The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. MONDAY, MAY 3, 1886. THE DEPRESSION AND ITS CAUSES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1698, 3 May 1886, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. MONDAY, MAY 3, 1886. THE DEPRESSION AND ITS CAUSES.

It will be remembered that Sir Julius Yogel, m his address m Wellington, attributed the cause of the depression, which so long has hung like a dark cloud over every part of the Colony, to " diminished enterprise, and a want of employment consequent upon the panic created, m a large measure, by the doleful tone taken by the Government m past times inducing a want pi confidence." The New Zealand Times points out that there were ample grounds for the "doleful tone," when it was found that a deficit of a millon on the current accounts had to be faced. That deficit might be rightly attributed to the extravagance and incompetent financial administration of the Grey Ministry. But why not go further back still and freely admit that what has caused the depression, at any rate to a very great extent, has been the lavish public and private expenditure of borrowed money, the interest on which has now to be paid somehow or other. A fictitious prosperity succeeded the inauguration of the Public Works Policy of 1870, and for a time the current of ; public affairs flowed smoothly, because all were doing well, and all thought it would last for ever. The New Zealand Times asserts that statistics prove distinctly that the Colony had wholly recovered from the temporary loss of confidence created by the disclosures of 1879, and that by the year 1882-3 there was an exceptional briskness m commercial life. In the financial year which ended 31st March, 1883 — only three years ago — the imports and Customs rose to a magnitude hitherto unprecedented m this Colony. Our contemporary quotes figures m support of its assertion, and contends that it is m the last three years that the depression has come upon us. Our contemporary thinks we should have heard nothing about depression if the prices of wool and wheat had been maintained. We very much doubt the correctness of this assumption. We take it that with the interest the public and private creditor is paying every year out of the Colony, it would be impossible, considering our population, not to feel the drain, unless the ruling prices for our staple products were to attain a market quotation which it would be quite unreasonable to expect. The New Zealand Times thus concludes its article to which we have alluded : ,"With wool and grain producible only at a loss, and with frozen meat very uncertain, and variable between heavy loss and exceedingly small profit, what are people to grow on their land when they have settled upon it? Again, what industries can be remuneratively carried on m our present circumstances of population and market ? These are the points on which sound, practical information and advice are so urgently needed just now." But it is not likely that Sir Julius Yogel will give either information or advice on this aspect of the question. Such is not m his line. He is an advocate for heavier borrowing. He does not believe m the gradual development of the resources of a country. To please him it must go ahead "by leaps and bounds," though the reverse process also " by leaps and bounds" is as sure to follow as the setting sun is " succeeded by darkness. bir Julius does not believe m thrift, retrenchment, or " going steady." If we are to imerge from the depression, the Colony and the colonists must be more economical and provident m the future than heretofore. We are having a lesson m the after-ef-fects of " plunging," and it is one that all classes of society should endeavor: to profit by.