THE PRESENT DEPRESSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1152, 15 March 1884, Page 2

THE PRESENT DEPRESSION.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir, —I hare read your leading article this morning, in which you advise those who complain of hard times and entertain “ but gloomy hopes for the future of this colony ” to read the Report of the American Consul at Auckland on the productiveness of the New Zealand soil, compared with that of other countries. But, sir, I fear you are but little acquainted with the nature of the malady if you think it can be cured by a remedy so simple. The gloom, the deep-seated gloom, which overhangs the prospects of nine-tenths of our fellow colonists is not, I can assure you, to be so easily removed. We needed not to be told, for we knew it before, that as a grain producing country New Zealand ranks first. Its climate is unsurpassed, and within it abound all the material sources of wealth. At the same time, is it not a painfully present fact that New Zealand is in a state of bankruptcy from end to end ? Never before, since the day it became a British possession, has its condition* been so deplorable. Trade in a state of stagnation, confidence destroyed, misery and ruin are the rewards of enterprise, and want drives our working men elsewhere , It is a remedy for this we want. Where shall we find it ? What avails our abundant crops, our golden harvest, and the admirable productions of our industries, so far as they go, while the fruits of industry, which should be the reward of honest labor, are by merciless taxation made to bear the burdens of the State. To my mind, nothing less than a radical, and entire change in the administration of our colonial finances, can produce the desired effect. By selling the railways—which would be far better managed by a Company, and thereby relievo the colony of the enormous drain of cash which is required annually to pay interest and sinking fund on our borrowed millions, and which is a strain that - our resources cannot bear—relieve the industries of taxation, and settle the people upon the land ; govern the colony at one-fourth the cost at present entailed upon it; place the bulk of necessary taxes the great landed estates, lying waste and increasing in value at the public expense ; make the New Zealand pawn offices, and the numerous Loan and Land Companies bear their share of the burden, and do not let the drones that are in this New Zealand hive go free. Why should not doctors, parsons, and lawyers bear their part ? They live in luxury and escape taxation in almost every present form, whilst the industrious workers are made slaves to minister to their comfort. I will ask you, Mr Editor, to consider the remedies I propose, and say whether, if they were adopted and honestly carried out, New Zealand would not in the course of two, or at most three, years again become prosperous and happy.—l am, etc., Francis Franks. Temuka, March 11, 1884.