Now, it was very wrong iv Mr Froude to put in his book what the " random gentleman " said to him at Auckland. He ought not to have re peated it. The information was of a private, family nature—such as is frequently discussed among ourselves, but not meant to bo authorita tively published. But as it has been made public it is as well that we should face it, and I fear it is only too true that for the past year or two we could not pay our interest if we stopped. borrowing—that is, without largely increased taxation ; and hence that we have been paying interest more or less out of loan. Further, i assert that for the past year or two all our loan moneys have been spent on works which do not pay the interest incurred, and therefore that we have not only been defraying our interest parti a ly out of loan, but that we ara doing this more and more every time we borrow. This is the real reason why we dread an entire suspension of borrowing. All that we hear about stopping the progress of the colony, standing still, the absolute necessity of railway extension, and such like is pure fudge; and what is more, we all know it.
