THIS SYDNEY "HERALD" AND MAJOR ATKINSON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 355, 13 June 1877, Page 2

THIS SYDNEY "HERALD" AND MAJOR ATKINSON.

[By Telegraph.] J The Herald has a leading article (' j Major Atkinson's speech at Taranaki, k says, in reference to his remark, tl* "they must carry on government at J moderate rate as a prudent man \\uiP manage his owff estate"; that a p<>ptii?| government is not in the position of | landed proprietor, it cannot always | | what it thinks best. A prudent \ Ui ■ managing New Zealand as his pinjl estate, and constructing railways \d borrowed money, would not have encii] . bered himself in the course of a few yj with the payment of interest upon tli'j J or four millions lying unproductnc | j works begun but not finished. He woij | have concentrated his resources and | J efforts, lie would have completed «,f I speed the line that gave the best promt | of yielding profit, and by following ij j same policy with the others he would li >. * kept down his annual expenditure in j terest to the lowest point possible. \ New Zeaiand the opposite course has li- | taken. A number of separate lines li s been under construction simultaneinb ] and consequently the proportion ol c.i| j lying unproductive, and the anna j payable as interest have been ui< 4 to the highest point. The privi I manager would have hail before him I I comparatively simple question to djciiGj how to expend the money to his best ill vantage ; the Government has had tf| more complex problem to solve, how meet competing local claims, and balai local interests. If the Government In not been willing to distribute the exjii diture, the money would not have be granted. The demands of localism In bean satisfied, but the pricD is being pi in the shape of intjiest at the rate LlS0,00l) a year upon unproductive oi lay. Referring to what Major Atkins said about arrangements With the Colon; Banks, the Herald remarks that it » understood when tne last loan was nc; tiated in England with Rothschild, tin: was something like an engagement i understanding that the Colony would n appear in the market again for two yea; Are not these borrowings in the colom a violation of the spirit of that mid: standing I A letter in Tin; 'I lines by t: last mail was smiie evidence at least t!i it was so regarded. Sir J'. Vogel I, answer .d this Ly saying the underslanJi was that no fresh loan would be lie; tiated in London. This, however, I, not been accepted by the complainants a satisfactory answer. The meaning tlie understanding was that the put: debt of New Zealand had been in crisis so lirgely and so rapidly that the value its securities would be likely to sutler' any immediate addition to it, but if I Colony was supposed to have appro;ict a safe limit of its borrowing powers, mattered little or nothing whether* new loans that might be contracted wi raised in London or the Colonies. If t advancj in the value of New Zisak bonds, of which Major Atkinson H\)d was tlie result of the belief that the (It was not to be increased, whilst it« being increased by any arrangement the Colonies, the present liovernnu may lead to future loss in the shape harder terms when the London market next testtd.