CORRESPONDENCE.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 149, 2 June 1885, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

<»- [We are not responsible for the opinions of our correspondents.]

FEEETEADE AND PKOTECTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAB. Sir. — I notice that in your issue of Thursday last you take exception to criticism of the Christchurch Press upon a lecture delivered by Mr John Holmes of Christchurch "on the best means of supplying the working men' of New Zealand with employment," in which Mr Holmes gave utterance to the fallacious doctrine that " the more the exports of a nation exceed its imports the greater is the measure of. prosperity which that nation must ho enjoying," the very opposite of which is the fact. The case put by the Christchurch Press of a tradesman exporting goods of a certain value and importing goods of a less value as payment is perfectly applicable in showing the absurdity of Mr Holmes dictum for there is nothing in that dictum to show that Mr Holmes re-? cognized the fact that an excess of exports over imports represents the! indebtedness of the exporting nation to the nation from which it purchased, the imported goods, and if he had recognized the fact it would at once have shown the weakness of his argument. One of the main principles in international trading is the well-known fact that balances due from one country to . another are paid in goods and not "in hard cash" as you state. Payment 'of such balances in specie would be ab- . soiutely impracticable, for no country can or does retain more specie tham is necessary for its ordinary home circulation. As evidence of this the excess of imports over exports in England for the years 1877 and 1878 amounted to one hundred and fortynine million pounds sterling, the payment of which in specie would (it is estimated) have nearly, if not quite, exhausted all the precious metals in the country, including " articles of ornament or utility from a golden tankark to a silver pencil case," yet these enormous balances were settled without the slightest encroachment upon the ordinary circulation of the country. The old delusive theories respecting"the balance of trade" have been long, since exploded and it is an incontrovertible fact that an excess of exports over imports represents the poverty of a nation whereas an excess of imports over exports represents the wealth of a nation. The prosperity of a nation is evidenced by the amount of its foreign trade and as protection inevitably curtails foreign trade it hinders the prosperity of a nation which adopts it. — 1 am, &c, Samuel Goobbehere. Feilding, Ist June, 1885.