The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1884 Colonial Growth

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 60, 30 October 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1884 Colonial Growth

— — . Befoee a young Colony can attain a prosperous and permanent commeroial footing, it is necessary that it should pass through the several stages of growth that all other countries have undergone, and it is in these stagethat it will succumb or come out triumphant. . When suffering from a temporary depression people are. apt

to look in too gloomy a light on the matter. They connot realize that things wiU grow better, and do not comprehend that it is necessary for a country, as for an individual, to wallbefore it can run. The foundation of any nations prosperity is its wealth. Wealth both pecuniary and otherwise, but chiefly the former. The conditions i under which it is distributed certainly go far towards altering the results it produces, but upon a nations money generally depends the completeness of its success. In the past New Zealand has suffered from no lack of money. The State coffers have been enriched and replenished from time to time by loan after loan, borrowed from, our wealthier friends in England. But such wealtlris short-lived, being only raised to spend again at once on some works or other, and it is when' these sums are exhausted that the cry is heard complaining of hard times' anddepression. The temporary spurt that the expenditure of a large sum of money has' given the Colony so. .Gxhilerates the short-sighted that the stagnation which is bound to follow the brisk; times takes -them by surprise and quite disappoints and saddens' them. The country is then blamed, | and old stagers shake their heads and groan because the times are not what they used to be. To anyone who will look properly at the state of New Zealand, it is very plain that the' times of permanent prosperity havo not yet come to ns at all, and are, in fact, not yet to be expected, although there may be a slight indication visible that the day of commercial firmness is quietly but steadily breaking upon us. Since money is the chief cause or necessity, let us trace the way in which local capital has been worked in this Colony. During the first years of its settlement, no investment other than land was known or even thought of. That is to say, the owners of capital employed it by purchasing land. Then by degrees came tho time when some people had more money than they required to work the land with, and were willing to lend it at interest on security of other freehold property. And in this way we find tho bulk of our money being invested up to a few years ago. So far, then, we have no chance of superfluous capital being employed in industries of any sort because no one cares to venture in- them whilst laude*d securities are to be obtained. The consequence is that the country does not become opened up, and there is little or no demand for labor. Tradesmen who have come here carry on , their trades in an Independant sort of manner, and those who have no trade are busy at times and idle at others. But supposing the landed securities (are aU or nearly all sopped up, what is then to become of money that is seeking investment? Men will be compelled to make, -investment by working their capital in some industries or manufactures. The establishment of these wiU have manifold good effects on the country. It will employ capital that would otherwise be idle ; it will find work for men and women who would otherwise have nothing to 'do ; it will open- up the country by jconsuming its various natural projducts and turning them into money ; land,,, best of all, the money .received m. ' jefcehange for the "goods -^exported will ' |be foreign money, and every penny of . -it will he a clear bonus or profit to jthe country. These are the stages of [permanent prosperity that New Zealand must ultimately reach, but the first in that direction must be the 'absence of landed securities for the investment oif capital. While theße are existing there can be no hope that (capitalists will invest, their money in any otfeer way. When they cease to exist, those who- have money seeking investment will 'be compelled to accept some commercial investment. It is to those times that we. must look to see the Colony in a permanent -state !of prosperity, and not until they come ! about can it be expected that our present mode of commercial. existence jwill be changed into a permanent and s stable, one,' .' "". '