The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1893.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9969, 23 February 1893, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1893.

Eepsesentatives of the older portions of the civilised world have been meeting in conference at Brussels to discuss the rival claims oi monometallism and bimetallism. New Zealand, like the other Australasian Colonies, has been content to say nothing, happy, perhaps, under the impression that her commercial interests will not be Lrgely affected by any possible solution. But it may not be wise to continue this attitude of indifference. If thoOonferenceshould find a solution of the present difficult ies it will probably be a compromise, and in a compromise where large and small interests are concerned the chances are that the small interests will suffer. If it were certain that the question would be settled on broad principles, no one could complain. Bui there ia no such certainty. England, for instance, persistently sins against her own gulden rule, and reduces to apply any of the doctrines of Freetrude to j the currency. Proetrade ia gold is, |ia fact, impossible under existing j conditions. While silver has fallen i m value until a e lver coin with the j face value of one shilling contains silver worth only seven pence, gold j has appreciated 25 to ;’0 par cent, and its coinage entails a serious loss to the mint. In addition to this, the gold coinage has an excessive strain placed upon it in England by the abs-nca or a convenient note j circulation such as Scotland, Ir-land j and the Colonies enjoy. This is, of | course, due to the olu-fashioned ideas | embodied in the Ac's of Parliament I which regulate English banking. | These ideas have not extinguished j the more intelligent principlt-a of note j i'sue which originated ia Scotland, but they have greatly hampered the i operations of the commercial eomI muuity. It is by relieving gold of its present unnatural and unscientific j functions, imposed upon it by English j law, that the remedy can be obtained, i it is not by any means clear that the j English financial authorises are yet j fully aline to the difficulties of the ■ question, and iu the meantime the j position of India ia growing extremely j serious. The depreciation of the | rupee is a matter of Imperial concern, and wo who bavo attempted trade with indut can testify to the disadvantageous position in which shippers to that country are placed by the present rate of exchange. In England about tbs time of the Brussels Oonfeience, agriculturists were taking counsel over the depressed condition of British agriculture. The appreciation of gold and the depreciation of agricultural proj duce base pressed heavily on the farming communiiy. The farmers were more unanimous than the metailieiana at Brussels, but they faded, we think, to grasp the real solution of the currency difficulty. They declared for bimetallism, bub we fear that if bimetallism were adopted it would prove only a delusion. It must be remembered that whatever may be the circumstances of individuals, the farmers of England pay their rent, interest, charges and rates in gold, and they make these payments to their own countrymen, who spend the amounts in England. The same is true of the interest on the national debt and of the .£52,000,000 received annually as interest ou British investments in foreign and Colonial Government bonds, railway stocks and other securities. The nation benefits to this enormous extent by these payments in the appreciated metal. But New Zealand and other Colonies are in a less advantageous position 9 New Zealand’s debts are all loans foreign money, and besides the hardship suffered by our producers, iu consequence of depreciated values of produce, our annual remittances to England, public and private, representing the interest on a capital sum of about £62,000,000 have to be made in produce valued at the depreciated scale of the present time. As a country which has borrowed largely in proportion to our population of producers, and has to remit interest and charges ca’culated in an appreciated currency, it is a matter of considerable importance to us that the monetary question should be settled on a satisfactory basis.

We have referred to the inability of the Brussels Conference to come to anything like a conclusion. The interests of the several nations are, it seems, treated ms if they were naturally hostile. What the English representative proposes as suitable to England appears impossible for Ameiica and Europe, or even India; and what the American representative suggests as suitable to the United States would be impracticable in England. All the financiers in council admit the need for reform; some go further, apd prophesy additional troubles ahead. But none seem able to devise a remedy. Take, for instance, the case of France in the matter of savings banks’ deposits. The liability of the State to the depositors had at the end of 1891 to £144.000,000. Where, if a crisis were to occur in that country, would wold or even silver be found to meet a sudden demand ? Our own liabilities to our own savings batik depositors, and the liabilities of the Colonial banks to their depositors, are large enough in proportion to the available quantity of bullion and coin to make us tremble when we calmly sum up the nature of the security on which our solvency, like the no tional solvency of older countries,is based. In England in times of panic the State has more than once come to the rescue, suspended the Bank Act, and had recourse to heroic remedies directly opposed to what are usually accepted as sound principles of finance. When the danger was over the old ideas again prevailed, and international exchange went on in its old groove of privilege and prescription. Unless banking finance is freed, by the united

good sense of the commercial world from the artificial shackles which have bound it so long, conferences will, we are afraid, have no veisy salutary or lasting results. Gold and silver as measures of value are of service so long as their values are not variable. But to suppose that the euro for the present international exchange trouble is to be found in the establishment of a second protected metal is simply absurd. The precious metals cannot be deprived of their respective values, and if the face value of coined gold or silver varies much from ils bullion value, the gold or silver coin becomes at once no better than a counter, and a State guaranteed counter would be a safer medium of exchange.