The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, July 31, 1888. WHAT OTHERS THINK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 176, 31 July 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, July 31, 1888. WHAT OTHERS THINK.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

Much has of late been heard of those newspapers whose sole aim and existence, according to some minds, seems to be to decry New Zealand finances, and these journals have been continuously and vigorously denounced as “ slanderers.” Everyone heartily wishes these criticisms could be truthfully denounced as slanders, but unfortunately there is a grain too much of truth in them to admit of the criticisms being passed over. Some of the newspaper comments which the telegraph agents always head off as “ slanders" are now to hand, and their unbiassed consideration proves that what has been stated is

not lacking of truth. “Itis no longer'a secret,” the Financial News says, “ even to the most purblind of British investors, that New Zealand has about reached the end of her financial tether. Her politicians have given up trying to make any secret of the fact. Every newspaper published in the colony furnishes proof of it more or less candid. Commercial houses in London trading with New Zealand get fresh evidence of it by every mail.” The News points out that the Agent-General’s figures ought to have been sufficient to damn the loan. “ The Agent-General’s memorandum, instead of furnishing reasons for subscribing the loan, bristles with warnings to let New Zealand loans, new and old, severely alone. Appended to it is a tabulated display of statistics to illustrate the recent progress of New Zealand in population and in wealth. The second item in this strange table is a valuation of the whole real and personal property in the colony in 1882 and in iBB7. In that period it is said to have risen from £15 1,000,000 to /179,000,000. ; Like all such official valuations, this is, of course, mere guesswork ; but take it as accurate and what does it prove ? Simply this, that on March 31 last, the ‘public debt of of the colony amounted to one- fifth of the total value of its real and personal property.” Hence, taking into account the local and municipal debts and private mortgages, the Financial News contends that, “ If the worst came to the worst, the /179,000,000 of real and personal property, so far as it is not actually in the hands of the Government, would be no security at all for the due to the bondholders,” Let these statements be carefully weighed before we fall in with the sophistry of blind politicians. One fact must be plain, that New Zealand has about got to the end of her financial tether.