The Temuka Leader SATURDAY. JANUARY 2, 1886. OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1449, 2 January 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY. JANUARY 2, 1886. OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Another year has passed over our heads, end we are bow fairly launched inio 1886. it is useless to recapitulate the events of the past year. It was a year of many striking incidents, but they am still fresh in the roemmiea < ) our readers, and to enumerate them now would bo useless. She past is done with ; the fat are we want to look to. What we ought to do is to examine our position, and try to arrive at some conclusion as to what is likely to h»pp'n in tho time to come. Surfing on this b-ai« we find the colony in the worst possible condition it could he in. The price of tjrain is anil low ; wool and mutton show my little signs of approvement ; money is getting scarcer; trade is Stagnant and the c»y of the unemployed is louder than ever. We regret to say that we see no great room to hope that 1886 will see any great impn vemeiu in our condition. The price of grain will undoubtedly improve ; and m xi year it will ho much better, iS" li<t e of ii was sown last year, ho’Wefer, (hat the hither ptice will not make up for its iimintriou in quantity ; we tdn.ll very little compared wrh prt.vipus to spare'Tor-'export, and con*< quent'y we shall not experience any great impr* veinent in our conditi n ts « nation fr m better prim-s. Wnasi have a very large quantity i.f >ruin and good prices before the result vi.l he gem rally felt. N'Xt year, we o pe, will bring these, Uur farm re, if hey consult their own interests, will go ii (or wheat as much as ever next year, and if they do we are convinced the ; * rices wth be good. As regards wool we must confess that we do not see so "right a prospect for it. The production of this article of commerce cannot be regulated so well as grain. It costs n good deal to grow grain, and it it does not pay the farmer will not grow d. If he ceases to grow grain he must make some use . of his land, and latbrally enough he will resort to sheep, t here is besi 'ee immense areas of land ill over the world which are fit for no thing else but sheep, so that in reality t is not so easy to regulate the production of wool. For this reason we think it probable that tlnre will be no iiminution in the wool yield of the world, and if (he present low prices are the result of over-production, it is not ik-ly that prices will improve. We think, however, that under-production has more to do with the low price of wool than over-production. The fact la wo do not think that there is, or ever was, any mjoh thing as owr-prod action. While millions

*>nd in need of the thing produced it cannot be B*id that more than enough has been produced. The f»ct is, what people call over-prod action is nothing more nor less'than want of money. I here are millions who <vould purchase the goods nopowsed to be over* produced only that they have not the means to rio so, Ii is thin, we think, that is the cause of the low price of wool. The woollen factories are not using, «n<i cr>nsfquently not buying, the quantity oi wool they used to do, b».rau.»e the depression throughout the world has contacted the spending prwers of the people, and th° demand for goodß has cons<qn ,, ntiy lessened, 1 bin, w- think, t- the cause «t tin- fill io the price of wool, and the pr< liabilities are that we mn-t wait f< r more prompt rt-ns timet before it gets as dear as ii nsed to be. VVith regard to mutton, w.< do not think that the price of iha' w-'ll increase, [t i* being' poured from alt qiiHrter** into England now, anil it is not likely that the price wiil go uj. util»s» the English farmer ceases to gMW any mutton at all. However, we did very well'before we ever exported fr<z"n tittrton, so it is wt ».f bach immense cons*quince. Wha* we ought to do is to increase our population so as to consume our own mutton, and that ran be don* only by fostering local indn*tries and proving our own goods. If we do this we bhall have more mon/Y and fewer unemployed. Io show how thj\ question affects us we publish the following table, the Vi'ue of iinrorts and exports for the ten years ~ theenlol 18*>3 : Y-ar. Import*. Export*. 1874 £8,121.812 £5,251,269 1875 8029.172 5,828,627 1876 6,905. 71 5673,465 1877 6,973,4 8 6,327,472 187 H 8.7--5663 6,016,71» 1879 8 37i,585 6,743,126 1880 6.162,011 6,352.692 1881 7,457.'45 6."6.>,86r> 1882 86 9,270 6,6^.8.008 lbß3 7,974,033 7,095,999 £77,362,180 £6l/07,224 From this table i wid be feed that i. be value ofourimporte was r l 6.854,956 more than the value of onr export a ; in other words, we have gone to the bad L 16,354,956. Sume people hold that thin is not going to the bad. They say that increase in our imports denotes that, our population is increasing, and is a aign of prosperity. Major Atkinson has said this, and so have other prominent politicians, but the shallowness of the argument is too obvious. If the population is increasing, what is the good of it if it cannot produce sufficient to keep itself, an i here is prove positive that we have not been doing that in thin colony. This is a very serious matter , we cannot keep ourselves, and until we do so we cannot possibly bp prosperous. We cannot always go on keeping up a fictitious appearance of prosperity with borrowed money ; the end of this must come, and pregently'we must depend on ourselves. The position of a nation is analapous to that of a firmer. Snnposing » farmer's expenses were LIOOO a year, end all be cntild m*ke rut of hie farm wa< L.*>oo. what won'd be the resu't ? . Sim .1? that he would be year after year falling deeper and deeper into debt, till at last be would nnt be ab'e to pay his way. that i* pxictly our position as a nation. We do not produce sufficient in p>y our way, and w are cnri*equenib going to the bud. We ||BT" -X "rted Otlt if t l»i-----ind.ny o»tr L4..000 000 w.»rtb of go'd altogether ; for tin- la*» ">n rears we have exported orer 1.32.000 0('0 worth of wool; we have b rrowed L 80.000.000 tmhiic money, L3O 000,000 ot privat. money, Bnd other sources bring up the amount thai has passed through <>nr Inndnto probablrclo.-een L 200.000 000. N"W where has all this money rone to? There is on'y about L1,b00,000 of mVn°y in the colony altogether, the balance has g°ne to England in the shape if interest, in payment for our import?-, »nd a good de»l of it has been tuken away by colonists who are at present living as ab-entees in other parts of eh* wtr'd. Wh*i is wantfd is to change thU state of things as much as pi-B«ihu». We want to manufacture our own gof.ds and keep the money in the country ; we must ceaae to borrow, and we mu«t make our own monef, Let he iv vernment buy the gold from ib* liagir* will paper money—the Banks only give them papr.mouey for it at present—and let this gold be eith-r ciimd in a bcal mint, or sent, to England to pay interest on our debt. If • his were dme we would not need Io borrow any more money, anil we shou'd *oon become substantially prosperous. Ihe fact is, our prosperity depends on the establishment of a National Bank *nd the protection of na'ive iuduairy. So long as we continue borrowing money to pay onr w»y, so long will tbe depression fast, and flie sooner we realise thi6 the better.