"A PIRATICAL STATE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17596, 8 October 1920, Page 5

"A PIRATICAL STATE."

QUEENSLAND'S LOST CREDIT.

LESSON IN NATIONALISATION.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6.

The Financial Times, in a leading article headed, " Queensland, a Pirate State," denounces Mr. E. G. Theodore's proposals as shameless robbery and open pillage. Under the cover of legislation comparatively respectable, Mr. Theodore, it states, is converting a• British State into a piratical community. His proceedings resemble the worst dodges of defaulting South American States. If he carries out, his threat great, areas of pastoral land will lapse into wilderness and unemployment will be rife. Mr. Theodore may raii--e his money by these methods, but it will be the costliest ever raised, because it will cost Queensland her credit. The Financial News hopes that saner counsels will prevail. The Pall Mall Gazette, in a leader entitled "NationalisationAn Object Lesson from Australia," says that Queensland has dabbled in every public industry which seemed to promise revenue, with the consequence that she has raised taxation to unheard of heights and has left the Treafeurv in the direct emptiness. Nationalisation, as applied by Queensland, turned -oid into lead. Undertakings yielding a profit in private hands became synonymous with a deficit when exploited by a public authority.

'.ommentiiig on Mr. Theodore's statement that the Government would appropriate dividends due in the State to outside investors, the Pall Mall Gazette says that Mr. Theodore has been reduced to the naked methods of a highwayman.