THE LOAN BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 11

THE LOAN BILL.

It almost makes one despair of ones's country to find, after all that has been said as to the necessity of winding up the borrowing policy, and the complete exposure that bas beeD made of the want of finality in the proposals made by Ministers in this connection, that the House should, by an overwhelming majority, reject the opportunity which was given to it for reconsidering those proposals, and suffer the Loan Bill to be rushed through again without any discussion of its necessary consequences. It is of course still open to the House to effect an alteration in the way in which the loan is gpent when the Public Works Estimates come before it ; but since the raising of the Joan has been authorised it stands to reason that the whole of it will be expended whether the works on which it is spent are really required or not. It is the true spendthrift's method that the House has followed in raising a loan first and afterwards setting to work to find out whether it is all wanted and how it is to be expended. What makes the case worse is that to the large majority of members it is evidently of small concern whether the works upon which the loan is to be spent are really wanted and likely to be remunerative or not. The predominant idea in the authorisation of the loan seems to have been that it would be so much money spent in the Colony at a period when money is very scarce. The mischief is now done, and an exposition of the imprudence and improvidence of the course taken would be mere waste of space at this stage. Nor after this can one have much hope of an alteration in the method of expenditure which would secure finality of borrowing. Yet for this every friend of economy must strive. It will after all matter little that we have borrowed some half a million more than was strictly necessary, if the proposed disposition of the money is so amended as to avoid the necessity of further recourse to the money market. The £20,000 a year of interest on the unnecessary half million is nothing to the limitless risk of extravagance and taxation that is opened up by the want of finality in the Public Works policy of the Government as brought before the House last session. The one thing needful to restore confidence, in the Colonj and without, is the winding up of the Public Works policy with the money in hand. Of course no Government can pledge its successors any further than such a guarantee as Sir Harry Atkinson promises to give not to go upon the market again until 1891. But the present Government can, if they will, expend the Public Works Fund in such a manner as to bring all works to a close for many years to come; whereas, according to present arrangements, so many works will be' left in an unfinished state that whatever Government is in office in 1891 will practically be forced to ask for another loan to carry them to completion, and thus the borrowing ball will be set rolling again. Sir Harry Atkinson has yet an opportunity left him of placing the finances of the Colony on a sound basis in the Public Works policy which he promises to announce in the Financial Statement. There can be no doubt that the party now at his back will support him heartily in any endeavour to bring the Public Works policy to a point which will make further loans unnecessary, and we trust that he will carefully consider the injury he will do to his own reputation for statesmanship, as well as to the colony, if he throws away the opportunity which is now given him, and contents himself with mending instead of ending the policy of 1870.