THOUGHTS OF THE TIMES.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1931, Page 4

THOUGHTS OF THE TIMES.

AY HEX HISTORY REPEATS. Macaulay described the effects of cuirency debasement, a method of inflation adopted in Tudor and Stuart Limes, m uie passage that follows. The words ar e as applicable to inflation in New Zealand to-day as they are to currency depreciation in Britain three or iour centuries ago: “If may well be doubted whether all the misery which had been inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century by bad kings, bad ministers, bad Parliaments and bad judges was equal to the misery caused by bad crowns and bad shillings. Those events which furnish the best themes for pathetic or indignant eloquence are not always those which most effect the happiness of the great body of the people. . • • AVhile the honour and independence of the state were sold to a foreign power, while chartered rights were invaded, while fundamental laws were violated, hundreds of thousands of quiet, honest and industrious families laboured and traded, ate their meals, and lay down to rest, ill comfort and security. But when the great instrument of exchange became thoroughly deranged all trade, aTI Industry, were smitten as with a palsy. The evil was felt daily, and hourly in almost every ulace and by almost every class, iu the dairy and on the threshing floor, by the anvil and by the loom, on the billows of the ocean and in the depths of the mine. . . . • Ihe price of the necessaries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The labourer found that the bit of metal which, when he received it. was called a shilling, would hardly, when be wanted to purchase a [jot of beer or a loaf of bread, go as far as a sixpence.”