The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1896. A HAPPY COUNTRY.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 141, 14 December 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1896. A HAPPY COUNTRY.

, Although it has been said that New Zealand is leading the world in all j matters concerning progressive legislation, yet there are some English - speaking countries where old fashioned common sense still exists, and where the people are prosperous without being ambitiously progressive. We are told by the Ameri- • can correspondent of the Dunediu ) Star that the Canadian people have ' no unsettled financial issues arising ever and anon to weaken public con- . fidence, disturb commerce, and destroy ' trade Their monetary system is placed beyond the range of argument * or political action. Their general r laws governing money, the basic ideas of sound financing, and the principles 5 of safe bnakiog are jelegated to the ' domain of geientiffic accuracy, They do not even make their own money. Tt is coined for them at the British mint. Their fractional currency consists of silver, the highest coin being half a dollar. They put a little less » silver in their subsidiary coin than we do, their ratio between gold and silver being 1 4*70; while our ratio for frac- . tional currency is 14 98. Banking ia C«a*dft w regsrcied just as aeceasarr a ' feature of business as the manufacture and salfl of goods. The general regulation of banks are left to themselves, |* just as the general regulations of tho jaercaotile business afe-^eft to the

merchants. Except in so far as the banks issue paper money and invite the deposit of the money of other people, they are held to a atrict acbountability to the Government. There is no body of people in Canada who imagine that it would be a good thing in the interest of the people to suppress all the banks, issue paper money from the General government sub- treasuries directly to the peoplfi, and that the people be given the privilege of taking their silver to the mints to be coined at an arbitrary ratio free of co3t, and the same made legal tender for all debts, public and private. The Canadians are looking over the border with amazement that so many Americans, usually sensible and shrewd traders, can be hoodwinked into the belief that any number of short weight dollars will bring national prosperity or beof any advantage to the indvidual.