The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 426, 17 May 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1879.

The mail brought to hand the Commercial History and Review of 1878, a very useful and interesting publication. We cannot but devote a little space to some of the leading facts that it bringsinto prominence ; for even local matters scarcely have more interest for the Briton than those that relate to the “ Old Country.” No one is a greater rover than lie, and yet no heart travels less from its home than his. The universality of hard times is one of the facts brought into prominence. It may seem to indicate a very low standard of benevolence and humanitarianisrn to say that this is n fact that the Briton can contemplate with satisfaction ; nevertheless, it is so. It shows him that England is not alone in trouble, and that when a better state of things sets in, she will again stand on her merit's. The general depiession has been felt less in America than in Europe, yet we are told that even there the pressure lias been so great, that the wealthiest of American States, New York, has been obliged to govern itself at less than three-sevenths of what the State government cost in 1874. Germany, notwithstanding the five milliards extracted from France, is in a wretched condition. Wealth and power, apparently, do not always go hand in hand. After the great war, the Germans thought that they must necessarily become the pivot of the universe. 5,0(30 millions of francs seemed to them an “ eternal pile.” Every railway was extended, every city improved regardless of cost, and every factory en Urged ; every strike was successful, for employers thought if once they lost their men they would never got any more ; “ bricklayers in Berlin received 15s a day, and dined and drank wine like capitalists.” This unnatural prosperity soon came to an end, and, figuratively speaking, the German nation took a header off the mast-head, and wont deeper than ever they had been before. “ They that stand lush have many blasts to shake them, and if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.” Spain also is broken by her civil wars, and is in “partial default for 109 min. £,” lent to her by the British people. Turkey, as every body knows, is bankrupt, and Russia has discovered that, next to defeat, victory is the greatest disaster that can befall a nation. ,n ' ■ 1 *-v -/ her expenses are so enlarged, and her sources of revenue so crippled, “ that the maintenance of her foreign credit becomes very doubtful.” Britons, then, have no monopoly of hard times ; indeed what they call hard times is the normal state of affairs in some other countries. The British revenue for the year is simply enormous, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer talks , of a tax to cover an extraordinary expenditure of six millions, as if it was a very small matter.

Some of Edgland’s losses out of the ordinary course of trade, i* worthy of notice. Loans, which are completely lost, have been issued in London, since 1860, to the amount of £157,200,000. Loans that are partly lost, to the amount ©f £66,200,000. This does not include the partial default referred to above, on the part of Spain, for 109 millions. It is clear then that the United Kingdom has suffered a loss of hard cash at least as farg-e as that which France had to pay to Germany. Another source of loss is put forward, wince will strike many as being novel. It is said that during the 39 years, 1837-76, eight millions of people have emigrated to the United States and the colonies. “It has been computed that each emigrant was worth to the country or colony to which he went, quite £175 ; that is to say, speaking in commercial language, his infancy, education, teaching, skill, and the stock of clothes, money, tools, and goods he brought with him were worth £175 to the country of his choice. On the average of the thirty-nine 3 T ears, 1837-76, this country has contributed forty million pounds per annum in immigrants to the progress of the United States and the Colonies, and no discussion of the progress of these new countries can be of any value which does not assign due prominence to this wondernil phenomenon.” Considering the number of children that emigrate, we are inclined to think the estimate of the average value rather high. Be that as it may, it is clear that besides the direct-loss in worthless loans, a sum exceeding tha French indemnity, there has been a steady drain upon the United Kingdom of many millions a year, such as has not existed in the case of any other country. This fact renders the wonderful prosperity of Britain doubly wonderful. These great losses, however, are far from being the cause of the present depression. They may be one of the causes, but certainly not the only, or the chief cause. We may mention some of the other circumstances which contributed to the gloomy result. First, there is the depression or bankruptcy of the countries that were best customers. Secondly, there is the competition which adulteration and greed, on the part of her manufacturers, has rendered possible. To take a single instance, China now buys cotton goods from America, and is establishing factories of her own, because the English insisted upon making cotton goods out of clay. • Thirdly, there are the protective duties which poverty and shortsightedness are leading foreign Governments to impose on-English goods. To take one example again, the bad times in Germany result in a deficiency in the revenue, and inability to compete on even terms with English goods, lekves -the* factories, but recently enlarged, standing idle. Bistnark, thinking he can manage finances as well as he can diplomacy, has determined to tax from 5 to 10 per cent, all imports except raw material. Thus he hopes to fill the coffers of the State, and start the factories at the same time. But a free trader sees at a glance that he will,

for the most part, simply shut out foreign articles, and so lose the revenue ho hopes for, while the people will have to pay 10 pgr cent more for their goods, which will however, not go to the Exchequer, but to the manufacturer. Fourthly, there are the unreasonable strikes of the workmen which have done so mnch to paralyse British trade. There have been 277 strikes in the year. The “ unreasonable” element u all these strikes is that the men have assumed that they • alone were suffering from the depression, whereas they suffered least in proportion. The chief necessaries of life have been as cheap or cheaper than usual. Bread for instance has not been so cheap for many years The condition of any particular class of the population can perhaps be best judged from increase or decrease in the consumption of its luxuries. Now, meat has unfortunately been a luxury with the laborers of England of late years. In ’7B the import of,,,meat, valued £18,300,000, was an increase of £2,429,000 on ’77.

Tea and sugar, the luxuries of the poorer classes, shows a small falling off, namely; Tea from 196 million lbs in 1877 to 190 million lbs in ’7B, and sugar from 171,000 tons in ’77 to 161,000 in ’7B. This shows that the lower classes have been obliged to gu r e up some of their luxuries. But they have not been alone in this necessity. If wo turn to wine, one of the luxuries of the middle and upper classes, we see at once how they have been affected. In ’76, 188,394 pipes of wine were imported, three thousand less in ’77, and 28,000 less in ’7B. Clearly then the poor are not the only portion of the nation who have been obliged to retrench.