CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 192, 22 January 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE MONEY MARKET. That the money market in New Zealand is still in a satisfactory condition is evidenced by the following, from the last issue of the Trade Review:—"Our local money market continues the even tenor of its way, lowing very little effect from the world-wide disturbance consequent upon the war. Money is naturally not available in large sums for Government and municipal loans at normal rates; in. fact, the value of money generally is somewhat above normal, but for the ordinary commercial and industrial needs of the community there is a sufficient supply of funds, and the banks continue to meet all legitimate requirements in this direction. The enormous demand for funds in the world's money markets caused by the war is bound to keep up rates for some time to come, and consequently loan flotations are practically out of the question. The splendid prices which are being realised for our staple lines of produce will bring in a very large supply of funds, while it is anticipated that'our imports will exhibit a shrinkage for some time, and consequently our trading account will show an excellent credit balance. This will maintain the supply of money for general trading requirements at a satisfactory level, and will tend to keep rates 1 steady at a fairly normal figure."

DURATION (OF THE WAR. Colonel Feyler, the distinguished Swiss military critic, in the Journal, deals with the question of the duration of the war. He does not venture on any date, but confines himself to an extremely interesting estimate and comparison of the resources, material and moral of the two contending groups of Powers. He begins by the pronouncement that in a war the end can only come through the conviction forced by one belligerent on the other that further effort would be useless. Everything points, he says, to this exhaustion point being reached first by the Austro-Gcrman coalition. The vital centres of tho tliroe principal allied armies are each capable of a long resistance. Further, as the Powers have sworn not to conclude a separate peace, before their enemies can hope for a victorious issue we must assume that the allies have in France been driven south of the Loire, that England is threatened at home (an assumption which involves the destruction of her fleet), and that the Russian armies have been an'nihilated before Petrograd or Moscow. Nothing less than this incredible task must be accomplished by Germany before her arms can be victorious. The very statement of this hypothesis is, considers Colonel Feyler, already a reductio ad adsurdum. The victory of the allies, then, is not open to question; only its date is in doubt. Colonel Feyler's conclusion is that the war will not end before the allies have invaded German soil, and will last even after such invasion, till the moral of the German people can no longer stand out against the disillusionment of a defeat which it has never so far judged, and does not even now now judge, possible. In other words, the duration of tho war depends on psychological conditions, which are always ticklish and elusive things to deal with. Colonel Feyler being no prophet, but a sound and cautious military critic, does not, therefore, commit himself to any pre-construetion of the calendar of 1915.