339 



abundant and cheap in England, and especially capital and labour (not the 

 one without the other) to the new and more extended field. Taking advantage 

 of the abundance of mere money capital in England, Victoria borrowed 

 £7,000,000 out of the £8,000,000 destined for railway purposes^ in the London 

 money market. Practically, what Victoria proposed to the English capitalists 

 was this : " You can barely obtain 4 per cent, for your money, and that often 

 on qiiestionable security ; 'the elegant simplicity of the three per cents.' only 

 affords you about Z^ per cent. ; but money is worth to us about 8 per cent. 

 Let us then divide the advantage ; we offer you 6 per cent, for your money, 

 by which we shall save 2 per cent., and you will gain 2 per cent." So well 

 did the English capitalists think of this proposal, that they gave for the 

 £7,000,000 a profit, in the shape of premium, amounting to £385,000. 

 Now, in exporting our securities to England, Avhere mere money capital is 

 constantly accumulating and outgrowing the means of profitable investment, 

 what rea-son is there to suppose (provided the money market be judiciously 

 fed), that the results will be otherwise in principle, if not in degree, to that 

 exhibited by the Victorian loan ? I believe that the public in England have a 

 very vivid, and I may add a just, impression of the great natural resources of 

 New Zealand. The integrity of our public men is beyond question. Why, 

 then, should we not anticipate that, as we the borrowers want lenders, and 

 as they the lenders are equally on the alert to find good borrowers, we shall 

 secure some profit on our securities, if a favourable condition of the money 

 market be chosen, though it would be undoubtedly rash to attempt to anticipate 

 the figure or pei'-centage % 



I now desire your attention to that which I consider the most important 

 economical result of all means of cheajD transport, and especially of rtiilways, as 

 exhibited conspicuously by those of Victoria. All that I am about to point 

 out to you is equally true of coiumon roads ; but when we spend a sum of 

 money on a Macadamized road, it becomes quite impossible to keep the sort of 

 account which I am about to present to you.* To enable you to appreciate 

 the change which has been brought about, T must carry you back to what, 

 considering the rapid march of the colonies, I Avill take leave to call ancient 

 times. When gold was first discovered in Victoria — not quite twenty years 

 ago — the country was without roads, and was too poor to make them. The 

 population was 71,000, spread over a country without inland towns and with- 

 out much internal trade. As miners, or rather diggers (for mining, proper, 

 did not at first exist), seated themselves where gold was most abundant, the 

 towns of Ballaarat, Castlemaine, Sandhurst, Maryborough, and some few others 



* In the ten years ending 1861, Victoria expended upwards of £5,000,000 on roads 

 and bridges. Cartage was reduced from the fabuloiis rates mentioned in the text, to 

 some £6 or £8 per ton. The capital expended was equal to a perpetual annuity of £3000 

 a-year ; the gain was perhaps four or five times that amount. 



