The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4287, 22 November 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1876.

The gratifying intelligence of a rise in the { price of wool is significant ©f returning confidence in commercial circles in Europe. Many persons have been perplexed to account for the strange condition of the manufacturing populations at Home. Money has been so abundant that there was an absolute competition to obtain investments on undoubted securities, and lower rates of interest have ruled than have ever been known. But while there has been no difficulty in obtaining advances by those who could offer absolutely safe security, anything ordinarily considered safe was regarded with suspicion. As usual, distrust went too far, and added to the legitimate hesitancy that the unsettled state of affairs in Europe justified. The distrust was intensified because the causes that led to it multiplied. First, American affairs became deranged It was not merely that the enormous undertakings entered upon proved too greatastrainupSn their resources bUt the discl <«ures that were made of the corruption of leading meTL ?rr «? Wlt H aUwa y shook the confidence of capitalists and lid to the enormouscommercialfaaure* inthat country? Home eonn ? Cted the *^ scaSv re£ ,? e E SyP tia ? scarcely re e7ed by th 6 £ ttrtmase o{ ~««s Wanal shares; and almost immediately afterwards. Turkish repudiation kllowcch ibis was the precursor of that horrible war, the excesses of which have given rise to the indignant remonstrances of Britons throughout the Empire, When this aggregate of disturbing causes is considered) the surprise 16 that the World has suffered sd little in its commercial relations, not that the disturbance has been so great. It is sincerely to be hoped that a change has taken place fo* the better, aiid that the increased demand for wool is an indication that confidence is restotedj and that we are on the eve of another term of prosperity. It can hardly be said that affairs in Eastern Europe aje so far eted ftfe to render war impossible, although the evident acquiescence of Great Britain in Russian interference with Turkish doings gives reason to believe that the Governments of both countries remember the leSsbn taught them bjr the Crimean 1 war. At any rate a healthy change has taken place in the English mind in that respect; most probably the result of more thorough knowledge of the folly of attempting to prevent an imaginary evil by the introduction of a real one. There seems to be no casting off of old theories in the minds 0f a certain class of statesmen. Three-quarters of a century has elapsed since Napoleon Bonaparte, in his exaggerated verbiage, asserted that a nation holding Constantinople might become mistress of the world. It is difficult to understand how be airived at that conclusion even in those days, or what he really thought being " mistress of the world " meant. As he was a warrior and statesmen of high repute, his opinion has been received with too much respect regarding the strategical advantage of holding Censtantineple, and is even now looked upon by many as true, notwithstanding the more than counterbalancing inventions of steam, and railroads, and electric telegraphs. It was this traditional notion that led to the bolstering up of the Turkish Empire by Oreat Britain. Although statesmen have been slow to perceive the fallacy of the position so far as Great Britain is concerned, -foe people of England have learnt it, and. are at i as t becoming aroused to the ex P p ynsive folly of maintaining a barbarous DB «cien as a bulwark against a civilised power. It is not only damming back the tide of civilisation, but it is curtailing trade by perpetuating poverty in populations that, under wise and genial Governments, might bgcoma large

consumers of the produce of the looms and workshops of Britain. This has really been the result of England's policy. Old traditions still exerb too great an influence in political affairs at Home. Professedly keeping in view the extension of British commercial relations, the idea of getting rich by exclusion is not entirely cast off. Ine nation has not yet learnt to regard the richest peoples as the best and most jrrontable customers, and Until within the last few years W spent fifty times more money in Crippling rising countries and maintaining degraded on«s in bar ™ tll an the; profits on the monopoly or trade with poverty-stricken populations will amount to in one hundred years. We trust the change that is going on itfpuUjp sentiment in that respect will be permanlßt and wide-spreading. Under present arrangements of forwarding all our raw material to Ureat Britain, the Colonies are as deeply interested in the state of British commerce as our relatives at Home. The state of England s money market, dependent as itisupon rumors of war or peace, or the accidental amount of bullion in the Bank of England, affects all classes amongst us. We are deeply interested in the sale of woollens among tribes and nations unable to make them for themselves, nor can it be said that de* mand is satisfied until all nations of the earth are olad in comfort. However remote, therefore, from the scenes of the stirring events that .have taken plaoe in Europe during the past summer there, we in iNew Zealand are intimately interested in • em " , TiloU gb on the circumference of the circle of nations we are included in the area. We should be glad to see ourselves independent of them; and it should be steadily borne in mind that our mineral resources should make us so. We are now arranging machinery for the prosecution of manufac tures and commerce, and there is here an almost infinite amount of power lyingbeneathour feet. Couldit be developed, New Zealand would not only be independent of European complications, but would rival the parent country in commerce; and, being freed from the burden of its thousand mil lions wasted in war, hanging a dead weight upon its people, the Colony might pursue a career such as has no paralld in the world's history.