The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1911. THE DOMINION'S FINANCE.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 8, 12 May 1911, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1911. THE DOMINION'S FINANCE.

THERE can be no question about New Zealand being in a flourishing condition. According to the Hon. J. A. Millar, Acting-Minister ot Finance, the past year has been the best that the Dominion has ever had. The revenue amounted to the magnificent total of £10,297,023, which gives the Treasurer an increased income over last year of £1,295,838. This is a marvellous increase for one year, and had it not been for the unfortunate drought, which must have effected the return to a con siderable extent during the last few months, there is little reason to question that the returns would : have been even larger. It is a most satisfactory position for any treasurer to find himself in, with heaps and heaps of money rolling in from the many flourishing institutions of. the country. But there is another side even to this question, and when we know that our National Debt has reached the enormous total of £81,070,122, we cannot help asking when is it going to stop ? That a small country with a population of about one million should go on year after year piling up millions after millions of debt, must in the end lead to ruin. It is all very well to be told that 77 per cent is reproductive, yet the stern fact remains that the yearly amount to be sent away for interest now amounts to nearly three million pounds. In other words nearly one third of our revenue is r% quired to pay our debt to the British money-lender. We may well hope for a continuance of good seasons. What would happen if we were overtaken by a series of bad seasons, and our exports were to drop off, is not pleasant to think about. There are two things which should be taken in hand and dealt with at once if those in authority are de-r sirous of staving off as long as possible the day of reckoning, and preparing for bad times. The first is the settlement of our waste lands. The Minister admits that there is a million and a half acres of native land in the North Island that may be obtained and settled. If that is so, and we have no reason to question it, then the Government should take up the matter and get the people on to the land. And the second matter requiring attention is the doubling of the population. A prosperous country such as this Dominion is now has no right to be losing her population, and yet it is going. Boat after boat leaves our shores and takes away our best and greatest asset —the sons and daughters of those who have done so much to make this land what it is to-day. And the reason is not far to seek. These men are leaving because they cannot get land. Time and again they have tried at the ballot-box, and at last they give it up in despair, and go to other lands governed by wiser heads, who know when they see good settlers, and give them every op-

portunity of .getting what they want Undoubtedly the land question is at the bottom of our loss of population, and the sooner that question is settled the sooner will the exodus be stopped. It is the greatest possible mistake to imagine—because we are getting a few hundreds of Britain's untrained hosts, and losing thousands of our own boys, trained to the land and asking for nothing but the land —that the country is not infinitely the poorer. We would suggest that at every town and village where a Minister happens to call that a strong deputation be got together and wait upon him not with a request for roads and bridges, or even railways—but to ask for one thing, and one only — that the land be settled and farms found for our sons in their own land. This is of paramount importance, and every other matter could be allowed to rest until it is settled.