AMERICAN DEBT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5554, 16 January 1879, Page 3

AMERICAN DEBT.

President Hayes’ recent speech on finance, delivered'in Minnesota on sth September, contains some good news, both for English holders of American bonds and for all other friends of America. The President declares that _ in August, 1865, the debt of the Union, including a large amount of unadjusted claims, amounted to £600,000,000. The Government has adhered, however, 1 for thirteen- years to its policy of-reduction, and the rotal debt therefore is now £407,000,000, a : decrease of nearly onethird, and the largest ever made in any country. This policy, moreover, has so increased the credit of the Union that the Treasury has been able to “ convert " much of the debt, and the total payment for ; interest, which ■ on August 31, 1865, was £30,200,000 a year, is now only £19,030,000, a decrease of nearly £11,000,000 a year. Had the income tax been retained, and the members of the Whisky Kings hanged, the reduction would have been

still more rapid. Contemporaneously with this reduction, there has been an immense increase in the number of native holders of the bonds. In 1871, at least £160,000,000 of the debt was held abroad, whereas at present all but £80,000,000 is held at home. That is most satisfactory, as the Greenback and Republican parties have therefore to reckon with native holders of property worth £320,000,000. It must be remembered however that England enjoys the highest credit in the world, though Consols are scarcely held at alHn a conscious way by the body of the people.