Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1923. BRITISH SOLVENCY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16091, 3 April 1923, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1923. BRITISH SOLVENCY.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made the surprising announcement . that the national accounts of Great Britain reveal a surplus of ICI million pounds. This has been attained largely through the drastic curtailment of expenditure, but it also gives evidence of the financial and commercial stability of the Old Country. Income tax, on account of business being so severely affected during the slump period, was expected to show a. diminution of seventy million pounds, whereas the decrease has been only twenty millions. Increases in various departments of revenue production denote commercial activity, and whilst there arc grounds for the claim of the business community that taxation is too heavy, restricting the development of industry and commerce, it must be a great satisfaction to all Britishers to know that in a time if such financial stress all the world over Great Britain is steadily shouldering her burdens and paying her way. When it is remenibered that the nation is paying interest to the extent of 309 million pounds on war debts, it is a wonderful thing that the Budget can he made not only to balance but to come out with a surplus of over one hundred million pounds. No other nation eau show such an honest and strenuous, endeavor to overcome its post-war-economie problems; no other nation, not excepting the United tSta.tea, which enjoys such exceptional advantage thi'pugli being, a creditor nation, is ‘likely to attain so soon the goal of national prosperity. Much has been made of the immense obligation undertaken by Britain in the •agreement to wipe put the debt to the United Stales, hqt with die national revenue showing the buoyant tone disclosed by the Chancellor’s figures there is no need • to fear that those obligations will not he promptly met. Britain’s debt to America, after all, is not one-seventh of her total indebtedness, though it lias seemed to overshadow all the rest. The remainder of the debt is owed at home. The British people are accustomed to conosolidatpd funds, Treasury notes and other methods of meeting obligations, apd experience has taught them that national honor stands behind every undertaking, find no Treasury bond is ever likely to become a mere scrap of paper. They remember that the nation bore indebtedness proportionately as great ns that now existing, jifter the series of wars with France culminating in Waterloo; and. if in those times when the wealth and business of the nation was small by comparison with the great wealth and enterprises of the Empire to-day “the , war. debts were cleared away, so we can (Confidently anticipate that before the present generation passes the present hur’dens will he largely overcome. This is not forgetting that under the recent agreement with the United- States provision was made for a sixty-five years terms of repayment. Some belligerent Americans have 1 grumbled over this long time allowance and have spoken as if the whole debt would remain unpaid •for two-thirds of a century. They have 'argupd that the terms amount to a remission of half the debt. As a ’matter of fact, a financial authority points out, payment of the principal begins at once' and the bonds will probably sell at a premium ten years hence. It is not likely that Great Britain will allow twenty years to pass before the whole sum is taken up by British capitalists. Nothing is more improbable than that Britain will pay interest to the United States on the national debt for two generations. Britain, as the figures published to-day demonstrate, is thoroughly solvent and well able to squarely meet all her obligations. The Budget surplus should assist to still further strengthen exchange and give the pound sterling its rightful equivalent in the money markets of the world. TOURIST TRAFFIC. One thing that must have impressed any person who h;is been moving about the Dominion during the holidays is the immense number of people who travel by road. Traffic in the country in recent years has undergone an immense revolution. The increasing popularity of ' the automobile, the improvement in our highways, the call to the open read, to which New Zealanders seem particularly susceptible cause a large section of our population at every oppoiv tunity to go a-wheel. Mr Julian Grande, when lecturing in the South a lew days ago, chided the people of this country for not making more of the beauty spots in tho Dominion, and whilst there may he some grounds for his argument that hitherto some of the finest resorts in New Zealand have been knowli better to overseas tourists than to residents of the country which should be so proud to possess them, wo think the lack of appreciation lie was hinting at is being gradually overcome. Certainly more New Zealanders are travelling about their own country than ever before. Tours are being extended, and new delights discovered in mountain, lake and forest scenery. We have cvdienco of thqt in the increased traffic this year over the roads of this district. Cars.. Rearing registration plates from ali pails of the Dominion are frequently seen’in.. our streets. The fame of the tour from Rotorua to Gisborne through the Motu gorge, and of . tho unrivalled panoramas to be seen on the GisborneNapier trip has gone abroad and has brought many visitors this way. Wo doubt whether people here quite appreciate what it will mean to this com.munity, in a business Jvs well as a social sense, when the main roads aio complete and motorists aro able to travel- -at olPseaseryj of the year,-with-

out fear of interruption between j Gisborne and Napier and Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty. One has only to go i outside and note the development of motoring traffic to understand that! there will come to this district a big asset through the completion of this main highway of the East Coast. It is a tour which New Zealanders, as well, as many from abroad, will doliglilbin'J and it will serve to make known'not only the scenic splendor of thexdistricU b,ut tho fertility of its.;lands, .the equability ;tof its climate, j and ! the strong attractions thatthe - district presents from a settlement,-.point of -view. Our local bodies'and organisations should do all in their'power to hasten the completion of the roads north and south of Gisborne and to encourage hv every possible means the development of tourist traffic.