The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 66
Public Debt
Public Debt.
The total public debt of the colony on the 31st December, 1884, amounted to £32,860,982; the total annual charge upon which was £1,570,403, part of this sum, namely, £119,052, being a payment to the sinking fund. The amount to the accrued sinking fund, at the same date, was £2,983,403.
The estimated mean population for the year 1881 was 564,304. This is inclusive of about 5,000 Chinese, but exclusive of 44,097 Maoris. The latter contribute largely to the revenue through the Customs, and many of them are wealthy. For the present purpose, therefore, they may very properly be included in the general total, which thus amounted to 608,401. These data give a total debt of £54 per head, and an annual charge of £2 12s. 9d. per head of population; but the amount of the accrued sinking fund, £2,983,403, in reality reduced the public debt to £29,877,579, and therefore the rate per head is proportionately lessened to £49 2s. 4d. per head. It has, however, been very justly remarked that the pressure of a public debt on a community is not to be estimated by the simple process of counting heads, but that it is to be more correctly ascertained by inquiry into the earnings and conditions of the population. Consideration must also be given to the fact that a large proportion of the debt of New Zealand exists in the form of reproductive works already, in some instances, returning a fair interest on the outlay.