THE DOMINION DEBT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2603, 10 September 1909, Page 7

THE DOMINION DEBT.

DR. FINDLAY’S STATEMENT

(Per Press Association.!

WELLINGTON, September 9. Interviewed by a “New Zealand Times” representative the Hon. Dr. Findlay stated, in amplification of his recent speeches, that the value of land alone in the Dominion had increased between 1891 and 1909 by £148,312,267, and this value was 30 per cent, under actual sales. Tho increase in the gross public debt in tho past 18 years was £32,108,184, or £l4 per head of European population. At tho same time the increase in public and private wealth was £llß per head. The increase in value of railways and equipment was £13,844,058, and the increased investment supplied to advances to settlers, land for settlement, State coal mines, and loans to local bodies, etc., amounted to £22,949,970, making a total of £36,794,028, all directly reproductive, and carrying more than the interest paid, so that tho whole _of increased debt since 1891 was earning more than the additional interest paid. During the past 18 years tho European population had increased by 326,584, equal to 51 per cent. The total private wealth alone in tho Dominion was estimated at the huge sum of £507,969,333, and public and private wealth, at a moderate estimate, is computed at £600,000,000. The increase in annual incomes returned for taxation in fifteen years was over £10,000,000. For every £1,000,000 of public expenditure during the past 18 years tho wealth largely resulting therefrom had increased more than £8,000,000. This would in commercial circles be considered sound business. Tlw population had not increased as rapidly as wealth and incomes. While taxation, taken as a total collection, had increased, wealth and income had increased at a very much greater rate, thus providing means of easy payment of any taxation which levied at the old rate, has owing to the increased wealth, increased in amount. The total interest paid on tho public debt in 1891 was £1,660,237, equal to £2 13s 6d per head of the European population, and tho percentage of revenue absorbed by the public debt charged was 39.45 per cent In 1908 tho total interest paid on the public debt was £2,187,419, equal to £2 7s 3d per head of the European population, and tho percentage of revenue absorbed by tho public debt charged was 24.15 per cent, a reduction in tho rate of interest paid per head of population of 6s 3d. equal to 11 per cent-., and a reduction of the percentage of revenue (absorbed by the public debt charged of 15.30 per cent. “Let these facts and figures," added Dr Findlay, “answer the repeated mis-statement that this country is groaning under a crushing burden of public debt. Surely the increase of debt, which not only pays itself, but has helped to enrich thousands of our people, is not a national disaster. Surely people so enriched can scarcely complain that the growth of their wealth calls, at the old rate of levy, for a little larger payment in the shape of direct taxation. Most of the 590,352 people in New Zealand who have not sufficient land or income to call for taxation, wish, I doubt not, that they had the same cause for complaint.’ ’