SIGNIFICANT FACTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8367, 1 March 1913, Page 4

SIGNIFICANT FACTS

Some misconceptions that may have existed in the minds of people who have heeded the dismal outpourings of the Conservatives prior to their entry into the Promised Land are cleared away by Mr J. A. Hanan, M.P. In a statement supplied to the “Southland Daily News” he deals with the twin subjects —for such they are undoubtedly—of loan obligations and trade developments. The figures supply a complete . answer, if such were needed, to the oft-repeated charges of self-styled Reform against Liberalism —charges of “reckless plundering,” “frenzied finance/ 1 “wasteful, extravagant expenditure of,borrowed money,’‘ the purchase of votes with loans, and all the rest of the Tory wearisomeness. Mr Hanan shows that up to the year 1920 colonial loans aggregating £200,000,000 will require to be renewed or paid off. New Zealand’s portion is £32,000,000, but of this total £8,000,000 is not payable in London, being due to the New Zealand Post Office. New South Wales’ commitments far exceed ours, totalling £35,473,000, and Victoria is a close third with £20,688,000. “An analysis of the increase in population and trade establish the gratifying fact that this Dominion has the best all-round results to show for the money it has borrowed,” says our contemporary. “In spite of all the talk about the Canadian influx, the official figures show that for the ten years 1001-11 its population increased by 31.8 per cent., while New Zealand shows an increase of 30.5 per cent., against South Africa’s 10.3 and Australia’s 17.9. It is, however, when the value of exports per head of the population is compared that New Zealand soars away above the other Dominions, a testimony to its equable climate, groat fertility, and the energy of its people. The value works out thus: New Zealand £21.9 Australia ....... £16.7 South Africa ........ £9.3 Canada - * £8.6 There is no country in the world whose exports per head of population exceeds in value those of New Zealand, and it must b© apparent to everyone who thinks that this great development could never have been but foi borrowed money which on the whole must have been judiciously expended to produce these significant results.”