The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1886. INTEREST AND WAGES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1560, 23 September 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1886. INTEREST AND WAGES.

The first remedy for our depressed condition which the self-sufficient monopolist has always to suggest is to reduce the rate of wages paid to working men. It is held that the high price paid for labor in this colony is retarding industrial progress, and that it must bo lowered before we can go ahead as rapidly as our resources would enable uh. It is needless to say we hare no sympathy with this. The price of wages is low enough now —in fact, too low to enable those who live by their earnings to provide the necessaries of life for their families. But the strange thing is that it is these very people who preach so much about the necessity of reducing the cost of that never dream that the price of money is at all any drawback to industrial progress. They do not sesm to think about it, or, if they do, they keep their thoughts lo themselves. The tacts, notwithstanding their reticence, are too patent to be ignored. Labor, strictly speaking, is from once and a-half to twice as dear in New Zealand as it is in England ; money is three times, if not more, as dear. Then, why should the working man be accused of being the cause of retarding industrial development though charging too much for bis labor while the moneylender, whose price is nearly twice as high, is only referred to in whispers, or, more generally speaking, not mentioned at all f To our mind this is not just. The rates of interest are monstrous ; the rates of wages are nothing at all unreasonable in a country like this, and in our opinion it is the former which ought to be reduced instead of the latter. But the monopolists and their satellites will not admit this. They tell us in full mouthed, pompous language that the laws of supply and demand will eventually regulate the price of money. It needs little acumen to prove that under existing circumstances this is utter nonsense, Recently in Victorin one of Backs raised the rate of interest on deposits from 6 per cent, to 6 per cent, »nd every Bank in the Australian Colonies did the same. About two years ago a Bank in Australia lowered the rate of interest on deposits from 6 per cent to 5 per cent, end every Bank in the Australian Colonies followed suit. There is existing between the Banks, just as there is between the Insurance Companies, a sort of Trades Uuion, under which they are bound to keep up the rate of interest. We bear a great Heal about Trades Unions amongst workmen. ; homilies are frequently preachei to ns on the evils of strikes, and the disastrous effects of combinations amongst workmen to extract from capital adequate reward for labor, but never a word about the more baneful results of the understanding that exists within the money-ring to keep up the price of money. Who has ever been so bold as to denounce this? Who has had the hardihood to tell these Shylocks that they are the people who are sucking the life-blood of the colony. In this paper it has been frequently pointed out, but outside of it we have not coma across any reference made to it. The neck of this combination must be broken ; for so long as it lasts the laws which regulate supply and demand will be violated, and industrial development will be retarded. Such is not the case with workmen. The laws of supply and demand must always regulate the rate of wages, and they are doing so at the present time, as borne out by the fact that the price of labor is getting lower and lower yearly. It is time that working men began to realise this ; it is time they opened their eyes to the fact that the tendency of the present state of things is to redace them to the same condition as their brethren ip the crowded nations of Europe. They ought to realise that

it is impossible for our industries to pay a high rate of interest and a high rale of wages, and that one of the two must come down. There can be no doubt hut that the country as a whole would rather sec the price of money reduced than the price of labor, and if the working men only look the matter in hand heartily, and earnestly, they would achieve success, There are more ways than one for reducing the rate of interest. The most efficient, the most honest, and the most substantial way is to establish a National Bank, but should this fail to meet with general support there is yet another means left open for adoption. Moses forbade the Israelites to charge interest on money ; in the lime of Edward the Confessor in England charging interest was prohibited, and condemned as usury ; in 1552 the rate of interest was fixed at 10 per cent in England ; in 1624 it was reduced to 8 per cent, and in 1714 to 5 per cent. We have here precedents for regulating the rate of interest by law. If we are too chicken-hearted to undertake the bolder, and more manly course of establishing a National Bank, and securing to the people the profits on which a few monopolists fatten, let us adopt the less noble, but effective, method our forefathers resorted to 172 years ago—let us make it illegal for any one to charge a higher rate of interest than 5 per cent. If we did this industry would prosper, tho colony would go ahead, and working men would get constant and remunerative employment. It is the working men’s question, and they ought not to lose sight of if. Their wages got lower yearly, the price of money has an upward tendency, and it will be so until they take matters into their own bands, and send to Parliament no man who is not pledged to reduce the rate of interest.

DEATH OF THE HON. J. BATHGATE. Ir is with extreme regret we learn that the Hon. John Bathgate, M.L.C., died last Tuesday afternoon. The hon. gentleman has been conspicuous in and out of politics for nearly a quarter of a century, and by hia death a gap has been made which cannot easily be filled up. He was born in Scotland and was educated to bo a lawyer, with which profession he combined the business of a banker. He came to New Zealand in 1863 as manager of the Bank of Otago, and subsequently became manager and editor of the Otago Dally Times. He was a member of the Provincial Council of Otago, and held the position of Provincial Solicitor, In 1873 ho became Minister of Justice and Commissioner of Customs in the Waterhouse Ministry, and held similar positions in the Fox Ministry in the following year. He also continued to hold the same portfolios in the Vogel Ministry, which succeeded Fox’s, up to the 20th February, 1874, when he resigned, and shortly afterwards was appointed Judge of the District Court at Dunedin, which position he held until about five or six years ago. In the general election of 1881 he was returned to the House of Representatives for Roslyn, but on seeking re-election in 1884 he was defeated. Shortly afterwards he was raised to the Upper House by the Stout-Vogel Ministry, and was a member of that branch of the legislature at the time of his death. As a politician, he was a roan of large sympathies, of extensive knowledge, and of great ability and energy. By his death the National Bank scheme loses Its ablest, its most influential, and moat persistent advocate, and in that respect a gap has been caused which few can fill. . In 1885 he brought Into the Legislative Council a Bill entitled the Bank of Issue Bill, and, though he was defeated on the second reading of it, he succeeded in extracting from Sir Frederick Whitaker, Mr Stevens, and other large shareholders of banks ad missions to the effect that the right to issue paper money belonged without a doubt to the Crown. They all agreed with the principle of the Bill, but found fault with its details. In order that they might not have any such excuse, the Hon. Mr Bathgate resuscitated the matter again last session. He did not enter into details, but merely moved a resolution urging on the Government the desirability of taking the subject in hand, and this was carried by a small majority. Thus he had the pleasure of having the principle of a National Bank affirmed by the Legislative Council before hisrfeath. The speeches he made on these occasions wore characterised by great ability and varied knowledge. His reply to the speeches made against the Bill in 1884 was a model of condensation, terseness, and argumentativeness. He was also very sound on the question of protecting the industries of the colony, and on this subject has left some remarkably able speeches. He has left behind him 13 children, and 27 grandchildren to mourn his loss. He was at the time of his death in his 78th year, having been born in Edinburgh in August, 1809. He was a most felicitous and able speaker, and was inspired with highly patriotic motives in his political career. The last- words he wrote in a diary which he regularly kept were : “ It is to be hoped that better limes are at hand, and that the colony will see a renewal of prosperity. Laua Deo.” He was a thorough colonist, a cultivated gentleman, a sincere friend, and altogether one of those whom to know is to esteem.