The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 70, 20 June 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1877.

In a recent issue we made some remarks on local commercial interests and their bearipg on the gen eraj interests of the community. "We now propose to; notice another phase of the same subject. Time was when many private families used to send to :the metropolis for nearly all the necessaries of 'life. By thisrineans" capital, which should have passed "through hands of the local merchant, and s o ' -le'f t its percentage of profit 'to' enrich the placej went altogether to swell the resources of -.a dis-tant-town. This pernicious practice had its root /m the . shorts-sighted policy of the storekeepers, who at the time referred to asked far too much profit upon their commodities.'. They ; failed . to see that, although^ they realised something cpnsiderablyv above the ordinary trade percentage upon their sales, they lost an equivalent by, diverting business into a foreign channel. TW Palmer ston people found that they could be served much more .satisfactorily from Wellington than from Palnierston, therefore many of them p referred topass the shops of half a. dozen storekeepers to post their orders to Wellington. Undoubtedly this practice was detrimental to the common weal,. but it, was reasonable enojigh that private interest should outweigh this consideration. But now circumstances are altered : local competition has been for many months very strong, and has resulted m a great decrease m the profits of the storekeeper. . Most goods can be purchased at as cheap or more cheap a rate from the local store than they can be imported from Wellington or elsewhere by the consumer. Hence there is now no excuse for what was . before a very justifiable -practice. It must be remembered that, m a finals cial sense,, capital is the life-blood of a -people. And a -member of any community can no more divert capital into a foreign channel without lowering the- vitality of that community than he can abstract the red current from his veins without injuring his own system. Profit m some shape or.other'formsthelivlihood of every individual m this place. The' general effort should be to enhance the sum total of this profit by adopt--ing y as far as possible, an exclusive system of expenditure.. Selfishness within certain 1 bounds is and should be a rule of life, and the axiom, less strictly adhered to than acknowledged, is that m the-consider-ation of the individual or family, the

interests of the individual or family should be first, then the interests of the community, then those of the world at large. But it often happens that persons while misconceiving their own interests, do themselves n6 good, injure the community to which they belong, and violate the whole principle that has been stated. For this one reason these remarks ai*e specially applicable to the present time ; the person who now supplies his necessities from another town, while he thereby inflicts an injury upon his fellow townsmen really does "himself no good. The notion that he reaps an advantage m forsaking the local market is a notion only. Happily the instances of persons resident electing to patronise outside tradesmen are rare compared with what they used to be. A" more healthy competition among the storekeepers has ledi.to this reform. The present cause qf complaint is that buyers seems .to, act purely on considerations of personal convenience - rather than of principle. The retail tradesmen from Wauganui and Wellington still carry their tape to measure for a suit of clothes, or their note-book to jot down a quarter of a ton of flour, and the frequency of the visits of these gentlemen proves that they do not go away, empty handeaV If there is any decided advantage ,jbp; be gained m patronising these cor.rb morants, then the patrons may justify their patronage ;: but 'if they : are simply cajoled- by the glib tongues of these visitors— and there is good, reason to believe that the latter is frequently the case— -then their conduct is censurable : .censurable, because getting their living out of this community they do not to the- best of their power support the source of their Hylinood. Tney patronise the stranger when they mighfywith. eqnal justice and more, credit to themselves patronise a neighbor. Of course a man has. the * power to sj^end his money much as he likes, but m exercising that power iif is possible for him to ignore obligations whicK con- ; stitute his -normal^relationship with, the community among whom he dwells, and it must be admitted, that upon the due observance of these obligations, tod subtle for any legal statute to enforce, depends iri a, great measure the welfare of a people. It is of course possible for this principle of conservatism to be carried too far, as is the case wnen tt'jctfeates i jealousy between town and^town^ : /We Have as little . sympathy . with the township that is envious of tlie progress of a neighbouring community as we have with ihat unhappy individual who is ever keeping a covetous watch over the prosperity of his next door neighbor. The -spirit of ! envy is identical' and" equally to be ! censured, whether manifested m a I people or man individual. ; We are sorry to say that on the larger scale, this spirit has been manifested, not m but against this very township. There are not wanting those,- who, when some new instance of Palmer-, ston progress is cited, are ready- with the significant shrug, or the damaging word, showing clearly ' enough that their localism is of too rank a growth to allow of their beingeither just or magnanimous. So' far from advising the Palmerston folk to emulate this spirit, we hope* that, as they have rejoiced,' they will continue to rejoice m the prosperity of any and every .part of this richly endowed district of Majiawatu., But at -the same time we should like to see them a little more conservative of _ their local commercial interests, than the conduct of some of them hitherto hass hewn them to be.