AUSTRALIA’S POSITION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 828, 17 February 1903, Page 4

AUSTRALIA’S POSITION.

LIGHT-HEARTED POLITICIANS.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Sydney, Feb. 16. Mr Reid looks upon Mr Wilson’s attack on Australian finance as a result of either profound ignorance or malicious design. The debt of Australia, instead of being a millstone, was one of the best investments. Without that expenditure the greater part of Australia would now be a howling wilderness. The Sydney Morning Herald declares that well-informed people do not accept the statement that a great crisis is impending. The Morning Post, it says, strikes tho right note. The strength of the attack is evidently against New South Wales, where the bulk of 11 millions has been spent on unproductive works. Melbourne, Feb. 16. Tho Argus says Mr Wilson’s attack on Australia cannot be objected to on the ground of bad intention. Great Britain is a lending nation, and its journalistic watchmen have a perfect fright to make such enquiries and publish such statements id good faith as will tend to protect the British investor. There are politicians in this country who light-heartedly are willing to go on borrowing as long as they are able. In saying that a crisis is impending, the critic goes beyond the warrant of facts, but there is enough truth in bis strictures to inspire a hope that Great Britain in her own interests and ours wifi imposo a sterner check to immoderate borrowing.