrowing policy is not generally perceived is that nine- • tenths of the people do not kno w and will nob learn the true value and use of money. What is borrowed from England is England’s surplus produce and nothing olso, and can be nothing else, simply because she haa nothing else to lend. Such expressions ea “Those whose idea of sound finance is summed up in having a hoard of foreign gold in the Treasury,” which is to be found in your leader of last Saturday, help to confirm those who believe that gold is really borrowed in that belief. Of course, the expression ia only meant figuratively. The Government certainly obtains command over millions of gold by the process of borrowing, but as it never wants the gold, it is never at the expense of importing it. If it be true that England’s surplus capital ia all that she can lend, and that that capital consists mostly of commodities which are perishable and for which an investment must be found or great loss will result to their producers, it is evident that as New Zealand ia naturally one of the beat fields for the investment of those commodities, if wo free commerce from all restrictions and allow all to take up land who are willing to cultivate it to the best advantage, thea those commodities will be sure to find their way here without the process of borrowing. The same people who lend to us will not come hero with their capital, but it will compete ia the English money market for an investment, and will force tuose who are the most suitable for settlers to come here, that is, farmers and farmers’ sons with the command of iMOO or .£SOO each. Every million borrowed, either publiexy or privately, prevents a couple of thousands of such settlers from coming. lam convinced that if this country had never borrowed a pound its aggregate wealth would have been three times as great as at present and its population twice as great. Then local industries would have flourished, and the three millions which we send out of the Colony annually for interest would have made roads and railways ail over the country .—I am, <kc., OUDEIS.