THE RECORD SURPLUS.

Observer, Volume XX, Issue 1121, 23 June 1900, Page 2

THE RECORD SURPLUS.

Wiiy Bo We Borrow? The Sydney Bulletin is usually so Bound and hard-beaded in matters of finance that it comes to us as something more than a surprise to find it swallowing Premier Seddoo's latest record surplus readily, without even the proverbial pinch of salt. Thus the Bulletin : — Maoriland ended its financial year with a glorious purplns ol £558,43®, apd there was £45,800 left ont ol the previous year's surplus (after transferring ±-4>0,000 to the Public Works Fund), so the total credit balance is £605,351. In view of the=e faces it seems as if Maoriland could now afford to start a sinking fund, after the South Australian fashion, for the gradual repayment of its public debt, or swear off all further foreign borrowing, or do something a little more than usually unusual iv the way of repairing the terrible financial • blunders of the old Tory regime. 'Glorious surplus 'is goo 3. But notwithstanding the aforesaid glorious surplus, New Zealand still finds it necessary to raise the same old million loan in some form or other every year to make both ends meet. We don't question the surplus. It is there all right on paper, hut somehow we never seem to have it in solid cash. That is why we are still constantly on the trot to the Fat Man in London for further accommodation in the same stereotyped fashion that the old Tory regime, of financial blunders fame, pursued yeara ago. Things haven'D changed much' since then, except that our revenue has largely increased, and that the country is more prosperous than it was. Bjt, big- surpluses to the contrary notwithstanding, we still borrow. And we shall go on borrowing till the end of the chapter. And as for the sinking fund that the Bulletin would like to see, why, that was created long ago. Bat for years past it has been the custom of every regime, Tory and otherwise, to seize the acI cumulated sinking fund under the pressure of financial necessities, and utilize it for current expenditure. Indeed, it is I a tradition of public finance in New Zealand that when a Colonial Treasurer isn't nobbling the funds of the Govern-

ment Savings Bank, or Public Trust Office, or Government Life Insurance Department, he is sitting under the sinking fund tree with bis mouth wide open, waiting for a ripe plum to drop into it.

Notwithstanding our surpluses, New Zealand's public debt during the existence of the Seddon Government has increased by eight or nine millions. Of course, it must be remembered that a great deal of this money is represented by advances to settlers, and returns good interest,' or has been spent in acquiring private eßtates and cutting them up for settlement, another sound investment. But, at the same time, we are not co sound in our finances that we can afford either to dispense with annual public borrowing or Bpare money for a sinking fund to pay off our national debt. No regime- that we have had yet, whether it be the old Tory or the new Liberal, has been able to bring this blissful state of financial prosperity about.