A SCARCITY OF MONEY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9306, 20 November 1901, Page 4

A SCARCITY OF MONEY.

♦ Says the Manawatu Standard : — Almost the last allusion made by the Colonial Treasurer to the funds at the disposal of the Government justified every word said by his opponent* as to the probability of a tightness of the colonial money-chest during the current year. Speaking on the Appropriation Bill, Mr Seddon said he had only £580,000 left in the Public Works Fund to cany him on until he received more money, or really until the loan of £1,260,000 authorised during the session was raised. As a matter of fact, the loan in question is already on .the English market., although there is not the slightest possibility of it being floated in the ordinary way, unless a tremendous discount is allowed. The securities of the loan will either be pawned, that is, given as security for an advance, or floated at a high rate of interest for a short, term of years, a« was done last year. In either case the outlook is a serious one, and it does not seem to strike our heaven-born financiers that this short-dated loan business may land the colony in disaster, for it will be a nico lookout for thc«e in power three years hence to be faced with the necessity of floating loans not only for the colony's immediate necessities, but to meet the obligations entered into some years before. If ever there was a wildcat finance iu the history of the colony, we can assure our readers that it is the only title suitable for our present financial transactions— financial methods which may prove as disastrous to the progress of this wonderful country as anything experienced as the result of the Vogeliaa era,