The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1885. THE HON. W. ROLLESTON'S SPEECH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1350, 9 June 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1885. THE HON. W. ROLLESTON'S SPEECH.

We have yet a few remarks to make anent the Hon W. Rolleston's speech, lie said the country was as good as ever it was, but admitted that it was suffering from a severe depression which was general throughout the world, and attributed this state of things to low prices, unfavorable harvests, and, above all, excessive borrowing and speculation He was quite right in Baying that legislation could not possibly affect the weather, and if he had added also that men's speculative proclivities could not be controlled by Act of Parliament without interfering to an unwarrantable extent with the liberty of the subject, we do not think that many would have undertaken to prove that he was wrong. We are not, however, sure about the price of wheat. In all he said on this point there was a good deal of truth, but not the whole truth. His was a tale half told, and in order to understand the exact position of affairs, it is necessary that the whole of it should be known. The Hon. Mr Holleston threw a great deal of the blame upon the over-speculative man who bought 200 acres of land when he had only capital sufficient to secure 100 acre?. The man was certainly to blame to some extent, but if all the circumstances of the case were laid bare, we think an excuse for his rashness could be fouud. The Hon. Mr Rolleston is thoroughly acquainted with the history of Canterbury, he hag been intimately connected with it for over a quarter of a century, and for the purpose of setting things in their true light we roust ask him to go back to its early days and enquire whether the

foundation for all this depression was not then laid. To begin with, moneyrings, land sharks, and speculators iived then as well as now, and ibey were more greedy and more powerful than at present. These made laws to suit themselves, and they secured almost every inch of land worth having at the fixed price of about £2 per acre. This land they held until the public works were finished, and the country opened up by mfans of roads mid bridges—till, in fact, all the money they had given for the land in the first iustance had been spent several times over in improving it. At this period of history they ascertained that there was a large number of men—who had made money out of the public woiks, by digging gold on the Weft Coaßt, and in other ways—looking for land whereon to make homes for themselves, end they commenced the work of cutting up the land in farm blocks nmi selling it by auction. At this time the price of wheat was very high. One unusually fine harvest came, and there was a magnificent yield of grain. The statistics show the average yield to have been 30 bushels to the acre, which is far above the results obtained in Europp. So high were the prices and so abundant the yield at this time, that two or three years'jirops brought in to many farmers as they had originally paid for their land. It was at this time—when farming prospects were bright, and when there was a large number of men looking for land—that the speculators began to offer their lands for sale. They resorted to all sorts of artifices to get high prices for it. There was puffing, and luncheons provided, drink ad libitum, dummy bidders to run up the prices, and easy terms. In this way the land fever tvas got up, and prices entirely too high were obtained. The terms were ten per cent, on the fall of the hammer, ten per cent, in so many months, and the balance to remain on mortgage. The banks also had so much money that they did not know what to do with it, and they were forcing it upon the people, and thus men were giren every possible incentive to speculate. Land appeared a very safe investment, but there was none to be got except from the speculators and money-rings, and these offered such seductive inducements that if many yielded to the temptation, any common-sense man can easily pardon them. Thus it was that men were actually trapped into over-specula-tion. Now mark what followed. The Glasgow Bank failed, and in consequence of this persons who had deposited money with the Bank of New Zealand in England got frightened and rushed the bank for their money. The Bank of New Zealand had to rush its New Zealand customers to raise money to pay off its English depositors, and it sent around the " Colorado Beetle " to put the screw on. When the other Banks found the Bank of New Zealand putting on the screw, they determined that they would not be left in the lurch, and they too[screwed up pretty tightly their own customers. Thus the Banks which were actually forcing money on people one year were screwing them up the next, with the result that a great many became bankrupt, and that many who were perfectly solvent then became insolvent through losses sustained on account of bankruptcies. As an instance of the reckless cruelty of the banks, we may mention that they forced into the Bankruptcy Court a firm in Timaru, whose assets realised 25s in the £ after paying all expenses, and it was said that if time to realise hid been given, the same firm could have paid 40s in the £. On the top of this extraordinary conduct of the banks came bad harvests, and subsequently low prices, and thus the commercial depression came about. The Government by alienating the land in large areas to speculators laid the foundation of it; the speculators, by offering inducements to over speculation, helped it on a step farther ; and the Banks, by their unbusinesslike conduct, brought it to a crisis. Thus it is traceable to bad legislation, and consequently we say bow that the legislature has a rightlto step in and assist the people out of the difficulty into which it helped them. The only remedy Mr Rolleston suggested was to curtail borrowing and practice economy, but this could not possibly have any appreciable effect in improving our position. It makes little difference to the farmer whose land is mortgaged to the uttermost farthing whether £1,000,000 moreor less is spent annually. He has no property tax to pay, for he owns no property, and consequently taxation cannot affect him, and the expenditure of public money in such turns as it can be spent will not increase his yield of grain nor raise the price of it. Mr Rolleston's remedy to assist the farmers is therefore no remedy at all, but, as this article has already reached the length to which we can give space, we shall hold over onr views as to what should be done till a future issue.