CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11901, 26 May 1899, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

The “four per cent loan”; of ten millions sterling which) as a cable message states,] the Japanese Government, id endeavouring to raise, * isf

JAPAN IN TILE MONEY MARKET.

part of a sum of £24,000,000 which," it waai recently announced by the Tokio corrcspon-j dent of the London “ Times-'” Japan musfi borrow during the next six years. Hither-* to, nearly all the money needed by the 1 Mikado’s advisers has been raised at hpmei, Of the Japanese national debt of £42,000,00o! every penny has- been found by domestic! loans, except £4,000,000 of war bonds sold to a British syndicate in 1898. Last year Japan tried to continue the process, and issued bonds to the extent of £5,000,000, Of these, however, only a million and a, quarter were subscribed by the Japanese! public, who found in industrial and commercial enterprises more profitable investments than Government 4 per cents, and the Government itself had to take up tba remainder, using for this purpose part of the indemnity paid by China, The mot ment foreseen for some time by students of Japanese affairs has now arrived, whe.q, Japan must borrow in the world’s market.! The correspondent of the “ Times ’’ considers that her position in that market should ha a good one, though he does not share tho sanguine views of the Japanese Government, which calculates that at the end of six years it will have an accrued surplus of over £11,000,000 with which to repay its drafts made upon the China, indemnity* and thus to form an emergency fund. He believes that at the end of this-specified period the surplus will at best be an insignificant one. But he concludes, after careful examination, that in 1906 there will be an excess of revenue over, expenditure of £1,800,000. The official plan for raising the revenue required to meet the increased liability to be incurred is to enlarge the tat upon sake, which constitutes the national alcoholic beverage of Japan, and to raise the laud tax, which, while it brought in from 40 to 60 per cent of the total revenue in feudal times, is now only 0.66 of the revenue. The Japanese national debt, when, increased according to the programme, will never exceed £53,000,000; it will reach its maximum in 1902, and r according to present estimates, will be pletely discharged in 1933. Turning sterling money into yen (the Japanese dollar), and taking next year for the Japanese figures and last year for the figures of other countries, the comparative burden per head of population places Japan in a very favourable light. ' The reasons which have in-

JAPANESE PROJECTS,

duced Japan to imitate tha financial methods of western, nations may be summarised

in the word “ self-protection.” Her statesmen are far-seeing enough to perceive that their country will be safe front European aggressiveness only so long as she is able to take care of herself. Hence their doparture from the policy they adopted piioß to the war with China. Before that conflict Japan was, from the point of view of the national financier, one of the inlands of the blessed. Her population was 40,000,000, her trade was advancing by leaps and bounds, she was equipping herself with everything that she found good in western civilisation, her entire government cost hep population only 4s a head per annum, hep revenue always exceeded her expenditure* and she had a surplus of £7,500,000. Tha war, says a friendly English critic, closed in a manner which, it must suffice to say* an ambitious and proud people, conscious of their own strength, and convinced of the justice of their own cause, could not be expected to accept as final- Japan.’ determined that an enormously increased army! and navy were essential to her national safety and honour in the immediate future* Her Government decided to expend upon the navy, before the year 1905-6, no less a sum than £22,000,000, and upon the army £10,000,000. When this money is- great tha peace strength of her land forces will b® 140,000, and the war strength 530,000 jj while she will have sixty-seven ships, including four of the most powerful line-of-afloat, and six first-class armoured cruisers of 9200 tons each. Th® Japanese also propose within the same period to expend on matters directly ot indirectly productive—that is, railways* telephones, iron foundries, harbours, aids to banks, education, etc.—£29,000,000. The total expenditure will be £61,000,000 before the end of 1506. Towards this £45,000,000 will be raised by extraordinary revenue,, more than half of it taken from the indemnity paid by China. There will also be other expenditures in that period which ar® not included in the above sums, especially: the, development of Formosa, which, althou'di it is making great commercial and financial progress, mil not be self-support-ing for a considerable time. Taking «very*

tMng into consideration, however, there is no reason to doubt that all necessary expenditure will be provided for, and that the Japanese Government, which has admittedly shown itsslf punctiliously honourable, and singularly sober and wise in its financial dealings, will be able to carry its new departure to a successful termination. A recent number of the

tece party SYSTEM.

“ Nineteenth Century ” contains an interesting article

by Mr T. 8. Kebbel, entitled “Is the Party System Breaking Up?” In this colony there are many thoughtful students of politics who would be inclined to answer the question in the affirmative; and, judging from the article in question, the condition of things in Great Britain is not, in its main features, at all dissimilar to the condition here. Mr Kebbel’s arguments, therefore, have more than a passing interest for us. The article was suggested by a speech of Mr A. J. Balfour at Manchester, in which the state of the Liberal Party was commented upon, and by a letter to the “ Times ” from the pen of Mr Goldwin Smith upon the same topic. The conclusions reached by these two gentlemen were opposed to one another; but whichever should be right, Mr Kebbel thinks that their consideration of the system shows its importance. If Mr Goldwin Smith is right in the belief that the party system is near its end, then the matter is “one of immsasureable importance.” If, as Mr Balfour thinks, it will soon re-assert itself with new life and vigour, the situation is still “one of great immediate interest.” Mr Smith regards the party system not as a “ necessity of political life, but only an accident of English history.” Mr Kebbel endeavours to disprove this assertion. He Shows by historical reference that the permanence of the question at issue has always been recognisable, and that there has been throughout no such interruption as Mr Smith found, of the continuity of the party system; hut that after every temporary submersion it has always risen again to the surface with renewed energy and vitality. If there is danger to the system, Mr Kebbel thinks it is to be found in the “ new class of members, impatient of control, contemptuous of traditions and conventions, and profoundly convinced that it is the mission of the particular denomination to Which they belong to regenerate the country.” “ The Labour Party, the Temperance Party, the Liberationists, the Socialists, the Secularists,” he says, “ constitute independent agencies outside the party pale unknown to our forefathers." It may be, therefore, that the “ greatest danger to the System lies in the difficulty. of restoring party discipline after it has been set at haught.” In spite, however, of this clear view of the reason, for the disintegration bf the party system —the substitution of devotion to principles for devotion to parties—Mr Kebbel remains optimistic on the Subject of the fate cf the party system, tod he probably represents the hulk of public opinion at Home. It will take a long time for the agitation for the abolition bf party government to gather much strength in England.