THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9076, 9 June 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1888.

The great success which has attended the floating of the New Zealand Loan will be the grounds of very lively satisfaction throughout the colony. Regretting as we do that such borrowing should have been deemed necessary, we cannot but rejoice that despite the efforts that have been made to decry the solvency and the future of the colony, confidence in New Zealand should have been expressed so unmistakably at the centre of the world's finance. The loan has been tendered for four times over, and at such an advance on the upset price of our bonds as must cause considerable chagrin to the financial authorities in London newspapers who had set themselves with such a zest to belittle the colonyThe average price of the bonds being four-per-cents, is £97 15s 7d, which is a little less than that realised on the last occasion of testing the London money market, but when we consider the severity of the depression through which New Zealand has since been passing, and various circumstances which might be supposed to affect the financial credit of the colony, the result is one that might almost be regarded as a surprise. There can be little doubt in any mind that a very principal factor in this success has been what has recently taken place in Wellington. The boldness with which the Government have faced the position, the determination to submit to any amount of taxation to restore the finances to equilibrium have unquestionably had their effect on the London market; and to the vigour and determination of the Financial Statement we may credit a good many thousands in the proceeds of the loan. Although the financial proposals of the Government have yet to be en* dorsed in the House, their reception has been such as to show that they reflect the will of the country ; and the fact that the colony had not only retrenched its expenditure to the extent of nearly a quarter of a million a year, but had accepted a great increase of taxation when shown to be necessary for the public credit; and especially that, even in the moment of retrenchment and increasing burdens undertaken, the country refused to fund its deficiency, but boldly determined to wipe it off by a fresh tax covering every article received into the country — such, a picture of a young and buoyant country bracing itself to overcome its difficulties, is more than an answer to all the depreciatory and spiteful criticisms that have been hurled at the colony. That it will be able without embarrassment to carry out the resolution we confidently believe; and similar confidence must have been established by these six hundred capitalists who competed in London for the bonds of the colony.

But now that our loan has been happily landed, we express the desires of thousands of the best of New Zealand colonists when we wish that it may be the last loan New Zealand will ever attempt to raise in England. We fail to see that any necessity should ever arise for the colony subjecting itself to any further liabilities, except in the event of some disaster from without over which the colony has no control. In the development of our internal resources we should await in future the development of our own, capacities. Our violent and forced attempts t<s drive the colony ahead of its time have landed us from time to time in great difficulties, and though benefits may have come of this to some, these unnatural efforts have only been productive of an unnatural inflation that has been beneficial neither to the happiness nor welfare of the people. It is sincerely to be hoped that the lessons of the past will not be lost on New Zealand j and at this moment, when*ihe colony has been relieved from what might have been at least a great inconvenience by the successful floating of this loan, New Zealand will register a vow that it will go no more into the money market to borrow for public purposes ; and that the man who proposes another loan shall be regarded as an enemy of his country. In the natural and steady development of our limitless resources this colony will have abundant field for operations for any amount of capital, of settlement, and of enterprise for many years to come ; and when further outlet for enterprise or settlement is required, it may be hoped that the colony's wealth will have so inci eased that it can do what is required for itself. It should be the duty of every true colonist to insist that henceforth the colony shall live within its revenue, even if it does not— as it should —seek, as America has been doing, to wipe off some of the encumbrances which it has heaped up in the days of its madness. One of the most baleful effects of the long era of borrowing has been to produce a sort of morbid belief in some people's minds that the colony cannot exist without borrowing, and that even if we are compelled to suspend the operationfor ayear or two, the renewal of borrowing should

be regarded as the normal condition of things. We trust that this most reprehensible idea will be peremptorily put down, and that a " Young New Zealand" will arise among us determined that not one farthing of further liability shall be piled on this young country. This feeling should be cherished not from any doubt of our capacity for either raising or bearing further liabilities, — for our latent wealth is such that the limit of our capacity in both these respects is still very remote, and every year by the natural increase of our population and wealth the existing liability will be divided and diminished. But from the fact that debt is immoral, unnatural, and an evil that should be shunned, it should be the hearty wish of every true-hearted New Zealander to take example from America, and labour and long to see the day when every encumbrance will be wiped away from the colony.