The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1890

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 54, 23 October 1890, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1890

Colonial Stocks If there is one thing which people dislike more than another it is to have a pet delusion swept away by a flood 'of light. Many people in the Australasian colonies haye lately undergone that unpleasant experbmce by the exposures which have been made, owing to the Westgarth fiasco, of the ways in which colonial loan stocks have been manipulated. When colonists, who watched the London exchange quotations, saw the fluctuations in the share market their spirits became elevated with the rise of stocks and depressed with their fall. In fact a sympathetic bond of union seemed to couuect them for all the miles they were apart. It is almost a pity the oolonists have now learned that such a bond was purely imaginary, and that in point of hard and unpleasant fact, it did not matter to them tbe breaking of an air bubble on a tidal wave, if the stocks went down to zero, or rose high into the realms of cent per cent above par. As far as their stocks are actually concerned the commercial credit of the colonies is not affected to the value of a single farthing by transactions on the Stock Exchange. This knowledge, although humiliating, perhaps, in one way, is gratifying in another. Our selfesteem, truly, is wounded because we no longer believe that it is our virtues as enterprising and trustworthy colonists, which are receiving recognition when our stocks are quoted as going up in the market ; or that we are being condemned when stock goes down, because we have made Mr Smith, tbe Liberal, premier, instead of Mr Smy the, the Conservative. For our sins— we suppose — we know now that the Artful Dodgers, gathered together as syndicates, have worked their point successfully, or have failed to do so, when these fluctuations occur. The colonists are not even thought of. This is a bitter experience, but we sincerely believe good will come of it. The colonies will be inoculated with a wholesome dislike for borrowing and therefore colonial loans on the English market will become the rule instead of the exception. We have not the slightest sympathy with the " brokers " who have bei n ruined. They rode for a fall and they got it. They were the authors of their own misfortunes, and as far as the welfare of the colonists is concerned, their weal or woe was, and is, only valued <4 on Change" by the effect either might have on the " bulls or the bears."