The Daily News THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1904. STAGNATION IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 8 September 1904, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1904. STAGNATION IN ENGLAND.

A series of articles appeared recently in tlic London Daily Mail on the general wiant of money in the country, concluding with a remarkable analysis of the statements of leading commercial men. One •and all they comjlained of the melancholy stagnancy,, of British industry and of the steady shrinkage of {business. This prevalent epidemic of poverty was ascribed to various causes by various authorities. The chairman of the Finan-,-lal Times indeed asserted that the paßt two years had 'been "worse than those which followed the Baling crisis," while Sir William Ingram told that he could "scarcely remember any one year to be compared with last year." '''Yet there is no real ground for surprise," says the paper, "at what is happening. In the first place foreiig(h competition ti|aa increased and .is increasing to] a degree that nenaces the stability of British inJustry. Strongly entrenched behind ids own tariff wall, the foreign manufacturer and producer is destroying British trade. What we used to make at home we now buy abroad ; the money which used to be invested at home in British industry is now invested in other lands, where a tariff gives security ; the money that used to circulate from hand to hand in this country leaves it for Germany or the United States." Concurrently with this great development of foreign competition .there has been heavy borrowing to pay for the war, and, over and above that, heavy borrowing for various munioi>al enterprises. Vast sums have been laid out in providing tramways, electiical lighting plant, and so forth. Yet the expenditure has not been controlled with the care and economy displayed by private firms, or even by companies, and its productiveness has consequently been unsatisfactory. As the result, further drafts have had to be made upon the ratopayer, while there are no profits to invest. Greater economy n national and local administration and some security for trade are the first requisites if the depression is to >ass away.