d that can be said of the public
works policy, its good deeds still outweigh its evil. It is true that
between 1870 and 1898 the public debt has been multiplied six times;
but the white population has nearly tripled, the exports have more
than doubled, and the imports increased by 75 per cent. Moreover, of
the exports at the time when the public works policy was initiated,
about half were represented by gold, which now represents but a tenth
of the Colony's exports. Again, the product of the workshops and
factories of the Colony are now estimated at above ten millions
annually, most of which is consumed in New Zealand, and therefore does
not figure in the exports. The income of the bread-winners in the
Colony and the wealth of the people per head, are now nearly the
highest in the world. In 1870 the colonists were without the
conveniences and in many cases comforts of modern civilization. They
had scarcely any railways, few telegraphs, insufficient roads, bridges
and harbours. Education was not universal, and the want of recreation
and human society was so great as to lead notoriously to drunkenness
and course debauchery. New Zealand is now a pleasant and highly
civilized country. That she has become so in the last thirty years is
due chiefly to the much-criticised public works policy.

Before parting with the subject of finance, it should be noted that in
1870 the Treasury was glad to borrow at slightly over five per cent.
Now it can borrow at three. The fall in the rate of private loans has
been even more remarkable. Mortgagors can now borrow at five per cent.
who in 1870 might have had to pay nine. This steady fall in interest,
coupled with the generally reproductive nature of the public works
expenditure, should not be overlooked by those who are appalled by the
magnitude of the colonial debts. For the rest, there is no repudiation
party in New Zealand, nor is there likely to be any. The growth of
the Colony's debt is not a matter which need give its creditors the
slightest uneasiness, though no doubt it is something which the New
Zealand taxpayers themselves should and will watch with the greatest
care. It is quite possible that some special check will ultimately be
adopted by these to ensure peculiar caution and delay in dealing with
Parliamentary Loan Bills. It may be that some application of the
"referendum" may, in this particular instance, be found advisable,
inasmuch as the Upper House of the New Zealand Parl