The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1891. False Alarms

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 53, 31 October 1891, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1891. False Alarms

4 Beoattse there is a draw upou the resources of English capitalists and in consequence a certain amount; oi money, said to be . two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, has been, or is to be, withdrawn from New Zealand, we are told, by the Sydney Morning Herald' that this is another serious warning of the probable results of turbulent politics in the colonies. Out contemporary has the same grounds for this opinion as the man who said the building of the Tenterden Steeple was the cause of the formation of the Goodwin Sands. As far as New Zealand and the Australian colonies are concerned, we believe the influence any political actions of theim have in the English money market to be remarkably insignificant. Where the real trouble is to be looked for is not in these really prosperous islands, but in the labor, troubles in England, the difficulties of Irish politics, the ruinous lossob inflicted on English capitalists by the Chilian rebellion, the infamous McKenley Tariff and the silver currency dispute in America, the uneasiness created in the minds of men by the probable outbreak of war among. the. Great Powers of Europe, and of possible complications with the Chinese Empire. All of these, and more exciting causes of which we can know nothing here, have each been affecting to a greater or lesser degree the great money question., Admitting this, it is the purest and simplest alarmist nonsense to pretend that the silly party politics of our little colonies can exercise the baneful influences ascribed to them. Why; the infinite smallness of colonial politics has made them contemptible to even a respectable total of thinking men, who live in the midst of the " turbulence, " and it ia nonsense to say that men concerned in the affairs of the great European world give more than a passing thought to what is done here. For example, when the Terawera eruption took place at the Hot Lakes, we thought a good deal about it, and the whole of the North Island shook with the consequent earth tremors, but the rest of the world never felt it, while the English newspapers passed over the circumstance which seemed of such vast importance to us, with a three line paragraph. In fact they were just as much interested as we in New Zealand were when the volcanic outburst took place in the Straits of Sunda. It is true, no doubt, that when people's pockets are touched the feeling of interest becomes more intense, but in the greater troubles of European finance, the minor ones of the Australian colonies are very likely to be either absorbed or forgotten altogether. It must be remembered that all European telegraphic news reaches us after having filtered through the Australian paper?, and it is quite within the limits of probability that as our neighbours, are. far from friendly to New Zealand, intelligence of evil import is not likely to lose in magnitude when told by them. This animosity is, in too many instances, fostered and inspired by disappointed New Zealand politicians resident ia Australia.