OUR BORROWING POLICY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2136, 18 March 1886, Page 3

OUR BORROWING POLICY.

TO IUK EDITOR. Sir,— Mr Y. J. Mo>s, M.H.U., has a letter in tho New Zealand Heiald of tho 13th mat. in which he enters upon the anxious question of the colon} 's financial position, and g'>e-> into a comparison between the public woiks policy of New South Wales nid Yicloiii, and th.it pursued by the (!u\('iii:iient of New Zealand. .Mr Mo 1 --., who g<>neially takes a common sense view of political questions, combats the statements (if Sir Julius Vogel, who, u-isoiiing by analogy that because the.si-tei oiloim shave piuspeu'd amazingly under a vigoious inn-ecntion df public woiks with b..iro.ved money, om i.«n colony will lecover con.plete connneiual \ itality l>v a fuither extensive loan expenditure, Anil he demonstrates the liimu'iix' dihVicnce th it lies in the coiiiso adopted by the-e colonies. " Victoiia and New .South Wales have not cxliausttd their resources by bun owing l.ugely for nil kinds of pmpo-esin time of piospeuty. They have paid out of ie\enue for mads, budges, telegiapln, buildings, iiunugiation, and othei oidin uy sei vices, \\ lnch we, dining the time of our piospenty, have continued to p.iy for out of loans." This touchcb our folly in a raw place, and, in its naked truth, lays open tho conuption and dishonesty of our legislative institutions. Sensible men have, for ycais back, had foresight enough to feel and dread the mischief which the culpable mal-admuiwtration of loans by the Legislature would, in the conise of time, inflict upon the colony, and it is scarcely to tho credit of Mr Afosi, that, if he foresaw these gieat evils, he did not, as a repiesentutne of the people, take a resolute and determined stand against those pernicious practices w ith which the House of Representatives has become surfeited. It is not an extenuation of his own righteousness th.it he should now, aftpr the full fotco of the calamity lias fallen upon his country, come forward with ill-timed wisdom and tell us what the legislatuie, of which lie ib a member, should and should not ha\e done. Mr Muss proceeds to show by statistical figured that Victoria, out of a total loan expenditme of £27,000,000, has devoted £25,000,000 for purposes that are directly reproductive and profitable. In New South Wales the results are highly satisfactory, and last year their railways indicated a profit of 4h per cent. In striking contru-distinction to the successful administration of those colonies, Mr Moss continues in these words: — "Contrast this with our expenditure .since the so called public works policy of the Creneral Government began. Between 1872 and 1886 we spent From loans as follows :—: — Railways £12,005,0 Dl Immigration 2,114,472 Roads . . 3,080.822 Public buildings . . . 1,305,432 Native land purchase . . . 1, 003,284 Telegraphs 51(5,217 Waterworks on goldfields 5(m,120 Lighthouses and harbour works . . . 078,130 Prospecting and developing coal mines . . 10,830 Defence 1, 117,219 23,00(5,014 Depaitmental expenditure . 23<>,327 Chaiges and expenses of raising loans 868,933 Interest and sinking fund . . 218,500 24,950,374 In other words we find that seven or eight millions have been expended for purposes which should have been met out of ordinary annual revenue, and heie also we see exposed the immorality of appropriating portions of loans in order to meet the charges for mteiest on the money borrowed. Finally Mr Moss sums up the vast difference between our methods of spending loans in the following terse, and indisputabe manner:— "The Victorians pay the greater portion of their interest out of railway and other profits. We have to pay ours by taxation. Consequently their taxation for interest on loans is less than i' 300,000. Urns exceeds £1,300,000. Tneir exports, out of which the interest must be paid, are 17 millions. Ours are barely seven millions'." The total revenue from all souices is a little over £3,000,000,0f ■which nearly one half id sent out of the countiy annually for payment of interest due t ) our foreign creditors. There cannot be a more deplorable state of things ; they are, whether looked at from a purely commercial or economic point of view, extiemely bad. Any private individual whose bu-i-ne-swas involved in similar financial embarrassments would, in honour, call a meeting of his cieditors. An unprincipled man, under like cucunistanees, would rontinue to diift further and fuither into the Maelstrom of bankruptcy, leckle^s of all consequences so long as he could succeed in obtaiuing advances by means of notes of hand, post obits, and such other trickeries of usury, until he had leached the Ultima Thule of his iesouices. Thisla.st view is Eremsely our present national position, foi ftvo we not the preposterous and wild expediency offeied us by the Grand Panjandrum to plunge deep down into a still more overwhelming ocean of debt as a panacea for all our ills? Mr Moss, who now deplores the grievous misfortunes of the colon y, doe-> enter into an apologetic plea for himself and other members that they always set tneir faces against the reckless expendituie of the loans. But, it is mad missable that the opposition of 23 XTnited representatives could have been futile, however strong the Government of the day may have been, if their opposition had been a detei mined and truly patriotic one. Cm rent history teaches us what power, what extraordinary influence, a small resolute body of men will exercise ovei the most poweiful and ovei whelming odds. Parliament, as a whole, has been to blame for tlio existing state of things by its sub serviencyand discreditable party struggles for place and power. It has utterly degenerated into nn unseemly, huge Board of Works, where each member endeavours, by hook or by crook, to secure some of the contents of the Treasury che*t. We coincide with the opinion of Mr Moss that this character of the Legislature should be abolished, and that a moie comprehensive system of local Government should be established which would entirely relieve the Central Government of all administration bearing on local woiks, of vvhatpver nature soever. In giving the concluding inragiaph of Mr Moss' letter, we express a hope that, now the countiy and Legislature appear to have became awake to the gravity of the situation they will not only proceed to rptroco the eirors and laches of the past, but w ill also insist upon a wise and sound economic course of administration for tho future. Mr Moss thus concludes, '"Relieved of local work, the number of members in PailianiPiit could be again leduced to 73, and other great and economical reforms be made. The chaiacterof the Legislature would be raised by its ceasing to be an unwieldly Board of Works. Government would be purer and better with its present powers distributed and its patronage reduced. A healthier and more hopeful tone would prevail ; and we should have fewer of the chimerical and desperate remedies now proposed for the idief of a depression which all feel, but with which a distracted Parliament seems helpless to contend. In any case, borrowing a million <t year for three years will be only adding to the waste of the past, and will leave the colony at the end of the time to provide an additional £120,000 a year foi- interest. We have spent -\J millions during the last three years without effect. How thon can an expendituie of three millions during the ne<t threo years be of any avail? The truo remedy, in my humble opinion, is to let it be clearly seen we intend to face th« difficulty and to place our finances once more on a sound basis. The old confidence in the country would then bo restored. Without this confidence we cannot hope for » revival of the prosperity which the vast resources and energy of its people ought to command. Let us also take seriously to heart the critical opinions and admonitions of that keen observer and able political writer, Mr Froude, who has just told us what he thinks about our system of Government, and what he regards as the great defects which disfigure it.— l am, yours obediently, Observer.

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