MAORILARD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2568, 31 July 1909, Page 3

MAORILARD.

ITS .TOE AND ITS DEBTS. (Sydney “Bulletin.”) An obviously sincere and earnest Maoriland correspondent writes _ “a pretest and appeal” to “The Bulletin.” ‘‘For many years ‘The Bulletin’ has helped forward the cause of democracy in Maoriland,” he says. _ “Little by little, however, the Maoriland contributors have become missionaries of the Opposition.” And then this correspondent furnishes a list of the things the Government of Joe Ward has done during the past three years—lt has made Protection stronger, it has passed a Shipping and Seamen’s Act, it has pushed through another Land-Tax Bill, and it has provided a scheme for the superannuation of tlio whole Civil Sei vice. Then, after enumerating other things that the Joe Ward Government has done, this sorrowful correspondent stops short—short just when “The wanted him to go on. For besides doing all these things the Joe Ward Government added no less than £4,484,637 to the public debt in the last financial year alone. • and it is by that fact that the Joe Ward Government must be judged. The correspondent thinks “The Bulletin” has changed. Unfortunately »t is the. Maoriland Liberal Party that has done the changing. Ballance saw how nearly the rickety islands had been wrecked by the insane policy of huge borrowings practised by its predecessors. This policy had so inflated values that, when a bad season came, the islands found themselves almost incapable of paying the interest; then tlio borrowing had to stop, the artificial prosperity came down crash, prices slumped, and there was an almighty trouble in the land. Ballance, realising what had caused the damage, turned his back on that policy, and the Liberal party kept its back turned on it for a while. Gradually, however, the party veered round. Every Government naturally wants to show that its policy is producing prosperity; and there is no such easy way of producing all the “appearances” of prosperity a 6 by borroAving lavishly. A strong, honest, patriotic Government wants the real thing; a weak, dishonest, time-seiwing, or incompetent GoA'ernment is content with the appearances. And this record of Maoriland’s borrowing shows how the islands gradually left the path of honesty and patriotism, and chased the shadow instead of the substance: — MOVEMENT OF MAORILAND’S PUBLIC DEBT. Four years, 1892-5: — 1892 Dec. ... £117,282 1893 Inc. ... 544,772 1894 Inc. ... 588,575 1895 Inc. ... 580,549 Increase £1,556,814 Four years, 1906-9: 1906 Inc. ... £2,279,040 1907 Inc. ... 1,988,000 - 1908 Inc. ... 2,274,857 • 1909 Inc. ... 4,484,873

Increase £11,026,534 -It is not necessary to go beyond that to show that the Liberalism of Joe Ward is not the Liberalism of John Btillance. In fact, John Ballance’s work was to clean up a mess of the very same sort as Joe "Ward’s successor AviU have to clean up. The great trouble with all these borrowing manias is that the disease does not stop with the Government. The State sets the pace, and the community tries to keep np with it. The local governing bodies dash away after their leader. In 1892 (the first year of Ballance’s rule) the local bodies in Maoriland floated loans to the extent of only £39,241. In the past year, according to a statement made by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, at the annual meeting, the loans raised by them in London alone totalled £l, 410,600. From the State and the governing bodies the disease spreads to the individuals. Everybody knows the effect of a good harvest, or of a fair harvest combined Avith high prices. With a fewextra millions to play with the State booms. Old buildings are pulled doAvn and new ones spring up in their place. The banks have plenty of money to lend, and make liberal advances. And the more money they advance, the more the property-owner demands from the buyer. The first results are exactly the same during a borroAving boom. Money is plentiful and everything is painted pink. The borroAved money has to b'e spent; so Avork is plentiful, and the money having been got easily nobody is A*ery particular about the conditions under which it goes. Earnings are therefore high; and the landlord and the corner grocer see that most of the high earnings come their way. >-jo the rent of the workman’s cottage and of the corner grocery goes np, up, up. And as the rent goes np the capital value goes np. The farmer also gets high prices; and the rent; and the capital value of the land goes up too. Then the Avretclied bill for the interest comes in. It simply has to be paid or everything is lost; so a man is sacked here and there, and presently an army of unemployed is yelling out for the Premier who is too busy packing np to show himself. About this time the banks get frightened and do a little squeezing here and a little more there; and so a few more men are sacked. _ Even if tilings go -well—if the harvests are good, and the metal pours out from the mines, and prices all round are on a pinnacle —there is bound to be some trouble, simply because every boom breeds extravagance, and all extravagance has to be paid for. But if things do not go Avell,, then the troubles fall like a clutch of avalanches. “It is most disconcerting to have to admit,” said the Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, the other day, at the annual meeting—“it is most disconcerting to have' to admit,, in view of the long period of prosperity, that a sudden drop in values of our primary produce, for one season only, should cause such a financial disturbance as we have been experiencing.” To pay merely the interest on the money .it has borroAved from the foreign “Cohen,” Maoriland has to send away £3,500,000 a year. Mostly this is represented by produceexports in excess of imports. But in the past two years, partly owing to the fall in the value of Maoriland’s products, imports have-exceeded the exports. Still, the interest has to be paid. And in such a case it is paid in two, ways—either by doing a most disastrous tiling, and borrowing more money to pay the interest on money already borrowed, or by pinching and squeezing.the local population. Maoriland has done some of both. And if Cohen shuts down,’as he is liable to do at any moment, there will have to be a great deal more of the pinching and squeezing. A further succession of good harvests, along Avith high prices, ' may make the pinch less felt; but the pinch and, the squeeze, will have to be there. They may be postponed by continuing the policy to borrow and boom, just as the awful pains ofrecovery may be postponed bv continuing any other drunkbut the longer the drunk is i i ; /. R, ;V V-,’ - - • ' ' . : / '■'*( ’/'if*'->'R /V*-wikpi■’■' i V,^ J A-

continued the Avorse the pains of recovery will be in the end. Tlio Joe Ward Government may ’have done many good tilings. But if a man cut our friend’s throat he doesn’t count much to him that he first bought him a bag' of bananas. Joe Ward, whatever else he may have done, has also done the unforgivable thing. Under the cloak of Liberalism, he has harided the Dominion over to the paAvnbrokei*. He has sold it into a long slavery—sold it for the price of a brief and bogus prosperity. And no man, whatever he may call himself, can do Avorse for a country than that.