Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1883. The Commercial Depression.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 13, 10 July 1883, Page 2

Feilding Star. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1883. The Commercial Depression.

«. Tn our last issue we promised to continue the :ibove subject. We left off by pointing out the evils suffered by the wages man A, and now resume by considering the position of the master B, who may say that he cannot pay cash to bis workmen because he does not get it from his customers No doubt it is easy to have the direct connection between the foolish and almost criminal practice of well-to-do people running long; bills with tradesmen and contractors, with the habit of plunging into debt, and the almost entire absence of thrift, both of which are bo prevalent amongst the wage-earning; classes. The effect of such a s\stem is that men are encouraged to borrow instead of to economise, to anticipate the income of next month instead of spreading out the earnings ot this, and *to reason within th<aaselves that, so long as everybody got-.* on pleasantly in this fool's paradise o* credit, self-denial and self-restraint are qualities both unnecessary and irksome. Daily toil goes on without interruption, and everyone seems busy yet"the money does not circulate; and though, as the Colonial Treasurer remarks, we are producing enough to pay our debts, live comfortably, and gradually accumulate capital, there is not one man in fifty who can say that he is doing any one of these three most desirable things Jt id all very well to talk of amending the law of bankruptcy, and of making it more difficult for persons to obtain uouds on credit, or to escepe payment after they get them. It is also extremely easy to moralise, in a copy-book heading style, upon there being no royal road to a remedy for depression, and on such remedy being in our own hands. It sounds remarkably well, in the abstract, to say, as Major Atkixsov observes in his last budget, that, while on the one hand we are impatient of self'denial and self-restraint, on the other hand there are indications that we intend to live within our means both publicly and privately. The ultimate causes ol commercial depression can no doubt be ascertained from a standard work on political economy wi'b as much ease as a schoolboy can work an equation by the aid of his manual ot algebra. But at. individuals we must first of all ask ourselves whether there is not something wrong in the .-ystem ofeveryday transactions amongst us, and whether there are not uiitny practices in commercial life which we indulge in from want of thought, but which all go to make up the sum total ot our pres» at depression Until we have established, in the little natteri>of buying and selling that take place every day, a healthier tone and practice, it is idle to prate of first principles, or to cry out to the legi-da* lure to help us.