But nothing more has been proposed ;than fikas the 'Government should establish' an %ency for "enabling indi viduals in* New" Zealand to borrow from individuals in the United Kingdom. For the ample consideration of one per cent on the amount of each advance the integrity of the capital would receive the guarantee of the Colony as satisfactory evi

dence of the exercise of the necessary care in obtaining a sufficient security. If,.repeating what we have pointed out on previous occasions, the Government can own and manage railways and telegraphs with pro fit and satisfaction to tho public, and can successfully conduct the biisiness of a Savings Bank and of a life insurance office, it does seem absurd to contend that the Go vernment is incapable of the conduct of an agency through which a person here can obtain a loan on mortgage from another person in London. Money which in this way an individual in the Colony, who possesses the necessary freehold security may directly borrow from an individual in England as the capital may bo required is I not likely to be wasted. The capital would be at the disposal, not of the Government, but of the person whose private property is the pledge that the money will riot be squandered, who would have the most powerful incentives to an economical and profitable expenditure, who would alone suffer all the consequences of extrava gance. Much might in truth be written to show that the beneficial result' to a] pro perty itself of the application of capital is greater when the rate of interest is low than when the rate of interest is high. For the amount which the property'would have to yield in order to pay a high rate of interest would have the natural tendency of restricting the freeholder to the, em ployment of too small an amount of .capi tal for the result required from the land ; or, to express the position differently, of lead ing him to expect from the land more, than in the condition of its fertility it is capable of fairly producing. Tho borrower would consequently become harassed into : .', the adoption of expedients paralysing to his physical efforts, and destructive of the patience so necessary in the pilgrimage to prosperity. 