Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1173, 12 October 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1882.

People well skilled in finance, tell us that a monetary crisis is rapidly approaching, and if it be true that coming events cast their shadows before them, there must be some foundation for such assertions, for, of a certainty, tradesmen and all persons engaged in business in this district are beginning to feel the effect of pressure. We are at a loss to understand how or why this monetary depression occurs. In point of revenue the Colony has exceeded the most sanguine expectation of the Legislature. Railways which have been a burden on the public purse are rapidly making themselves an independent and self-supporting work; returning an interest for their outlay which, if not very large, cannot, considering their youth, be deemed unsatisfactory. True there are large stocks held in the Colony by importers, but not larger than in former years. In Australia the late drought has caused a heavy demand for money, and Australian Banks are said to be collecting all available amount of bullion to send to their head quarters in Melbourne and Sydney ; but it seems unreasonable to us, because our Australian neighbors have had a stroke of ill luck, which they will easily recover from, that our veins should be drained for the infusion of our blood into theirs. We hold it to be singularly unjust and wrong on the part of those financial institutions who have been supported by New Zealand money to involve this Colony in fresh monetary troubles just as we are beginning by dint of hard work and perseverance to recover from the effects of a similar depression of about four years back. At that time the Behemoth Banks opened their wide jaws and swallowed their clients’ property wholesale. Mortgages were foreclosed on ; accommodation refused ; overdrafts had to be retired ; and iu the interests of the Banks many of our oldest and hardest working and most valuable Colonists had to succumb to the terrible screw which was put on them. People were ruined right and left, and the whole Colony, Government funds, and everything suffered, so that the Banks might preserve a respectable position in the financial world, And yet during this terrible crisis we venture to say that there were Bank Directors whose accounts were overdrawn by thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of pounds, who went on the even tenor of their way, undisturbed by one passing thought of danger to themselves, and not fearing for one moment that they would ever be called upon to reduce their large overdrafts, winch in nearly every instance had been obtained without any security at all, and in everyone with security which was totally inadequate to the sums for which they had become liable in the way of advances. Is this to be the case again ? Are Colonists to suffer and be silent while their Financial Agents minister only to the wants of a favored few ? We cannot believe that the men who suffered so much four years ago from the one-sided financing of these institutions will tamely submit to an identical pressure so very shortly afterwards. There are always ways and means to overcome this drouth of money. Let the Government impose a tax of five shillings an ounce on every pound weight of gold or bullion that leaves New Zealand during the next twelve months, except through Government hands. Let the Government Insurance Company be authorised to purchase gold at its present value, and so keep the coin and its only real equivalent in metal in the Colony, at its present value, or export the latter to the mint receiving its value in coin. Without a doubt something of this sort will have to be done ; a repetition of four years ago is what every Colonist, be he sheep-fanner, cattle dealer, or tradesman of whatever description, must fear with a deadly fear as compassing his ruination. To allow this crisis to come upon us and find us unprepared would be to ask a man to dine with us w.iu we know carries the strychnine bottle in one pocket and a double-edged knife in the other. There are many means of forestalling the evil. Other Banks might be invited from abroad, as they undoubtedly will be, to establish branches in New Zealand and do for the Colonists what their own financial institutions refuse. Again we say it puzzles us why New Zealand should be affected by the misfortunes of her sister Colonies. Depend upon it that what goes over from New Zealand to Australia, while it vitally affects New Zealand, will be of comparatively little assistance to the sister Colonies. In less than two years Australia will apply to the Mother Country for no less a sum than fifteen millions sterling ; and she will get it. Will New Zealand be able to do the same ? Australia from her own resources will be able to recover from the disastrous blow which the drouth has struck her, and the call upon New Zealand, which threatens to injure her as much or even more than the drouth has hurt Australia, is as useless and uncalled for as an assistance as it is insincere. In anticipation of this approaching enemy we deem it our duty to call the attention of the Government and of the community at large to the fact that every sovereign, and pennyweight of gold that is allowed to leave New Zealand in financial interests save those of the Government during the next twelve months, is absolutely a drop of her best heart’s blood ; and, recovering from a severe illness as she now is, she is not in a state to lose any ; and we call upon every journalist throughout New Zealand to loudly echo our cry. By clever financing, by the employment of courteous and obliging officers ana’ by energy and perseverance, the large financial institutions of New Zealand have assumed most portentous dimensions. In politics as well as in finance they take a leading part, iu fact so much so as to become absolutely dangerous. They should have some regaid for the source whence they spring; the thews and sinews of the people ; and that regard should embue them with every anxiety to avert from the Colony which gave them birth, nutured and fostered them, the most dreadful evil that can ever affect any civilised country under the sun and presently New Zealand in particular; viz., a commercial monetary crisis.