The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated tho West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28th, 1925. A TIME FOR SELF-RELIANCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in corporated tho West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28th, 1925. A TIME FOR SELF-RELIANCE.

Thk world situation, no less than the set of cireiunstaih es governing the course of events in New Zealand Imposes on all countries just now a careful consideration of the financial position and the general outlook. Money is growing dearer, because trade prospects are adverse, both within and without the country. The late embargo, at Home against colonial loans was a kind of warning of what was to come, and though the embargo was lifted, money is not plentiful, and the condition of the money market abroad from a borrowing point of view, is stringent, and in a state which keeps those inclined oil' the market. ; Xew Zealand must lie feeling the pinch because there is the effort to raise more money locally, while even State lending departments are raising the rate of interest. The Government, too. is curtailing general expenditure very considerably. Although Parliament in the dying session voted large sums for public works, authorities for expenditure are not materialising. The scarcity of funds ha.s caused instructions to he issued that only public I works deemed to lie of an urgent, character may be authorised. This stringency will tie making itself fell very shortly, Wau.se with lack of trade in industries such as mining and milling, there will W a degree of unemployment which must he met hv some moans. Tho prices for the staple products of the country are falling, and the prospects to follow by a decreased

inflow of capital, is having a disquieting effect. Traders are being advised on all sides to import less to save an adverse trade balance and so secure a better rate of monetary exchange. It is serious that wool, meat and dairy products should be in decline at the same time. It is an unfortunate

coincidence that all should suffer at the one time. But it is an example of trading which no country can escape, and which cannot be anticipated to the extent of readily combating. Trade is a matter of supnly and demand. and no amount of control can be made superior to the infallible effect following the operations of the great '-rime law of supply and demand. Still, fluctuations in trade are inevitable! Seasons and other causes beyond control, apcount for the variation, But

it is not the end of things. New Zealand is too fine a country to believe that its future is imperilled by a variation in trade. The country is as good as ever. Tts progress in eighty years since white people came hero, has been altogether remarkable. Hopes may be endangered, but hope must not be lost. It is as good and great a country as ever. The same spirit of the past should suffice to retrieve any temporary set back in prices. The spirit of the pioneers who laid the foundations on which New Zealand has attained eminence, must have been indomitable, and that spirit should be emulated. The present is a time for self-reliance and perseverance, and all will be well as of yore. There were dark days in the past. Trading had its set-hack, and even soup kitchens were rife about tlie land. Those times we should say are gone for ever. Hut there must be co-operation in making the liest of things as they are, and of meeting a .stringency with adequate effort, even to self-denial by relying more and more on our own good works. Courage and confidence will tide over the worst of difficulties, and our problems are not so serious that with those two cardinal virtues, we can fear defeat.