OUR LONDON LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10306, 13 March 1895, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(From Our Own Cokbespondbnt.) London, January 26.

Tnil TIMES OS NliW 7.KALAND,

Miss .Flora Shaw lias taken New Zealand finance as the subject of ore of her moat recent colonial articles in The Times. She thinks Mr Ssddon hi\a " not too soon thought it well to reasuuro tha public as to the further financial policy of Siis Government," and that "if the fluapcinl methods of the New Zealand Government inspired more general confidence the experiment [of advancing money to settlers] woich 15 being made on so courageous a scale would be watched with the utmost interent." " Including tho bank guaranto.a," s»yn Miss Shaw, " the liabilities of the colony have boen increased to the amount in round numbers of six millions " by tho present "non-borrowing" Government, assuming tho policy outlined by Mr Warrl in his last Budget to have been carried out in exUnso. "If tbis represents a non-borrowing policy," exclaims Miss Shaw, " what would a borrowing policy be ? In the face of such an addition to permanent financial charged, the recurring surplus with which the accounts are balanced at the end of each year is dismissed as unimportant." This is how Miss Shaw makes up the £6.000,000:— Bank of Now Zealand guarantee. £2,000,000 ; . loan i'or advances to settlers, £1,500,000 ; new consols, £1,000,000 ; loana for private land purchase, £250,000 ; for Native land?, £250,000 ; for snrvoYi, ££50,000; amount by which Mr Ward last July admitted that tho present Government had increased the public debt, £730,1-21. She points out that if tho sum borrowed from the sinking f and, which is a loan for moneys appropriated to paying ofi debts— viz., £284-,soo—and tue amount derived from land sales—therefore by diminution of the colony's assets—viz., £128.629—with £413,000 deducted from the alleged surplus, a deficit of £123,000 remains in it 3 place. The New Zealand Government, aha thinks, is entitled to reply that, although land sales as a source of revenue must one day coma to an end, the laads sold are not conveyed out of the colony, but remain and beoomo more valuable as produce-bearing area» and sources oE revenue. And she also holds that if tho £281,000 derived from loan of sinking fund ought to be deducted from the revenue side of the account, so should a like sum from the expenditure onsinkiog fund account. Miss Shaw acquits Mr Wtvrd and his Govarnment of any responsibility for this arrangement made by Sir Julius Vogel in 1834. Only she does not see how the Government can take credit both iv London for continuing to pay oinking fund and iv the colony for not borrowing. One of these claims must, she contends, be incorrect.

Bufc she feaiM that the present Government, being "composed of relatively young or inexpurienced meu, doe 3 not fully realise the extent of the liabilities for which it is making itself responsible." Some years, she Bsys, must elapse before the results can be known, and by that time it will bo too late to undo what has been done. She points out that the Government's policy as to the Bank of Now Zealand, v/bile pledgiug the colony's resources to a serious extent, has " had the effect of driving the shares, once counted amongst the most valuable of New Zealand investments, to a discount of 22a 6d," and she coDsidei'sthat the recent call "has undone in one direction all that the Government guarantee was calculated to do in another."

Perhaps finance is hardly Miss Shaw's strong point. However, it is important that pcopla in the colony should kaow what is being said about them and their affairs by so influential a paper as The Times.

NEW ZEALAND TIMBER. The New Zealand tinobor export, Mr Freybsrg, tails me he cannot possibly continue hi» labours on the present footing, as his health is giving way under the strain of overwork and lack of tins for rest and relaxation. He propoaea returning to New Zealand shortly. A very useful paper on the urgent need of replacing the fast-vanishing New Zealand forests by a judicious process of replanting has been written by Jlr Freyberg, and will go out to the Government by this mail. He is Btrongly impressed wirh the necessity of early and vigorous action in this direction while yet there is time, before all the soil is washed away from the treeless hills. Hs has collected much valuable information and advice on the subject, and his remarks well deserve careful attention.

Dlr Freyberg is still pushing colonial timber, and urging the p.dvisablenes3 of substituting colonial hard woods for European soft woods in otreet paving. He finds that of the 2600 miles of London streets, not 20 miles are yet laid with hard-wood paving.

