A UNANIMOUS OPINION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11510, 17 February 1903, Page 7

A UNANIMOUS OPINION.

NO CAUSE FOR ALARM.

(Received February 17th, 1.15 a.m.) SYDNEY, Febnuuy 16. < The general consensus of the Press of Australia is that Mr Wilson's prediction of a financial crisis ia. unwarranted. The > conditions which produced the panic in 1893 ' sire altogether absent, There is no crisis ' ahead beyond the sudden and inevitable .- contraction in Government expenditure. ' * ' MELBOURNE, February 16... The Federal Treasurer does not think Mr Wilson's attack calls for official notice. Mr H. W. Wilson is the assistant-editor of the London "Doily Moil," and a a Beriea of articles in his journal, he-antici-pates an Australian crisis, exceeding that of 1893, arising from perpetual bornowing, the policy of hindering immigration and maintaining a fictitious wage-rate, and the drought. He estimates (hat eleven millions) will have been expended on anproduc-re works in the five years ending March, 1904. Retrenchment had been confined > to - national defences, and the indebtedness had been incurred in maintaining the worker in comfort and affluence, while the worker regarded a newcomer 'merely as a competitor for wages within his loan-main- , tamed paradise. Despite the deficits, ■ policy of relief works and old age pensions had been adopted. ' Australia ought to have grown ana developed like a giant, bat the birth-rate was steadily declining', sod loss by emigration in the last tw<s yeara had exceeded the gain by immigration. The Socialists had swayed the past policy, and were now seen to be steering Australia: to not distant or uncertain rain.