The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1914. A SIGNIFICANT EVENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 18, 9 June 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1914. A SIGNIFICANT EVENT.

The arrival of the steamer Walkure at Moturoa is an event of considerable significance to Tarauaki, marking as it does a new and bright era in the development of the province, signalling the beginning of a direct shipping service between the Old World and New Plymouth, and proclaiming the success of the harbor improvements, upon the carrying out of which our leading men ljave been engaged for so many years. It provides the answer—a convincing, effective answer—to those lugubrious people who from the commencement of the harbor improvement scheme have predicted nothing but blue ruin. The arrival of the vessel direct from Hull provides farmers with fertilisers at an unprecedentedly cheap rate, because of the elimination of the Wellington handling charges and coastal freights. The same saving can lie effected in other directions if our commercial houses could but land their goods direct from Englanu instead of having to pay toll to other centres. In a short time, not much longer than a year, the port will be quite ready for the biggest liners trading to the Dominion. Yesterday morning, when the harbormaster (Captain Waller) piloted the Walkure to her berth, lie found there was thirty feet of water in the shallowest part of the fairway, whilst in the berth and swinging basin there was something like 41ft Oin of water. This not only shows the extent of the pi ogress made with the dredging work, but proves that the port at the present moment is forward enough to berth liners of much greater size than the Walkure. It will be remembered that at t'he time of the strike Captain Waller undertook to safely berth the Rimutaka at Moturoa, and in the light of yesterday's experience with the berthing of the German vessel, tho harbormaster's confidence in the harbor's ability to accommodate the much larger vessel can be better understood. An efficient and safe deep-waiter port represents an asset to a district like ours than can hardly be over-estimated. Not only will it serve Taranaki as we know it to-day, but it must form the natural outlet for the trade of what has been described as "inland Taranaki," that huge and fertile tract of country lying beyond the Tangarakau that should in a few years be linked with us by rail and road. Direct trade will enable our merchants to compete on even terms with Wellington for the trade beyond Taranaki's provincial boundaries, and, in fact, with the trade of the whole of the west eoast of this island. ' With lighter harbor charges, they should, indeed, be placed in a better position than either Wellington or Auckland, and we have sufficient confidence in their ability and enterprise to feel that once a regular service is established they will make good use of their opportunities and carry the war into their adversaries' territory and not have to contest, as at present, every inch in their own territory. That our commercial men are not lacking in enterprise is shown by Mr. Newton King's chartering of the Walkure, an undertaking by no means light, and we feel sure no one will begrudge him any commercial success he may achieve over it. He has blazed the way, and incidentally demonstrated in a practical manner the success of the harbor. He has not waited for the big shipping companies; he has shown his faith in the capacity of the harbor to deal even now with shipping on a large scale, and the effect of his example, we hope, will not be lost on the companies, which, in our opinion, have been altogether too exacting in their requirements. The Harbor Board practically fulfilled the companies' original demands, and there is no reason why even now they should not at high water bring in their vessels, for the fact must not be overlooked that half the big ports o£ the world are tidal. The Board, however, is proceeding' steadily with the scheme to make the harbor available and safe, to shipping at any state of the tide. We hope our commercial community will lose no time in coming to a definite, iinderstaiiuing with the big shipping companies regarding the initiation of a regular service as soon as the harbor work is completed. As for trade there cannot be the slightest doubt of there being available from a thousand to twelve hundred tons a month that the, shipping companies lay down as a minimum for a monthly service; we would not he surprised if there were sufficient trade offering soon ti justify ii more frequent * service. The fact that one commercial house is now binning five thousand tons of cargo strikingly indicates the possibilities of our trade. Taranaki, productive as it is, is nothing to what it will be ill the course ol a few years. It will carry in comfort ten times its present numbers and then not be over-populated. A deep-water harbor and a direct shipping service are essential to our progress and prosperity, and after' many years of patient and onerous work and the expenditure 'of large sums of money, both are in sight; in fact, we may almost say they have '■arrived" with the berthing of the Walkure. ■

' THE VELOCITY OF MONEY. Many a. spendthrift who lias come to the end of his means has been puzzled to explain how what appeared to be a comfortable fortune has disappeared. He just sums up the situation thus: "It just ilew away," as if, like Icarus, it had taken unto itself wings which melted away. The nimble sixpence is often quoted, but to speak of money generally as if it were a mechanism which operates with the speed of lightning, electrifying and vivifying everything it touches is a somewhat novel and startling theory. That, however, is the line of argument adopted by a writer in the Scientific American who attributes the rise in prices to the velocity of money. His theory of the cause of this rise is the operation of tho telegraph and telephone lines which, have multiplied the means of communication between distant persons in business, enabling a single dollar of money, or of credits reduced to the velocity of money, to do as much work in making payments as formerly one and a-half dollars could do, the effect being a superabundance of dollars awaiting investment and the necessarily enhanced prices for commodities and a higher rate of interest for permanent loans of money. He contends that this speeding up process of money was begun by the stage coaeh and post office, that the railroads continued it; the general introduction of steam increased it; the bank check, the clearing house, the telegraph and telelphone lines have enormously augmented it; and tile auto and flying machine may still further enhance it. With money so inconveniently active, and bank credits restricted, some people must suffer as their purchasing power is lessened, so that if the theory is correct, there will come a time when money is so intensely rapid in its flight that there will be no one smart enough to catch it, and we shall have to revert to the old primitive order of living by barter. Apparently money has assumed to itself the movement of the sphere on which we live, and the rotation is so rapid that we do not notice it. There is some comfort in not being able to actually see our money flying through the air, for some people find it a sufficiently trying experience to be in daily contact with the usual process of exhaustion 'of their funds. As a matter of fact—dismissing all theories—the cost of living in America has reached such an extravagant degree—not because money has attained a velocity that drains the exchequer, but because of its unequal distribution —that leagues have been formed to boycott certain articles of food until prices become reasonable, and it is astonishing how the theoretical velocity of money is checked by the application of such a common-sense brake. Moreover, the abstinence which necessarily ensues from such a policy is itself educative, as it shows how easily necessaries can bo dispensed with, and largo savings effected. The operation of food monopolies and trusts has far more to do with enhanced prices than ''flying'" money. American housewives have found this out for themselves with the result that there is a really comprehensive. national movement in favor of legislation preventing food monopolies. Theories are very interesting as subjects for academical discussion, but the practical housewife may be relied on to discover where there is a wrong screw In the machinery of domestic economics, and the example given of the American campaign against food monopolies is far more likely to result in a remedy than all the learned talk of political economists steeped in abstract, theories and totally unversed in the machinery of the Trusts. To abstain from buying veal for the reason that the killing of calves for human food must reduce the beef supply of the future and therefore increase the price of meat is based on unanswerable logic, and that is one of the means American women are using to lower the cost of living.