Self Reliance.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 828, 6 October 1894, Page 2

Self Reliance.

It is difficult to close one's eyes just now to the fact that the colony is again drifting slowly on towards national financial embarrassment. Our public debt is increasing, our annual payment for interest is increasing, and the cost of our public service and administration is increasing. There is not, however, a corresponding growth in our sources of revenue, and the inevitable outcome of the present lethargic condition of things will be a recourse to one of two alternatives, ' tax ' and ' borrow,' or possibly a necessary indulgence in both. And yet this is what we are doing all the time. Our taxation is increasing year by year, and we find ourselves session after session approving of a loan of some kind or another. Disguise the fact as we will, we are now, and have been for years past, paying interest out of borrowed money.

Where is all this to end ? When is that good time ooming when we shall insist upon a policy of absolute self-reliance? that time when our legislators shall be guided by an inflexible determination to live within their means ? Seven years ago, a Parliament was elected pledged to secure greater economy in the public service, and retrenchment was effected to the extent of nearly half-a-million. Again, four years ago, economy was the watchword, and further savings were made. But we have grown weary of this self-denial. Our expenditure is growing once more, and we find it more convenient and agreeable to borrow than to retrench. And yet is not ours a shortsighted policy ? Think of an annual payment of two millions as interest upon public debt from a colony whose total exports are only eight millions. This is crushing, but its very weight is a strong reason why the burden should not be unnecessarily increased. Add to this the fact that we are paying two millions annually as the cost of governing less than 700,000 people, and the reader will easily see the necessity for economy. But what prospect is there of the formation of a party pledged to economy and self-reliance. Here is a chance for the newly-enfranchised female politician.