428 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION F. 



over again ; yet this is the way the statements relating to the 

 whole of Australia are generally made up ; and are afterwards 

 quoted without qualification in the United Kingdom and other 

 countries, which gives a misleading and exaggerated view of our 

 external commer-ce. I am of opinion that Australia can well 

 afford to stand or fall by her own merits, and that she does not 

 require to swell any statistical results in order to make her appear 

 to possess more importance than slie really does. 



Until recently a practice prevailed in some of the colonies of 

 swelling their returns of shipping by counting the vessels afresh 

 at every port they called at within the colony. More than one of 

 the colonies referred to have, I know, changed their system, and 

 now properly give the number and tonnage of vessels only at the 

 first port of entry, and the latest port of clearance ; but I cannot 

 be sure that the practice of multiplying the shipping returns in 

 the manner referred to, does not still exist in some of the colonies. 

 If it does continue to exist, the sooner it is altered the better. 



Very varied results are arrived at by those who attempt to 

 ascertain the actual rate of interest we ai'e paying for our borrowed 

 moneys. To compute this correctly it is necessary — besides the 

 nominal rate of interest at which the loan is floated, and the period 

 it has to run — to take into account the expenses, including those 

 of floating the loan and remitting the proceeds to the colony ; 

 then there is the allowance whioh has to be made for interest 

 which may have accrued at the time of floating ; and there is the 

 difierence between the amount received and the amount to be 

 repaid, crediting the colony with interest over the whole period 

 on that difierence, if the loan was floated at a premium ; or, on 

 the oth^r hand, debiting tlie colony with the annual sum which 

 would have to be paid if a sinking fund were created to make 

 good the deficiency, should the loan be floated at a discount. From 

 some particulars respecting the latest New South Wales loan 

 (floated in June of the present year) which have reached me, it 

 appears that it has been raised at a lower rate of interest than 

 any other Australian loan ever floated, the actual rate being only 

 about <£3 9s. Od. per £100 borrowed ; but it is far from generally 

 known that the most successful New South Wales loan pi-eviously 

 floated was a four per cent, loan — that of 1881 — the actual interest 

 on which, per £100 bori'owed, was only £3 18s. 4d., as against 

 £3 18s. lid. for the three and a-half per cent, loan of 1884, 

 £4 Is. 3d. for that of 1885, and £3 18s. Od. for that of 1886. More 

 successful than any of these four loans, was the Victorian four 

 per cent, loan of 1886, the actual rate of interest, on which was 

 no more than £3 15s. 5d. per £100, also that of January 1888, 

 the actual rate of interest on which was only £3 12s. 9d. The 

 latter of these, until the most recent New South Wales loan was 

 floated, was undoubtedly the most successful loan ever raised in 

 Australasia. 



