COLONIAL LOINS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5436, 28 March 1889, Page 2

COLONIAL LOINS.

[Pek Frkss Association — Coi'Vkigut.] London*, Mar. 27. Mr Weatgarth is ill, and Mr O'Halloran read the paper on colonial loans for liiin at the meeting of the Colonial Institute. [The message yesterday should have read '-will read," not " read."] During the discussion which followed, Sir G. Berry, referring to the outlay on defences by the colonies, said Melbourne was now one of the strongest cities in the Empire against an open foe. Sir G. Baden Powell showed that British investors now greatly preferred colonial to foreign securities. He considered it was imperative trustees should be permitted to nvesfc in colonial Government securities. Sir F. D. Bell said that money invested in railways in the colonies ought to be regarded as British investment as much as though it were lent to Yorkshire. He denied that discount loans were preferable. Mr G. W. Hawker said that South Australia had borrowed too fast. The Transcontinental Railway was not reproductive, and passed chiefly through barren, worthless country. The facilities for borrowing encourage the existence of the unemployed and the system of paternal government. Mr Speight, Victorian Railway Commissioner, denied that Australia possessed a national debt in an European sense. He censured Mr Hawker for fouling his own nest. The Trans-continental line was directly profitable, and opened up valuable country in South Australia. Despite existing depression, it easily paid interest on cost of construction. He added that a syndicate could be found to-morrow to purchase the Victorian railways for the sum they had cost. to build. Mr Danger said a syndicate could also be formed to purchase the railways of New South Wales on similar terms.