THE PUBLIC DEBT.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13107, 16 May 1911, Page 4

THE PUBLIC DEBT.

Although the Opposition organs admit that a large part of the public debt represent the sums spent by the Government upon reproductive enterprises they continue to declaim against tho "enormous burdens" that are being "heaped upon tho shou'.ders of the people." and to predict an early decline in the credit of the Dominion as a result of its frequent appeals to the London money market. Of course (says tho "Lyttelton Times") the doleful story of impending disaster is as old as tho Conservatives' exclusion from the Treasury benches, but it is being repeated just now with some added emphasis in connection with Mr Millar's speech at Duncdin. "Since 1891," one of our contemporaries says, "when the Ballance-Scddon Government came into power, the debt has more than doubled, having risen' from £38,830,350 or £61 19s 4d per head, to £81,078,122, or about £81 per head." "The total indebtedness," it adds by wa)r of comment upon these figures, "strikes everyone, outside the Dominion as a staggering load for such a small country to bear, and the frigidity with which tho five mi.lion loan was received by the British public is an unmistakable warning that the process of lending large sums to New Zealand will not be continued to an indefinite extent." \Ve need not refer again to the reception of the five million loan, beyond observing that the "frigidity" of the British public is seen just now in its readiness to take the stock, at a higher price than is being offered for Australian securities of the. same denomination; but we should like to point out that the credit of the Dominion suffers a good deal more from the biassed attacks of the disappointed politicians within its own borders than it does from the frank criticism of any reputable outsider. The statement that the public debt has risen from £38,830,350 to £81,078,122 during tho past twenty .years., for instance, unaccompanied by any explanation of the increase in the country's obligations, is much more likely to prejudice our credit than is anything that was said by the London newspapers in regard to the five million loan. As a matter of fact, it conveys an entirely wrong impression of the Dominion's financial position. It is quite true that the gross public debt stood at .£38,830,350 on March 31, 1891, and at £81,078,122 on March 31. 3P/1.1, but of the increase of £42,247,772 no less than £33,481,090 was expended upon reproductive enterprises.