"Puff'on the Depression.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 31, 24 August 1886, Page 3

"Puff'on the Depression.

ComtfeerciaT reports very eatisfactory 1. 'Wool still rising J TaUow and* leather looking well! Only' frozen meat depressed, and that's not particularly bad ! ' Besides, freigktß are being redaced^wMch is.. equivalent to « rise iff jJriceP 1.; ■ - .; ' How is it, -with allthifcimproveni^it in the markets for .our 'pfoaiibej -tfi«t things are stM so bad in tWcoloaies ? Are they so reiy bad«?-' aYes, tha^b*y-are ! ! The rgyenue's falling terribly! -Business is as flat as a pan«ak» ! There's a cry of want of •aployinent, North South, East and Wast I -What, more/ 1 heaT that many folks whore managed to hold, on through* all the hard times are looking uncomonly blue just now ! ' The rise iv the price of staples has not hegua to be generally felt yet! It tal^js a good long time before it #et« s^aky people on their legs," and in themeantiwie it makes things appear worsathau ever ! • don't we how that can be ! ; .in this'WAjrt The first to discern % contiag retiral we the large £nana£^ Oompauies, who have money •ut upon all sorts of properties and investments, and the first thing they 4© is to put *n the screw !, Then, at that rate it's a good sign when we hear of people'being sold up who've been holding on. for years ! I think it is, decidedly ! It shows that mortgagees, who saw no chance of realising before and therefore left the nominal owners undisturbed^ now think it* worth while to take possessi( ien! - ■•.•■.■•• They are speculating for a rise in , fact! ' . - : " - ". Just so ! The present state of things ia New: Zealand reminds me- forcibly «f |869 and 1370, when the times had been feaifuily bad^ ; iajid^when any niutbejir of owners who'd been jogging

along in a broken-down sort of fashion for years were shut up like a shot, «nly to find that if they could have hung on for a few months longer they'd have been rich men ! Ah, yee, I recollect! There was one Bank which resolved to shut up all its debtors who could pay 10s in •; the £{oi what thoy owed.it, aud let • the re^t rip!.' It: did go and the rise '.. came immediately afterwards, and to «my : knowledge oue of 4 those who'd been" let rip. because he "could'n't pay a stiver, died a few years later worth £120,000! '". Aye, andjther&'ll be plenty of similar cases again before long ! You see if there ai©« not I don't think' the outlook is half so bad as they Bay !