The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888. A RENT IN THE CLOUD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1759, 5 July 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888. A RENT IN THE CLOUD.

According to a correspondent of the Chnstchurch Press the Melbourne Argus of a few days ago says : We believe that speculative attention is being directed in Melbourne to New Zealind real property, which is so greatly depressed that valuas outside the principal towns are generally lower than they were ten years ago. Such depression ctn scarcely be expected to endure much longer, in view of the splendid pastoral and agricultural advantages of New Zealand, as evidenced by the brief abstract of exportß from the colony which we gave on Tuesday morning, The average yhl<i of wheat for the last harvest, was 26£ bushels per acre, a figure which places New Z j ajind as second only to England in this respect. The immediate effect ef an overflow of a million or a million and a-half sterling from the superabundant capital of Melbourne to New. Zealand would be a great advance in values, which would relieve financial institutions there from the embarrassment occasioned by the present serious lock-up of their resources.

This is the first ray of sunshine which has pierced the gloom that has been hanging over this unfortunate colony for a long time. If anything could induce capitalists to invest their money in the development of our resources, we should very soon experience prosperous times, and once the tide turned at all in our foyor, we should henceforth have smooth sailing. It is said that " it is always the darkeit the hour before dawn." The present hour with us in thi« colony is daik <nongb; in fact, we cannot see how it could get much

darker. It is possible that we are drawing near the end of our dark night of depression, and that the dawn of a bright future is close at hand. We have had ten years of it now, and the present is the gloomiest year of all. It ought not to last much longer,- but unless capitalists decide on investing their money in this colony we cannot do anything to remove it. There is capital enough in Melbourne evidently. Yesterday morning the news wa« flashed by cable to us that during last year 270 companies with a nominal capital of £52,000,000 had been registered in Victoria. This sliows that there is abundance of capital in Victoria at present, while at the same time it dehstes extraordinary commercial activity. Ten years ago Victoria was as badly off as we are at the present, with the ex ception that she was not so heavily laden with debt, and it is quite possible that in ten years time, we too shall be equally as prosperous as she is at present. The odds are greatly against us. We are fearfully and terribly in debt, not only publicly but privately, we have few rich capitalists in the country, we are the slaves of foreign money-lenders, we cannot safely call our lives, our own, and hence the lack of enterprise and energy which characterises us. We are owned body and soul, literally speaking, by money-lending corpora-\ tions, whose highest notion of national progress and prosperity is ten per cent on their capital. If, instead of these corporations, we had independent capitalists, who would feel an ' interest in the progress of the country, we should be in a different' I position. The corporations have no :idea beyond a percentage on their capital, which percentage they drain away out of the country annually. Against our disadvantages we have a soil and climate unequalled anywhere. The Argus says New Zealand is only second to England in wheat growing, but if the same amount of labor, and the same care, and the same amount of manure were expended on the soil of New Zealand as there is on the soil of England, it would be found that England would have to go down into second place. A better bit of land there is not in the world than in New Zealand, and it is sad to think that it has been ruined.

, We sincerely trust that something will put it into the heads of Melbourne capitalists to give us a start again. Once the ball was set rolling it would be kept on the move, for capitalists from everywhere would flock into this colony if the tide were once turned. It is in the turning of it the difficulty lies. The land is all locked up—the money corporations hold it, and will not part with it except at ruinous prices. We know of an estatefor which £2O an acre was offered not long ago, but the corporation would not take it, and it is still in their hands. When this is the case—when the land is locked up, and its owners will not part with it, except at fabulous prices —it is next to impossible, in fact, it is impossible, to make, any material progress. If the money-lenders could be induced to sacrifice the present for the future; if they could bepersuaded to submit to present loss in order to reinstate the colony in a prosperous, position, they would reap their reward in the course of time, and we should all gain by it. Private capitalists would do this, but corporations must have their percentage, and that makes all the difference. We have all along opposed a " bursting-up" policy, but we are beginning to believe that nothing else will ever bring the monopolists of this colony to their senses. Sir George Grey says that millions of acres of this colony are owned by one company. That company ought to be burst up, and the sooner the better.