566 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



Government reproductive works — such as railways — are not 

 expected to do this at first, especially when their construction 

 is made in advance of'population, but the immense adv^antages 

 thereby accruing are reaped by the people who are not only 

 able and ready to pay, but as a matter of fact do pay, the 

 annual deficiencies as they arise, either by direct or indirect 

 taxation, and not, as is sometimes the case, by charging them 

 to the capital account. 



A considerable portion of every sum lent to these colonies, 

 moreover, finds its way back almost immediately — being 

 converted into stock and material of British manufacture for 

 the construction of the works for which borrowed, and thus 

 not only stimulates the industry and trade of the United 

 Kingdom itself, but at the same time tends to more closely 

 cement the commercial and social interests of the British 

 Empire. This is an important factor at the present time, 

 seeing that certain foreign powers are striving hard to divert 

 the current of British Colonial trade into other channels. 

 Such loans also stimulate industry in the colonies themselves, 

 not only by assisting to develop undertakings already started, 

 but also by opening up new fields of enterprise, and by 

 affording immediate occupation to the numerous immi- 

 grants who flock to their shores, and have not yet settled into 

 suitable and permanent occupations. AVithout such assistance 

 private enterprise alone in the earlier days of a colony's history 

 would make but sIoav progress — hampered as it always is 

 by the numerous obstacles incident to colonisation. 



Still the borrowing should be devoted as far as possible to 

 necessary reproductive works, and well regulated in order to 

 absorb no more employes than could be continuously engaged. 

 Otherwise it would have the pernicious effect of alternately 

 depleting and inundating the ranks of those following the 

 more settled occupations, resulting in undue competition or 

 fluctuations in the labour market, and so unsettling and 

 demoralising the working classes of the community. 



The purposes for which the Australian debt at "the end of 

 1890 was borrowed, together with the amounts under each 

 head, are as follow : — 



