OUR LIABILITIES AND CAPABILITIES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 880, 13 November 1874, Page 3

OUR LIABILITIES AND CAPABILITIES.

(From the So il J-and Newt.) The fact that by and by, when New Zealand has borrowed and spent five or six millions more money, its iLabilities will amount to about 18 millions sterling, has beeu recently made the subject of a good deal of sapient head shaking both within and without the Colony. Gloomy forebodings have been expressed that" the burden Myill prove too heavy—that under its pressure the energies will be crushed—that a deeper depression than preceded the era of public works and immigration will set io—and so forth. If those who so readily " ride out to meet misfortune" would inquire and reflect a little they might see that the grounds for their fears were purely imaginary. They would find that the circumstances of the Colony have so changed since three or four years ago as to render tolerable now a burden that would have been crushing then. This idea has been forcibly suggested to us by the perusal of the recently published return of the lands held under depasturing licenses throughout the Colony. As most of our readers are aware, the general opinion, from the earliest days of settlement, down to quite recently, has been that the land for pastoral purposes was worth on an average but little if anything more than twopence per acre rental per annum. Yet within the last year or two —so great has been the lise in the value of wool and meat —it has been shown over and over again that the grazier can afford to give from Is to 2s per acre per annum. As a matter of fact, thousands of acres of land have been purchased —from the Crown and from private holders—by pastoral capitalists at prices which, reckoning money to be worth only five per cent., represent the higher figure, to say nothing of poorly situated runs leased at similar rates. Ignoring, for the sake of argument, all other industries—supposing that agriculture, gold, and coal-mining had no existence —the return we refer to shows that the pastoral interest could alone, without ruinous pressure, bear the whole burden of the colonial debt. We find that the total area of land held under depasturing licenses amounts to 14,622,95 acres, yielding a rental—inclusive of assessments— of £127,915, or only a fraction over twopence per acre per annum. An easy calculation shows that if the license fees were raised to the extent that purchasers of pastoral land have taken upon themselvs to pay—say Is 3d per acre—it would give a revenue of nearly one million—a sum sufiicient to cover the entire interest at 5 per cent, on the so-called " overwhelming liability ,of the colony as a whole." Of course, in estimating its power to meet the consequences of its indebtedness, we must not seriously look for a particular class whereon to impose the burden, but it should be reassuring to the timid to know that at the worst there is such a resource to fall back upon.