Another paint which he is pressing earnestly is the need of a special wharf on the Thames for New Zealand wood, and, indeed, for each of the different colonial timbers, ao that purchasers may know where to go for it and bo sure of getting the right sort.

A NEW ZEALANDEIi ON NEW ZEALAND. Mr Pharazyn called on me yesterday, and spoke very freely about New Zealand affairs. Hiß opinion is that it will be a great mistake if people in the colony delude themselves into the belief thet prices of produce are goiDg to bo as high as formerly. He does not see any grounds for hope that this can ba the case. He holds that the only course is to r.ccept the inevitable and produce larger quantities and finer qualities. As an illustration of his meaning he mentioned a recent purchase by himself of some Romcey Marsh rams of improved strain which ha estimates will secure him a pound more wool off each sheep in a few years.

By the way, Mr Pharazyn has been " orating "in tha Midlands. Hb stayed a day or two with Mr Gisborne, in Derbyshire, and was asked to speak at a political (Unionist) meeting at Dafiield, close to Derby. He had a vary cordial reception, and several columns of the local paper are devoted to his Bpeech, which also forni3 the subject of a leading article. Mr Pharazyn claimed to ba a member of tha true " working class ": ho had worked 16 hours a day for many months together. Honest labour, he said, was never degrading. The earlier settlers of Naw Zealand had to hew and carve a home and holding for themselves out of the forests. But then, when the Government borrowed money, a new class of men came in who liked town life, and did not care to go into the bush and rough it as their predecessors had done. And now that the loan money was exhausted, these newer comers began to attack and oppose those who had founded the colony and borne all the hardships and gone through all the struggles, and said they had no right to their land, and tbat it ought to be talteu away from them, while the new men, who had done noshing, were to have all sorts of rights and privileges. These'men, continued Mr Pharazyn, having the majority of votes, were able to give effect to their Socialism, and so various Socialistic measures wera passed, and the result was that employers of labour could not afford to go on, and so labour was no longer fully employed. It was very painful to see the gangs of good, capable mun tramping over the country, unable to get a day's work anywhere. This kiud of legislation had brought the country a3 a whole to an absolute state of gtagnation. Often, he said, 10 or 12 men would come to hi 3 place at night to beg for a night's lodging and food. Ho described forcibly tha state of thiugs in Wellington, where people were crowded in slums and suffering severs distress.

Mr Pharazyn contended that tha Socialistic legislation injured every struggling man in the country, and made things far worse than before for every genuine working man. As to settlement on smdil holdings, that meant in most caacs lives of grievous hardship, the women having to labour from daylight to dark on the rouqheat farm wqrk, as iv Switzerland, as he bad scon them therfl very recently. There could bo do homo comforts at all. He criticised incisively the labour legislation, which placed many restrictions in the way of employment of lubour; but warmly approved of women's franchise. One person present got up and violently attacked Mr Pharazyn's speech, impugning the correctness of what he had alleged as to tho results of Stats Socialism in New Zealand. But another porson then rose and said he knew Mr Pharazyn bad spoken accurately, for a friend of his own had just returned frem New Zealand because ho could not get any work to do there, and entirely confirmed all that Mr Pharazyn had stated. A hearty vote of thanks wss passed to Mr Pharazyn and the other speakers.

Sir (Jisborne made a brief but telliDg speech in support of the Unionist side, urging the duty of maintaining unimpaired tho unity of tha Empire.

At Alfreton, in Derbyshire, Mr Pharazyn delivered another speech, aud his warnings are characterised by the local paper as "most timely." The case of New Zealand is put by tha Alfreton Journal thus: —" Tb.030 who had toiled and in the end had reaped the fruits of their toil were attacked by meu who wece not willing to eadure the hardships of the early settlers; the «ard-earaed wealth of the industrious colonisers was made sport of by those who had nothing to lnse in the upheaval which they desired to bring about." Aai as a result, tbe writer says, " employers and employed alike were injured in the general dwindling of trade." This picture will not be greatly relished by the present Naw Zealand Government and their friends.