the money publicly borrowed by the Colony has been very well spent.  No doubt the annual distribution of large sums through the Lands and Public Works departments year after year have had disagreeable effects on public life.  In every Parliament certain members are to be pointed out—­usually from half-settled districts—­who hang on to the Ministry’s skirts for what they can get for their electorates.  The jesting lines at the head of this chapter advert to these.  But they must not be taken too seriously.  It would be better if the purposes for which votes of borrowed money are designed were scrutinized by a board of experts, or at least a strong committee of members.  It would be better still if loans had to be specially authorized by the taxpayers.  But when the worst is said 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 Parliament, active as it is in checking general legislation, may not amend, and in practice does not reject, loan bills.