Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1891. The Depression.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 23 June 1891, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1891. The Depression.

That people are still leaving our shores, that trade is dull, is indisputable, though a Liberal Ministry ia in power. The Hon. E. Seddon, last January,' informed the House that the exodus had ceased after the general election ! He imagined that the mere fact of himself and his colleagues being entrusted with the Government was sufficient to create a labour boom. The last five months' returns show that the emigration is steadily increasing. Our politicians, who have the majority, vainly imagine that Bills and theories, will do more for the working man than capital, and whilst legislating, as for the poor man, they condemn him to poverty by attacking those who have money to spend. Trade is dull, north, south, east and west, yet money is plentiful. The farmers have had a better time than they have experienced for years past, yet no expenditure is taking place. The present Government is to be held answerable for this. A Napier Bank manager informed his client that there was plenty of money for all purposes, but that enterprise was damped, and all capitalists were afraid that taxation would be severe. Every past act of members of the Government confirm this assertion. The strike has been a lesson to capitalists, and the return of the party now in power is owing to their acquiesence in the demands of the labour organisations. One of the planks of that party was that no contract for foreign labour be imported into the colony, which read, in conjunction with other demands, meant really that no more assisted immigration should be allowed. Ihe demands of the labour party as to who they would work with, the conditions under which they would receive new members, the sum they valued their labour at, and the hours they thought sufficient for work, are such that it was folly to expect capital to be used in any undertaking dependant upon the large employment of labour. As if this was not enough, quite lately a new association has been formed, of which Sir Robert Stout is the President, and some of the members of the Ministry are members, the platform agreed upon being the ultimate absorption by the Government of the main industries now carried on by outside capital, by which arrangement the labourer, being in the majority, may dictate the wages to be paid to himself and the prices to be charged to purchasers. Such a happy state of affairs would naturally mean high wages and such an increased cost of the article produced as to prevent any competition in the markets of the world. We should become a body of people entirely closed in by self-erected barriers, and existing merely to feed and clothe one another. From a Southern contemporary we are able to reproduce the views held by different classes of settlers as to why a depression exists. ki ene fattnev pointedly put it to

us, " We are afraid to undertake any expensive improvements. We know that under any circumstances, the debt will remain, and it and the interest will have to be paid, come what will ; but under a system of confiscatory legislation, in the form of a progressive land tax, our properties may become practically valueless. If the future were assured the present aspect of the frozen meat trade would encourage us to embark upon extemive improvements, with a view of materially increasing the carrying capacity of our lands. All this would not only benefit the farming community, but the country at large, besides finding employment tor many who are now seeking work. But under existing ciroumstances there is no encouragement to risk borrowing money to pay for labor for permanent improvements, the benefit of which may be taken from us by unjust legislation." One manufacturer said, '• The consumption of manufactured articles is falling off daily. Trade is rapidly sinking down to the hand to mouth stage, and if it falls much lower we shall reaoh before long the primitive condition ot barter. What with the distrust in the future, and the legislation threatened, it would require very little more to compel me to dismiss all my men, shut up my establishment altogether, and seek for a new field of enterprise." A shopkeeper said :— " I have been in Christchurch for well-nigh twenty years, and I have not slept off my premises two nights during the whole of that time. My habits are , frugal and the demands on me are small, so that my personal expenses have been almost nominal. For several years I did a nice little business and succeeded in saving a little for old age. But since the labor troubles commenced this time last year my trade has been falling off and now I am scarcely taking enough to pay rent and charges. No one buys anything now except bare necessaries, each and all fearing what to-morrow may bring forth."

Speaking to the representative of a well known financial and mercantile house, that gentleman bluntly said, " Enterprise is dead. No one cares to engage in any new business or occupation while the present suspense continues. Money was never more plentiful than at the present time. The reason of this is that, on the one hand, the country districts for the past two or three years have enjoyed seasons of comparative prosperity. The savings of the country settlers have been considerable, indeed have been large. On the other hand, there is no demand for that money. Those who have it are cramming it into the Banks, investment Societies and similar institutions at a low rate of interest. The money is lying comparatively unremunerative and idle, because no one cares to risk their own or other people's cash in undertakings which may be ruined any day by the impolitic proceedings of the Legislature.

These are instances gathered from well known business people, and are cited as being representative of the the feelings of those in the South. To those who wish to doubt it we merely say " look at home." What is being done in these districts ? We are sure that the bankers in Foxton c6uld reiterate the remarks quoted above, and they have lying unused a very llarge sum of money, that were matters more settled, would be used for the improvement of the country and to the benefit of the labourer. At present the man who owns a piece of land is made to feel as though he had robbed a sundowner of his birthright, and every half-penny that he risks to improve his holding is watched to screw a tax from, and this is the reward for his past thrift and energy. We need not expect, for some considerable period, a more prosperous condition of trade, or a very extended employment of labour. If the labourer has to leave these shores he has only to thank those politicians who, to secure their own elevation, have fooled him, by, on his asking for bread, giving him a stone.